Tuesday, November 21, 2017

The Red Pill

Aaron and I watched The Red Pill on Amazon Prime yesterday and I thought I'd write up a post with my thoughts on it.


If you haven't heard of it yet, The Red Pill is a new documentary about the Men's Rights Movement. Never heard of it? I highly recommend googling MRA to see what it's all about, or just watch the documentary. It was filmed by Cassie Jaye.

I've always been supportive of the feminist cause, but have never called myself a feminist. One reason being that I am not a fan of labels. I don't like being boxed in by my beliefs at any given moment. Another reason is a lot of my feminist friends have at least a subtle (if not a strong) man hating vibe about them, and I certainly didn't hate men! I have a wonderful partner and two beautiful boys that I didn't want them to ever hear me talking about how women have it so bad at the hands of men. I'm sure you are familiar with the sayings, "Men are pigs", "all men want is sex", "men are so clueless", and it goes on and on.

Don't get me wrong though, I am a champion of equal rights and equal opportunities. I am not blind to the plight of women. I am a woman after all and am on intimate terms with a lot of the issues women face. I am not blind to the inequalities, especially with all of these allegations of sexual harassment coming out of Hollywood lately.

What I loved about this documentary is that the creator, Cassie Jaye actually proclaimed to be a feminist before her journey down the rabbit hole of the Men's Right's Movement. She took on a very unpopular viewpoint and tried to represent it in as unbiased of a way as possible. She put her prejudices aside and asked the hard questions and interviewed the people trying to draw attention to men's issues.

What I found interesting is that these two movements, Feminism and the Men's Right's movement seem to be at odds with one another. There were several clips in the movie of feminists protesting and being very rude and even cruel to the men that are representing this movement. They weren't there to listen, or maybe try to build a bridge. It seems to me like their issues are very similar and are two different sides of the same coin. Women don't want to be pigeon holed in the home as mother's and homemakers, but guess what? Men don't necessarily enjoy the pressure of having to be the sole provider either! It is a complex issue and I am not going to lay out all the problems the documentary covers, but it was heart breaking to hear that men don't feel like anyone cares about their issues. It was clear that the Men's Rights Movement was a very taboo subject.

Men wanting to speak up about the problems they are having aren't wanting to blame women for them. Men are tired of being demonized by the feminist movement, and rightly so. Just because some men prey on women doesn't mean that all men are pigs or that all men are to blame for the problems women face. Women can be predators too, but there is no place for men to speak out about it. And what if there is no one person or gender to blame? What if it is just an old system that we both need to work together on to change for the betterment of everyone? And what if for true change we have to really look at our own behavior and beliefs and take responsibility for our own actions?

A good friend of mine once told me if you really want to understand the dynamics of an issue, you must understand both sides. It is hard to hate and judge when you know someone's intimate story, so move in close. I highly recommend the documentary. It was uncomfortable to watch at times, being a woman, but it is good to have your beliefs examined and questioned.