Why is Netflix’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ striking a chord? It knows boys are in trouble, experts say
Following “Adolescence” and “Half Man,” Netflix’s “Lord of the Flies” is the latest TV series to tackle the questions that young men and boys have today around what it means to be a man in the 21st century.
Netflix’s new adaptation of William Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies” takes place in the 1950s setting, but it’s sometimes hard to tell it’s not 2026.
Like in Golding’s novel, the group of boys in “Lord of the Flies” are stranded on a deserted island and end up fighting, isolating and allying with one another in ways that force us to ask an increasingly relevant question: Are the boys alright?
Coming on the heels of “Adolescence,” also written by Jack Thorne, and “Half Man,” “Lord of the Flies” is the latest in a series of television shows that tries to answer that question by focusing on the issues young men and boys face today.
Full of children committing horrible acts of violence, the story of “Lord of the Flies” is extreme. But it still strikes a chord more than 70 years later as the dynamics playing out between the boys and how they get influenced by each other has taken on new relevance. In a world with a growing gender gap in education, the workforce and mental health, the conversation should shift from seeing boys as trouble to seeing boys as in trouble, said Nick Isles, director of the UK’s Center for Policy Research on Men and Boys.
“We need to rethink our approach to men in different ways, and men need to rethink their approach to how they act upon the world in different ways,” Isles said. “These shows offer us an in, a starting point, to engage with a wider group of people on these subjects.”
Northeastern Global News, in your inbox.
Sign up for NGN’s daily newsletter for news, discovery and analysis from around the world.
The struggle that plays out in “Lord of the Flies” between two characters who represent two competing ideas of masculinity –– Jack’s domineering aggression and Ralph’s empathy, collaboration and support –– is happening in the real world. The push and pull between traditional and more modern ideas of what it means to be a man has become fodder for reactionary politicians and in the online manosphere, where hypermasculine influencers like Andrew Tate trade on muscles and stereotypical gender norms, Isles said. But the source of this “masculinity crisis” stems from very real factors that are shaping how boys grow up in the world, according to Rachel Rodgers, an associate professor of psychology at Northeastern University.
“This is not a rotten barrel of apples,” Rodgers said. “This is a group of young people being shaped by what’s going on in our adult world.”
Some of it stems from a steadily widening education gap between men and women across the globe, but particularly in the U.S. and U.K., Isles noted.
In every U.S. state, young women are more likely to have a bachelor’s degree, graduate from high school on time, and perform better on standardized literacy tests than their male counterparts, according to the Brookings Institution, a non-partisan education think tank. In an international comparative study, Isles’ Center for Policy Research on Men and Boys found a similar gap exists in almost every country, most notably with literacy.
“[Men and boys] are starting behind, they’re not catching up, the gap grows as they go through the school system and then they get spat out the other end feeling they can’t rather than they can,” Isles said.
In turn, the share of men in the U.S. workforce has steadily dropped. Isles and Rodgers both noted that the stereotypically masculine values surrounding physical strength, which some men are still taught, are no longer as valued in the labor market. Instead, soft skills like interpersonal communication and empathy, which were traditionally viewed as feminine, have become more valuable.
It’s left some young men feeling hopeless, jobless and like they can’t contribute to the world, experts say.
“Some of the lostness comes from that [sense that], ‘We’ve been given this really clear framework, but we see that it’s not working,” Rodgers said.
Isles is quick to point out that none of these issues negate the work being done to support girls and young women, work that has helped increase their opportunities in education and in the workforce. But the hopelessness some young men face needs to be addressed, he said, since it can easily be exploited by outside forces.
Like Jack in “Lord of the Flies,” online spaces like the manosphere and influencers like Andrew Tate traffic in reactionary masculinity and misogyny. The way they point to women as the source of the world’s problems can be enticing for boys feeling lost in a modern society and looking for a place to put blame.
The American Federation of Teachers has acknowledged a troubling rise in misogyny in the classroom. Meanwhile, a 2025 survey of young men and boys in the U.S. found they were less supportive of gender equality.
“We’ve got to do more to make sure that when people leave education they don’t fall into worklessness because that so often leads to hopelessness and that hopelessness can lead to anger and anger leads to grievance,” Isles said.
Editor’s Picks
These changes in education and the labor market haven’t come with a similar change in conversations around masculinity and what it can look like in the 21st century, Isles said. That’s where shows like “Adolescence” and “Lord of the Flies” can help kickstart a conversation, especially for boys who lack a prominent male role model or father figure.
For boys who don’t have that kind of paternal relationship, “They are without this masculine representation of who they want to be and where they come from,” said Matthew Alemu, an assistant professor of sociology, criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern who has spent years talking with young men about their experiences growing up without a father.
“What I thought was most telling was most of them would say something to the effect of, ‘I’ve never talked about this stuff before and I don’t know who to talk to about it,’” Alemu said.
In Netflix’s “Lord of the Flies,” it’s notable that while Ralph has a model relationship with his father, Jack, who it’s implied was sent away from his family to boarding school, has very little connection. These familial tethers, whether intact or fractured, are foundational for young men and instill the kind of lessons that can’t be undone by a single TV show, Alemu said. But these shows can open the door for conversation about masculinity, its more troubling aspects and better models for it.
“We’re not going to fix this in a two-to-three-[hour] miniseries or two to three years of conversations,” Alemu added. “There’s something very systemic that has to change. I do hope [the show] makes it easier for people to talk more about it.”
