Adolescence has left most of its viewers shocked and schools and news channels are amplifying the conversations that the series managed to start
I watched Adolescence and it impacted me deeply. For the past couple of weeks, the series has become a talking point, especially among parents who are probably just discovering what their children might be going through with regards to cyberbullying and male rage.
Adolescence has left most of its viewers shocked and schools and news channels are amplifying the conversations that the series managed to start. I, however, want to question the shock factor, considering how things are stacked up for genders in our country. Are we really harping about the incel culture and the manosphere in the land of Asifas, Abhayas, Nirbhayas and Daminis, acid attacks survivors and honour killings?
Nevertheless, I felt a couple of aspects of the show were quite telling. Just like rape survivors are given names by the press to ‘protect’ their identity, Katie라이브 바카라 character is left vague and completely unfleshed, except for a few passing comments and the revelation of cyberbullying.
Even the time spent on her grieving friend—who finally throws some frustrated punches at an unsuspecting boy on the school ground—gives us no insights into Katie라이브 바카라 life, her equation with her friend, and the lives of other girls at the school, who are also exposed to and affected by the dark side of social media.
We are told in the very first episode that Jamie is the murderer. The next three episodes are spent unravelling the ‘why factor’. Perhaps this is Stephen Graham라이브 바카라 way of showing us the real villain of the show—the system. They say, it takes a village to raise a child, and while the show covered different aspects of Jamie라이브 바카라 life—school, friends and parents—I think, the shock factor comes from the fact that social media is now having more influence on us than people in real life. Our peers merely reflect what social media projects, potentially giving us what we see on the Internet—nearly complete agency, trumping parental influences and other traditional societal structures.
What also frustrates me is the emphasis on getting a girlfriend at a young age. What is driving this shift? Is this the basis of the whole red pill-black pill conundrum? The red pill ideology is characterised by the idea that women have too much power because of their sexuality and only go for attractive men, whereas the black pill concept is more extremist where men feel they are never going to get women as partners.
These subcultures have seeped out of niche online forums like 4chan and Reddit and poured into mainstream social media, like our Instagram Reels. It hit an all-time high during the pandemic, with the algorithm pushing more such content as engagement went up, creating a toxic echo chamber.
But how relevant is this when our whole culture normalises societal subjugation and rape? The manosphere and the dwellers thereof are just a small subset of a much larger and pervasive issue.
Discussions with friends and family led me to have conversations I never thought I would have in this day and age. It raised a lot of questions, both old and new—such as the prevalence of traditional rigid gender role beliefs and hyper-masculinity. I was surprised to know what my male peers thought about their potential partners/girlfriends. Having a high ‘body count’ works in the favour of men but not for women. It boggles me that biological differences were used as justifications for double standards in terms of the extent of sacrifices and services expected.
Gender roles are deeply entrenched. It is rare to come across an equal partnership. What does it take for a woman to be viewed as an equal partner today? I have major respect for women who take care of their homes as it is no easy task in comparison to a “man라이브 바카라 job”. I feel, the tasks that mothers do—both visible and invisible—mostly go unacknowledged.
My mum spoke of how her generational struggles with gender stereotyping led to her and her friends coming up with the term ‘Bharat Mata Syndrome’. It was coined to describe the pressures they felt in their 20s, when expected to conform to the standards of an ideal Indian woman. The women who did not fit were judged. It had become an internalised metric of self-judgement, no matter how educated or progressive they were.
While this has shifted to some extent in my generation, we are now further plagued with a hangover of redefining gender structures with the additional pressures that are incessantly reinforced by the content that is fed to us through the algorithms and society.
I can only hope that my generation removes our ‘NPC blinders’ to embrace the ‘Finsta’ life, but mostly, that we girls can focus on channelling our ‘Main Character Energy’ or we may have to take permanent residence in Menty B (mental breakdown) town.
Avnita Koshy-Sukhija, 19, is interning at Heritage First Goa