The Red Pill: a Men’s Rights Movement
Choose the red pill and your eyes are opened. You see the truth, however brutal it may be. Choose the blue pill and you remain ignorant, blind to the realities of the world. This analogy, born from the movie “The Matrix,” now represents much more.
The Red Pill Reddit Community
Search “RedPill” on the website Reddit and you will be directed to a screen marked “quarantined.” You must click continue in order to see the “shocking” and “highly offensive” community that follows.
The Red Pill subreddit is a male-dominated community that believes women have too many rights, men are being cheated out of their rights, women want to be dominated, and is a place for men to share their ways of seducing women.
Many stumble upon the community while searching for dating and relationship advice, but end up being sucked into a world of misogyny, racism, and hate.
The supposed founder of the Red Pill Reddit is Robert Fisher, a former Republican New Hampshire state representative.
Common postings in the community are “field reports,” which are stories of how men succeeded in seducing women to have sex with them, using degrading names and phrases. They use acronyms such as MGTOW, meaning men going their own way, or men separating themselves from typical societal views, and AWALT, or all women are like that, saying every woman behaves the same way. During a “field report,” the man will also say “HB” (hot babe) with a number 1-10, rating the woman.
A common viewpoint on this Reddit is that women want to be dominated by men: “Girls love being dominated by an attractive man. An unattractive man being aggressive is attempted rape.”
As a 20-year-old woman who recently went through a time when a man’s advances were unwelcome and inappropriate, stumbling upon this community was startling. The knowledge that there are thousands of men subscribing to this philosophy is frightening.
One of the common sayings on the Red Pill is “it’s not sexual harassment unless you’re ugly,” meaning if the guy is attractive his sexual advances are always wanted.
The Men’s Rights Movement
Seemingly similar to this Reddit community is the MRM, the Men’s Rights Movement, however, rather than argue that women have too many rights, they believe that men do not have enough.
MRMs battle to remind people that men have a higher rate of suicide than women, more workplace deaths, a disadvantage in custody battles, more jail time on average for the same crime that a woman commits, and men are not helped nearly enough with domestic violence issues.
True, fewer men are victims of domestic violence than women (25% vs 14% according to ncadv.org). But, does this justify the fact that the vast majority of shelters do not serve men?
The movement, which has been labeled as a hate group by some, argues there are an equal amount of “victims” and “assailants” on both sides; the sides being male and female. Feminists tend to argue only one side has victims.
Although many colleges offer a gender studies class, the lectures tend to focus on women’s issues and men’s wrong-doings. Few talk about the above-mentioned male-related concerns. Even fewer offer a male studies class.
The documentary “The Red Pill,” directed by Cassie Jaye, presents a perspective of the MRM through the eyes of a feminist.
Jaye declares at the end of the film that she is no longer a feminist, but rather will still fight for women’s rights and now also for men’s.
“The Red Pill” can be viewed on Amazon Video and iTunes.
