What Do the Emojis Mean in Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’?
The popular Netflix show revealed the different meanings behind the use of everything from the red pill to the heart icons.
If you've watched Netflix's Adolescence you probably have a lot of questions - one of those being what the emojis used by Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) and the other kids at his school meant.
The four-part series sees Miller, aged 13, arrested for the murder of his female classmate, Katie, after being radicalized by incel and misogynistic culture online.
In episode two, DI Luke Bascombe, played by Ashley Walters, learns that he completely misinterpreted a series of emojis left by Katie on Jamie's Instagram profile, believing they were flirtatious.
It's only when his teenage son Adam (Amari Bacchus) breaks down the use of emojis that he comes to realize that there's a darker meaning behind these icons.
"It's not going well because you're not getting it," Adam tells his dad about the investigation. "You're not reading what they're doing, what's happening."
Sitting down, Adam continues: "Insta. You've been looking at Insta, right? So you've seen what she wrote?"
He then takes out his phone to show his dad Katie's comments to Jamie.
"Looks like she's being nice right?" he asks, at which point Walters responds: "Isn't she?"
Adam then goes on to reveal the meaning behind each emoji.
So, what exactly do the emojis mean in Adolescence?
Read on for a full breakdown.
Red pill
In the second episode of Adolescence, Amari Bacchus's character, Adam, breaks down the meaning of emojis, telling his dad Luke (played by Walters): "The red pill is like, 'I see the truth'. It’s a call to action by the manosphere."
The manosphere refers to a varied collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism.
Within this corner of the internet, the 'red pill', which is a term borrowed from the film The Matrix, has come to be a symbol of awakening to the 'truth' behind gender dynamics.
Dynamite emoji
Adam goes on to explain that Katie's comment includes a dynamite, which refers to an "exploding red pill" meaning that someone is an incel.
Incel is a combination of the words "involuntary celibate." They are a subset of the online misogynist community known as the “manosphere".
According to the Anti-Defamation League incels are a group of “heterosexual men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic success.”
100 emoji
Adam goes on to describe the '80/20 rule', an idea shared among his classmates, and its connection to the '100' emoji.
He says: "80 per cent of women are attracted to 20 per cent of men. Women, you must trick them because you’ll never get them in a normal way. 80 percent of women are cut off... she's saying he's an incel."
Luke Bascombe then questions how Jamie could be involuntary celibate when he's only 13-years-old, to which Adam responds: "She's saying he always will be."
Heart emojis
During Adam's conversation with his dad, he shares how emojis like hearts can have different meanings when used by the younger generations.
He explains: "Red means love, purple - horny, yellow - 'I’m interested, are you interested', pink - 'I’m interested but not in sex', orange - 'You’re going to be fine'. It all has a meaning. Everything has a meaning."
Kidney bean
In the episode, Adam adds that the kidney bean emoji is also used to identify or self-identify as an incel.
This might be linked to its similarity to the coffee bean. As per Metro, the coffee bean meme, popular on platforms like 4Chan and Reddit, has been used to belittle women and reinforce harmful stereotypes.
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