The new hit Netflix series, Adolescence, has certainly generated a huge media and social-media storm. It has received rave reviews from the likes of the Guardian, which called it ‘the closest thing to TV perfection in decades’. At the time of writing, it currently has a hugely impressive Rotten Tomatoes rating of 99 per cent.
Adolescence seems to be having a political impact, too. UK prime minister Keir Starmer has backed calls to show the programme in schools and in parliament, to shine a light on the supposedly corrosive impact of social media and misogynistic online influencers on adolescent males. The show’s creators have even been invited to meet with politicians to discuss ‘online safety’.
Adolescence, which centres on a 13-year-old schoolboy arrested for fatally stabbing a female classmate, is no doubt deserving of its critical acclaim. Each episode is shot in one continuous take and is filled with superb acting. It makes for captivating viewing.
Although the story is entirely fictional, the writer and actor in the series, Stephen Graham, recently revealed that Adolescence was inspired by the fatal stabbing of Elianne Andam by Hassan Sentamu, among other real-life cases. The show does make some significant departures from the Andam case, however. Andam’s murder took place in Croydon in south London, and both the perpetrator and victim were black. Sentamu also came from a troubled home life, and was reportedly physically abused while attending a boarding school in Uganda. Meanwhile, Adolescence is set in Yorkshire and is centred on a white family, the Millers, which includes teenage murder suspect Jamie. Jamie’s family is a stable and traditionally structured one, having both a father (played by Graham) and a mother who are married to one another.
The show draws attention to the toxic impact of misogynistic online influencers like Andrew Tate. (Tate is explicitly mentioned in the second episode.) In this way, it has fed into the long-standing discourse about Tate and his supposedly broad-sweeping influence over Britain’s young men. Apparently, British schools are filled with hordes of Very Online kids under the spell of either alpha-male Tate-ism or resentful inceldom.
In this light, it is worth looking more closely at Tate’s fanbase. While data on this are relatively scarce, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has carried out some relevant research. Back in 2023, the ISD found that one in five young people between the ages of 16 and 24 had a positive view of Tate, with this increasing for ethnic minorities. Those from a racial-minority background were more likely to view Tate positively – 41 per cent of black respondents and 31 per cent of Asian respondents, dropping down to 15 per cent for white respondents. Of course, black youth are not uniquely prone to misogyny. But there are several issues that may make young black men more likely to be drawn to Tate’s rantings.
Young black males are a group disproportionately impacted by fatherlessness. Based on data from the Office for National Statistics, young black people – especially those of Caribbean heritage – are significantly more likely to live in lone-parent households. These will overwhelmingly be families headed by single mothers. This means young black men are the least likely group of young men to have a positive male role model living with them at home – a world away from Jamie’s nuclear family, as depicted in Adolescence, in which the boy is ‘radicalised’ by online influencers.
It is a good thing that Adolescence has drawn attention to the problem of misogynistic violence. But in the chatter surrounding this excellent drama, we should be careful not to overstate Tate’s influence. The idea that he has a unique hold over Britain’s youth – of whatever background – and that many of them will mindlessly act on his disgusting rantings is fanciful and reductive. Still, a more productive conversation would examine the deeper social problems that may draw some into his orbit. Fatherlessness and a lack of positive male role models is of much greater significance than who young men are following online.
Rakib Ehsan is the author of Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities, which is available to order on Amazon.
