Disclaimer: This blog post contains some sensitive material that some might not agree with. Reader discretion advised. It will consist of my commentary, a review of the documentary “The Red Pill”, and an analysis of “The Red Pill” community in general and the people who implement the mindset into their daily lives. The opinions I make about the topic are just that, my opinions. I will include statistics from the documentary to add validity to what I’m presenting. With that said, onto the post.
Before I start to talk about the documentary, I want to go over some lingo to you that I will include in this post. First, “the red pill a.k.a the crimson capsule. Maybe you’re aware of it or have heard of the red pill community that is under The Manosphere (that I will get to soon), but if you haven’t then allow me to enlighten you. In essence, The Red Pill is a metaphor borrowed from the film “The Matrix” which concerns the awakening of men to the true nature of female behavior and how the society they live in is fundamentally misandrist and dominated and favors feminist values. After reading that you might be thinking, “what the f**k, that’s a misogynistic and sexist mindset that degrades and devalues a woman’s worth”. To be honest, I don’t blame you for having that sentiment. However, as I mentioned in the beginning I’ll be commentating, analyzing, and reviewing, The Manosphere specifically The Red Pill, and The Men’s Rights Movement which is under The Manosphere. Speaking of The Manosphere, it is a collection of movements online consisting of websites, blogs, and online forums. They include; the Men’s Rights Movement, The Red Pill, Pick Up Artists (PUA), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), The Father’s Rights Group, and Incels. In regards to that, from an outsiders perspective, these groups are perceived as displaying hostility towards women (some do I won’t deny that i.e. Incels), but demonizing the entire Manosphere, in my opinion is disingenuous for the ones that consistently teach unwavering masculinity. For example, the documentary which heavily focuses on The Men’s Right Movement is a group that focuses on general social issues and specific government services that usually neglect and adversely impact, and in some cases discriminate on a structural level against men and boys.
After watching members tell their stories, and their mission statement, I understand after watching the film their intentions is not to attack feminism (even though the latter does consistently to them) but to spotlight issues and bring coverage to things not mentioned that some men face in their relationships with women and the gender roles expectations. For example, in the case of domestic violence, it is usually statistically and agreed that the victim is usually always the woman. However, domestic violence shelters are state-funded and men at least pay half of the taxes that find and operate shelters nationwide, but the irony is that shelters disregard men as victims of domestic violence. Furthermore, in the U.S. there are over 2,000 domestic violence shelters. All of them serve female victims and nearly all of them disregard men victims. In fact, since 2016 there has been only one open all-male domestic violence shelters. Moreover, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men will experience physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. This means 43% of these attacks are done to men. With these stats how can these shelters excuse themselves from not providing help to men? Would this not be considered gender discrimination? Equally important, 78% of suicides are done by men and if these services for help only served men wouldn’t there be a debate on how women are overlooked and not seen as equally afflicted? Feminist organizations would consider this gender discrimination quickly. To put it simply, the resources don’t match the need.
For the last 50 years, if you look at Feminism and to some extent Womanism, its scrutinized men, labeling them inherently violent, predatory, oppressive, and believing that masculinity is a disease hence why the phrase “toxic masculinity started. To that I say, be mad all you want, because at the end of the day the end product of a woman is a man. Don’t believe me look at families in the ‘50s and ‘60s in the U.S. and how stable and cooperative women were in helping to maintain successful families while following the lead of her husband, and this leads me to talk about patriarchy. Quite frankly, patriarchy is the result of gender roles and not vice versa. In other words, almost all religions and cultures practice patriarchy to establish and maintain a productive society (i.e. Kings, Presidents etc…) and feminism believes that these groups in the Manosphere especially The Men’s Rights Movement want to keep them subordinate. In actuality, just because men are hurting, and sometimes victims themselves doesn’t disregard the issues women are facing. On the topic of patriarchy, religions especially the monotheistic ones and foreign cultures, men don’t tolerate bad behavior with positive reinforcements. As harsh as that might sound I’ll use Islam which I’m familiar with since I grew up in a house with African (Somali) parents and grandparents raising me within the religion. Polygamy is acceptable in Islam and even if I have never personally met a Muslim man with multiple wives, high value Muslim men around the world have or have had multiple wives and you know what type of mindset they employ? These kinds of men fire fast and hire slow. What I mean by that is, she is working for his respect and would need to be looking up to him to lead and to form a harmonious relationship. In this situation the husband will let her know she is easily replaceable and if she does not cooperate in maintaining a successful marriage with him taking the lead at all times, then he’ll have to find it in his next or other wives. This conveys his value that she will follow, commit, and submit to. I’ve seen this personally with my maternal grandparents because even though I was young (age 4) when my grandfather died, I knew my grandmother had love and respect for him and she would speak about him years after his death to her grandchildren as if he was still there. She displayed reverence which I always admired. In regards to the situation I talked about a Muslim man who practices polygamy, to put it simply women get in line when they know you have other women in line. Usually women are the ones with options and when they feel that they is a clear disadvantage, I’m still using this situation, then they’ll do everything they can from being replaced with another woman that will provide him with things he expects from her that she didn’t provide him at first, i.e. Being fit, feminine, friendly, beautiful, inspirational, etc..
When it comes to The Manosphere, the red pill has gotten a bad reputation and it’s understandable when the negative comments and statements are easily seen and heard consistently, but in the grand scheme of things, there are victims and perpetrators on both sides of the fence. On the dark side of The Manosphere, the Incels have stigmatized some aspects of the red pill and their anger from a loveless life full of a lack of romantic relationships caused them to act violently towards their “enemies” only for them to cause their demise. Having said that, I will say this, what these individuals failed to realize is that women find reasons to disqualify men and men do everything to qualify for women. Don’t believe me? Ask any attractive female how many thirsty comments, direct messages and awkward interactions they’ve had with the opposite sex online and offline. These horny dudes would find creative and sometimes lame ways to seek approval and build a “connection” in order to hook up and date with these attractive females whose “currency” for attention is things such as likes, subscriptions and payments on sex work sites (Onlyfans) and more. With no success and frustration building for years, topped off with a possible psychological disorder will more than likely lead to a disastrous outcome. All in all, these types of people in the Manosphere is a sector of the bigger picture that needs to be analyzed with an objective stance in my opinion and if you were to not agree with me, that’s okay but just understand that all these groups within the Manosphere ever since its introduction to the world wide web will probably exist in some capacity for years to come and gain more momentum and make its way into mainstream media. There will be a backlash, but the awakening for men to some of the Manosphere groups is only to equip them with the knowledge they were hidden away from. Cassie Jaye the director of the film and I think she did a good job depicting the groups within the red pill especially The Men’s Rights Movement with an objective perspective, and she genuinely looked intrigued in learning about the dilemmas men in that movement have endured and The Red Pill in its totality.
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