Beyond Adolescence
Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ provides an unsettling mirror that we can either choose to look away from or learn from. It’s a confronting social commentary on an epidemic prevalent not just in the UK and Australia, but across the world; gender-based violence. Since the start of 2024, 117 women and 20 children in Australia have been killed as a result of gender-based violence. Maybe that contributed to the reason that Adolescence was upsetting, but not shocking.
As a high school teacher that also works in consent education, the parallels between what I watched on Netflix and observe in school settings are disturbing and undeniable. However, it wasn’t Jamie’s radicalisation or brutal violence he perpetrated that unnerved me the most. Instead, it was the more covert sexist attitudes. These elements of misogyny were omnipresent in Adolescence and are equally entrenched in Australian schools and our broader society, which can ultimately lead to violence.
You may think it’s a stretch to link sexist attitudes and beliefs present in schools and communities like slut shaming, objectification and ‘harmless’ comments with physical expressions of violence like murder. However, multiple tools have been developed and utilised by academics like the Rape Culture Pyramid, the Pyramid of Sexual Violence or the Continuum of Violence Against Women that consistently illustrate how the normalisation of sexist attitudes leads to the degradation of women, and an environment where sexual violence, even murder, is enabled.
If you’ve seen Adolescence, you’ll notice that many of the attitudes and actions listed toward the bottom of the pyramid above were present in the series, particularly in ep.1 & 2. These attitudes rooted in sexist beliefs were not limited to Jamie, being held by many characters in Adolescence; the father, the teachers, the male detective, Jamie’s friends… the list goes on.
Primary prevention strategies, which are whole-of-population initiatives that address the underlying drivers of gendered violence and entwined normalisation of sexist attitudes and beliefs, need to be addressed. And guess what, that’s the work that each of us can do. It’s not limited to whole-of-school respectful relationship programs, or your workplaces action plan to recruit women in leadership positions, or new legislation like the National Higher Education Code. Yes, these are all important – but the work extends beyond that, and into our personal spheres. It’s calling out our mates when they objectify a woman, it’s not condemning young boys for expressing sensitivity or emotion, it’s creating safe spaces for consistent, open conversations with your children about what they see on the internet, it’s not avoiding the big topics and uncomfortable feelings that arise when watching Adolescence. Each ‘small’ thing we do as individuals has a ripple effect, and it’s the goal that the top of the pyramid will collapse without its base.
I’m glad to see a broader social, even political dialogue begin after the release of Adolescence. But let’s continue it by holding ourselves and each other accountable beyond the context of Adolescence-steered conversations… Because at the end of the day, it’s going to take more than just one chat.
