Current Events > I just watched The Red Pill Documentary

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Pill

It is available to watch on Amazon Instant Video for those of you with Amazon Prime.

Basically it is about Men's Right's Activists. It was made by a female self proclaimed feminist who doesn't seem nearly so certain about proclaiming herself to be a feminist by the films end. She basically spends the film interviewing with various MRA leaders and activists.

Only a couple of feminists were interviewed. Notably "Big Red" the incredibly obnoxious feminist (just google "big red feminist") gets a very brief interview. Big Red is basically a living breathing cartoon like representation of radical feminism, but she is a real person. I had never heard of her before watching this, but damn was she ever just downright unlikable and unsympathetic in every conceivable way. She is not someone who should be in any way representing feminism. She is the perfect representation of bad feminism.

I thought it was pretty interesting to be honest. Even more interesting was how much people have made a fuss about this movie for nonsensical reasons. It is all covered in the Wikipedia page.

It definitely has its faults as a documentary and could really benefit from a follow up film to cover various counter points and get a more balanced view. It sounds like this documentary was mainly meant to cover the personal journey of the filmmaker as she uncovered what MRAs are all about. Ultimately it ends with the filmmaker no longer being comfortable with calling herself a feminist.

It also only briefly mentions the reddit page "the red pill" that it shares its title with. Basically this highlights a big fault of the film in that it chooses to highlight the more favorable aspects of MRAs. Though the filmmaker admits to having many negative perceptions of MRAs at the beginning and the process of the film is her dismantling those initial negative perceptions. I still think it would have helped if she examined where those negative perceptions come from in both real and imagined aspects.
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-Gavirulax- posted...

I liked it, though I've been against feminism in its current form for a while now.

I made a note to watch the media when the Australian media (Andrew O'Keefe, Waleed Ali) proceeded to bash the movie without ever having watched it based on what they had heard although the Australian media loves pushing "males are bashers" all the time (especially white men).

Yeah I read that there was some controversy over it being shown at certain theaters over allegations that it "promoted violence against women." I can't say there is even a shred of truth to that after watching the documentary. Like not once is it ever implied that violence against women is ever ok. It doesn't come anywhere close to that implication. It is downright absurd to think someone could have come to that conclusion after having watched the film.

Though I doubt anyone watched the film and reached that conclusion. They probably just read the title and confused it with the reddit page or other violent/shameful aspects of the MRA movement.
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Yeah, it was a good documentary that needed to be done.
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-Gavirulax- posted...

TommyG663513 posted...

Though I doubt anyone watched the film and reached that conclusion. They probably just read the title and confused it with the reddit page or other violent/shameful aspects of the MRA movement.

Australia's main media has an extreme left-wing bias, so no great shock.

I've seen the movie as well and thought it was well put together and the creator/director has copped far too much hate over it for merely asking questions.

Yeah the filmmaker didn't appear to be 100% all in on MRAs by the films end either. She just seemed confused and wanted to ask more questions. She also seemed to have no interest or a lot less interest in labeling herself a feminist by the films end.

It seemed like her conclusion was rather reasonable. She was mostly just acknowledging the complexities and the grey areas of these various issues. She became sympathetic to many issues that were specific to men, but also seemed to maintain views that women were disadvantaged in various ways as well though that side wasn't covered nearly as much.

It is pretty sad to see that anything that doesn't support feminism 100% could be construed as misogynistic. It kind of highlights the problem this film is attempting to address.
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TommyG663513 posted...

-Gavirulax- posted...

I liked it, though I've been against feminism in its current form for a while now.

I made a note to watch the media when the Australian media (Andrew O'Keefe, Waleed Ali) proceeded to bash the movie without ever having watched it based on what they had heard although the Australian media loves pushing "males are bashers" all the time (especially white men).

Yeah I read that there was some controversy over it being shown at certain theaters over allegations that it "promoted violence against women." I can't say there is even a shred of truth to that after watching the documentary. Like not once is it ever implied that violence against women is ever ok. It doesn't come anywhere close to that implication. It is downright absurd to think someone could have come to that conclusion after having watched the film.

Though I doubt anyone watched the film and reached that conclusion. They probably just read the title and confused it with the reddit page or other violent/shameful aspects of the MRA movement.

It's unfortunate. When men try to bring up men's issues during discussions regarding feminism and gender rights, they get push back. This isn't the platform for that, whataboutism, mansplaining, MRAs don't try to do anything beyond bitching about feminists, etc.

Then when MRAs do try to have a serious discussion, or film, regarding men's issues, feminists invariably protest or otherwise malign the event. If it's a talk on campus, they'll try to intimidate men that are interested in it and pull fire alarms to get it shut down. If it's a film they will lie their asses off to defame the film and the creators and dissuade people from seeing it or protest/threaten to protest to convince theaters to cancel the showings.

Any discussion of issues outside of feminist sanction perspectives are misogynistic hate speech by default, apparently. With the way other feminists have treated her, it's no surprise Cassie Jay no longer considers herself one.
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Esrac posted...

TommyG663513 posted...

-Gavirulax- posted...

I liked it, though I've been against feminism in its current form for a while now.

I made a note to watch the media when the Australian media (Andrew O'Keefe, Waleed Ali) proceeded to bash the movie without ever having watched it based on what they had heard although the Australian media loves pushing "males are bashers" all the time (especially white men).

Yeah I read that there was some controversy over it being shown at certain theaters over allegations that it "promoted violence against women." I can't say there is even a shred of truth to that after watching the documentary. Like not once is it ever implied that violence against women is ever ok. It doesn't come anywhere close to that implication. It is downright absurd to think someone could have come to that conclusion after having watched the film.

Though I doubt anyone watched the film and reached that conclusion. They probably just read the title and confused it with the reddit page or other violent/shameful aspects of the MRA movement.

It's unfortunate. When men try to bring up men's issues during discussions regarding feminism and gender rights, they get push back. This isn't the platform for that, whataboutism, mansplaining, MRAs don't try to do anything beyond bitching about feminists, etc.

Then when MRAs do try to have a serious discussion, or film, regarding men's issues, feminists invariably protest or otherwise malign the event. If it's a talk on campus, they'll try to intimidate men that are interested in it and pull fire alarms to get it shut down. If it's a film they will lie their asses off to defame the film and the creators and dissuade people from seeing it or protest/threaten to protest to convince theaters to cancel the showings.

Any discussion of issues outside of feminist sanction perspectives are misogynistic hate speech by default, apparently. With the way other feminists have treated her, it's no surprise Cassie Jay no longer considers herself one.

Yeah this movie only further soured me on feminism. All feminists shown in this film seemed to really lack any open mindedness. They had no desire for discussion. Just an I'm right and you are wrong attitude.
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Pretty Good doc.