[Movie Night] The Red Pill (2015)

The Red Pill is a thought-provoking 2016 documentary on feminism and its relationship with men's rights. Our takeaway is that though it may seem feminism and men's rights activism go against each other, they are both in fact evidence of underlying societal problems that are not based on gender.

Some topics we discussed are society's view on men being disposable and women being domestic figures, family court bias against men...

• Men are disadvantaged in family court. Why is that? It is because historically men are the abusers. However, in modern society, the ratio of female abusers to male abusers have risen (likely because of increased reporting and the increased societal and institutional support for women to stand up for themselves and exert power, sometimes abusively). The law and stigmatization have not caught up to be non-gender biased.
  

• There are unhealthy expectations for both genders and their roles. Men are confined to be the providers and to be disposable (in war, in hazardous work, etc.) while women are confined to be child-bearers and -rearers and care for domestic activities. This is derived from roles assigned at the beginning of human civilization and is not so necessary for survival anymore in modern society. The society must recognize this and gradually remove gender-role expectations through education and remove laws that perpetuate the roles.
  

• Conclusion: we must recognize problems in society without gendering it. Much of the regulations kept in place today is to maximize efficiency and profit. Men are physically stronger so they are deployed to war--but wars are fought for the greed of wealth. Women are neglected by corporations because reformation takes effort and time; if men are expected to bear the weight of work and domestic care, their performances are expected to drop. It is considered more efficient to continue to keep women constrained to the domestic sphere because it is, in the short term, more efficient.