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The Netflix series "Adolescence" has sparked important conversations about the role of social media in spreading harmful content. It has widened the public's understanding of the rampant uptake of digitally disseminated misogyny, the legacies of Andrew Tate and those like him, and the violence perpetuated by the manosphere. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has even supported a plan to show the series to young people in schools.

But when the term "misogyny" is brought up in reference to the manosphere, girls and women often become abstract representations of victimhood. Their voices . Conversation around Adolescence, as well as wider coverage on the online misogyny, tends to prioritize the opinions, behavior and experiences and how they can be supported.

Very little so far has been said about how those victimized feel towards the cultural uptake of misogyny. We need to know how this is playing out in real time in and around schools for girls, and what structures of support are necessary for them.

The crux of online misogyny lies in the systemic dehumanization of women and girls. We need this to be a part of the discussion and to find solutions.

In 2021, in the wake of COVID-19, an explored sexual abuse in schools and colleges. Girls were asked about the types of sexual behavior they experienced among their peer group. Ninety-two percent of girls mentioned sexist name-calling, and 88% said that they or their peers had received unsolicited explicit pictures or videos.

Similarly, one of us (Jessica) has carried out research with colleagues on more than 600 young people on their experiences of sexual violence online and at school. The research found that 78% of all participants had experienced harms that included misogynistic, sexually harassing or homophobic comments, and image-based sexual abuse.

For almost all the young people in the study—98.5%—these experiences had increased during COVID-19.

The other of us (Chiara), is conducting into teenage girls' online experiences. So far this research has found that most participants had been negatively affected by the rhetoric of online misogyny influencers, both online and offline. For most, these negative experiences involved behavior of their male peers at school.

The girls recounted seeing a lot of manosphere content online and hearing discussions at school, which they found "unsettling" and "scary" as they promoted harmful body image and toxic sexual scripts. Much of this related to the standards boys in their schools would set for girls' appearance.

The girls also discussed how boys at their school did not understand the seriousness of their misogynist behavior. "They do it to wind us up, to get a reaction from us … to them it's all a joke," .

This aligns with previous research by Jessica and her colleagues on and in school. Misogyny is legitimized as part of lad banter. "It's normalized with boys to like to behave that way, I think," a year-nine girl (aged 13–14) in one study said.

An everyday reality

Young people are already very familiar with, and regularly deal with, the mundane reality of misogyny in their everyday lives. They do not need to be shown a television show, like Adolescence, which sensationalizes and dramatizes misogyny through the murder of a young girl. This show was not intended for educational purposes and would do little to change the misogynist attitude of boys while potentially terrifying girls.

When addressing the , the experiences of those who have been victimized need to be included. Young people should be taught to recognize patriarchal power structures and to be critical of online media, so they can better identify manosphere-type messaging that legitimizes misogyny.

Unfortunately, although relationships and sex education is now a compulsory subject in UK schools, . It does not necessarily cover issues such as sexual violence and misogyny, nor does it typically connect the dots to how sexual violence is normalized in digital and non-digital environments. Jessica and colleagues have co-produced lessons that cover the complexity of online and offline sexual harassment, abuse and misogyny.

Politicians across the UK need to make a systematic and concerted effort to support and regulate high-quality relationships and sex education. Training for teachers is necessary to address issues of sexual violence in a wider and more comprehensive way.

Relying on a TV show that sensationalizes misogyny and the manosphere, re-centers masculinity and erases the experiences of those victimized, including girls and gender-diverse youth, will not solve any of the pressing contemporary issues around the influx of digitally exacerbated misogyny.

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