Review of The Red Pill (2016) by David G — 21 Oct 2016

Feminist documentary filmmaker Cassie Jaye sets out to explore the much-maligned men's rights movement, assuming as many do that it must be a hate movement composed of men who resent the gains that women have made and wish to turn back that progress. In delving into what motivates men's rights activists, she discovers that the movement is very different from what she had originally thought it was and goes on to challenge her own prior views about gender, power, and privilege. She discusses at length the numerous legitimate grievances that many men have on issues ranging from military conscription to false rape allegations, from unfair treatment in divorce to higher rates of violent victimization--and the apathy and in many cases outright hostility shown in response by feminist activists and society at large.

This film is historic in that it marks the first time that the issues facing men and boys and the activists working to address them have ever been portrayed on the big screen. It is a breath of fresh air standing in stark contrast to most mainstream media coverage of the men's rights movement, which tends to quote the most extreme things said by the most extreme people in the movement out of context and make them out to be representative of what the entire movement stands for. It no doubt took a great deal of both courage and empathy to make the film. Every man--and every woman who sees the men in her life as something other than patriarchal oppressors--needs to see this film.