France Imports UK Fiction Drama To Teach Kids About ‘Toxic Masculinity’

Of course, Starmer referred to this piece of fiction as a "documentary". It aligns perfectly with his vision of society.

From The European Conservative

By Christina Holmgren-Larson

While online Islamist radicalization runs rampant among young boys, French schools will focus on the threat of ‘incel culture.’

The French ministry of education is planning to use the British Netflix series “Adolescence” to teach French children about how internet culture can turn young boys into ‘toxic’ males. In the series, a young boy who struggles with masculinity, self-worth, and his perception of women murders a young girl after having been influenced online. 

This fictional account (despite British PM Keir Starmer referring to it as a “documentary”) might sound like a useful tool in France, where young men are increasingly radicalized online by Islamist actors; where 70% of foiled terrorist attacks are planned by people under 21; and where 80% of investigations conducted by the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office concern jihadist attacks. 

But that’s not the story the Netflix drama tells.

In “Adolescence,” the perpetrator is a white middle-class boy, and the online material that influences him comes not from Islamist extremists but from ‘incels’ (involuntarily celibate heterosexual men who blame women for their lack of relationships with the opposite sex). The deep dive into what made the boy a murderer largely blames internet encounters fostering ‘toxic masculinity’—a concept the mental health website VeryWellMind defines as

a collection of offensive, harmful beliefs, tendencies, and behaviors rooted in traditional male roles but taken to an extreme. This dangerous idea of “manliness” perpetuates domination, homophobia, and aggression

The concept is, however, rarely used in Western media (although very much alive in mainstream Muslim debate) to discuss the oppressive attitudes toward women prevalent in some non-Western, particularly Islamic cultures.

French education minister Élizabeth Bourne said the series is “very representative of the violence that can exist among young people” and will be shown to children 14 and older. British, Dutch, and Flemish Belgian schools have already started using “Adolescence” to educate secondary school children. 

Critics in the UK have sounded the alarm that censorship-happy lawmakers are using the series as an excuse to clamp down on free speech online. And “Adolescence” co-writer Jack Thorne appears to agree that the government should step in and compensate for lacking parental oversight:

We do believe perhaps the answer to this is in parliament and legislating—and taking kids away from their phones in school and taking kids away from social media altogether.

Online free speech advocates Reclaim the Net warned that the trend to want to put age limits on social media will require a digital ID—for all internet users:

Under the guise of online safety, what’s really coming is a regime of ID requirements, content policing, and mass data collection. But in a media landscape where feelings trump facts and fictional stabbings become case studies for policy, those warnings barely register.

Pictured: Elizabeth Bourne, Minister of National Education