cassiejaye1

Hi CaptainWeeaboo, thank you so much for asking this! I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to use your question to address everything I want to say about the title.

The title The Red Pill refers to the cultural metaphor for “seeing the painful truth of reality” (which of course originated from the movie The Matrix). When I began this project in March 2013, 2.5 years ago, the MRM/MHRM was often using the term ‘the red pill’ when describing their moment of realization or enlightenment about gender politics. One of the very first articles I read on A Voice For Men was by Paul Elam called something like “red pills, blue skies, and tits”. AVFM also had the phrase, “take the red pill” as part of their logo at the time. They have since changed it.

The reason I chose this title is because early on in filming, MRAs were telling me that feminist ideology was ‘blue pill” and that they took the ‘red pill’, so while I was struggling to see and understand the opposing viewpoints, I used this terminology to compartmentalize the ideologies. I actually refer to red pill / blue pill often in my video diaries. When looking at the story arc and the journey I went on, the only title that made sense was ‘The Red Pill’ because it succinctly described my quest to understand the way MRAs (and anti-feminists) see the world.

Others have asked, do you know the difference between the MRM and TRP subreddit, yes I do and those differences will be briefly addressed in the film when describing the factions of the manosphere. However, my film’s title is not referring to TRP subreddit, it is in reference to its original popular culture usage (which is used my many other groups and conspiracists as well, it is not owned by the subreddit).

As far as why TRP subreddit appears on the screen in the sneak preview video, mainstream media constantly conflates all manosphere factions to seem as if they are all one in the same (PUA, MGTOW, MRM, TRP, etc). In the sneak preview video (around the 1 minute mark), that is an actual audio excerpt unedited from MSNBC. They did a story about the “Men’s Rights Movement’ and they said that the MRM “is a universe of message boards like reddit’s The Red Pill”. This is not me saying they are the same, it’s mainstream media, and in my film we will show what mainstream media says about the MRM before we go beneath the surface.

Whew! That was long, but hopefully we can move past the title now. Oh, one more thing: no, I’m not changing the title.

Hi AugustFell! So, what happened was from about October 2012-March 2013 I was in a creative slump after releasing my second feature documentary “The Right to Love”. I like always having something ‘in the works’, but I didn’t have any films on the horizon. During this time, the Delhi bus gang rape happened and the Steubenville rape case was happening. This was the first time I heard about ‘rape culture’ and I went on a massive googling spree. I thought my next documentary was going to be about rape culture (I like tackling controversial topics), but then I stumbled upon AVoiceForMen.com and thought ‘these are the rape apologists I’ve been hearing about!’ I toyed with the idea of making a film about the Men’s Rights Movement as well as some other ideas, but I always came back to the MRM because it really fascinated me. I wanted to know "who ARE these people?". I was absolutely terrified of the idea of meeting Paul Elam, and when I did meet him he's like 6'5" or something like that. It was intimidating, but my protection was having a camera with me at all times. So, I committed to making a film about the MRM but I never in my wildest dreams thought I would also become a subject in the film. That came later, when I realized I was going through a transformative journey myself.

Great question Bhill.

The responses I've gotten from feminists when I bring up men's issues are: "once we get equality for women we can start thinking about men's issues". Katherine Spillar in my film said something along the lines of "let women get an even playing field first" (before we discuss men's issues).

I think most feminists agree men have issues, but will say women have MORE issues. Like false accusations is a prime example: feminists will say so many rapes go unreported and those that do get reported, very few result in a conviction, so why care about false allegations against men when it's such a small percent compared to the epidemic of women being raped?

I think Sommers, Farrell, and Pizzey get resistance from feminists because of this (and I'll use my own personal experience while making this film): When an MRA would talk about men's issues, I almost always (in the beginning of filming) thought "well what are they saying about women then?" Or "what about <this> women's issue?" I could rarely just focus on the men's issues being discussed without getting defensive and wanting to "bring balance" to the conversation by bringing up what life is like for women.

I think that is what's happening when Sommers, Farrell, Pizzey and others talk about men's issues. People get defensive and think they're saying women's issues are nonexistent or don't matter.

There are probably many other reasons Sommers, Farrell and Pizzey get resistance too.

Hi Mr. Scruffles,

Great question. Making documentaries are almost always a uphill battle, there's a lot of competition to obtain the few available funding sources. However, my other films were nowhere near as difficult to promote and gain support for as The Red Pill has been.

For my previous films: I was able to garner mainstream media attention, I was able to rally support and assistance in post production, my friends would share it with their friends, people (strangers even) would happily engage with me in long conversations about those films, but it seems this film topic REALLY scares people (and/or just makes them angry). It scared me too when I first began this project, but I still was curious to find out what happens. I think, sadly, many people would be very happy if this film just faded away.

Hi Hgoddyn, apologies for my delayed response and thank you for your thoughtful questions.

I understand why many people in the MRM/MHRM are cautious to trust me and my intentions. I'm a stranger to them, I'm asking for money on Kickstarter, and the synopsis says "a feminist follows the men's rights movement"... that all sounds very fishy, I get it. Also, there are many examples of the MHRM being vilified, taken out of context and misrepresented in the media. I remember someone from MSNBC covered the International Conference on Men's Issues in Michigan in 2014, and their article was all cherry picked quotes and nowhere near the experience I had at that conference, but every person comes from a different perspective. So, I understand why people are having a hard time trusting me.

Also, I have seen the automatic dismissiveness to the movement, and the criticism that the movement is made up primarily of older white males.

Regarding: "Being a feminist yourself, do you think you are approaching this project with an open mind? And as a feminist, did you find it hard to do so?"

When I began this journey filming, I had a much more open mind than many of my feminist friends had at that time, but in looking back on the footage, I was still very shut off to many of the MRA views, especially critiques on feminism. I was very receptive to hearing about the issues because I have a soft spot for sticking up for anyone who is being mistreated, that's why many of my films have been about human rights and social issues.

Still, what the MRAs were saying about feminists did not soak in for me immediately, but when I started to go about my everyday life, and saw the casual misandry that was happening, and saw how people got angry (wide eyes, clenched jaw angry) when I brought up men's issues... it made me look deeper into what the MRAs were saying.

As far as your question: "what has been your goal from the start? Did you want to go in depth on the 'manosphere' in general? (including PUA's, RedPillers, MGTOW's, MRA's, and other 'groups'?) Or did you specifically want to look at men's issues that are finally starting to slowly make it into the mainstream media, often in SPITE of feminists."

Although the film will quickly address the factions of the manosphere to get the viewer up to speed (the viewers who have never heard about any of this), this film will focus on the Men's Rights Movement. I've categorized the MRM into 1. issues and 2. ideology. The film will first go in depth into the men's issues, and then the film will go into the conflicting ideologies, since that was my experience when I was trying to understand all of this.

Regarding: "I think a lot of the opposition to the men's movement is mainly caused by ignorance, propaganda, and fear. How did you deal with that? "

The original goal was for me to learn and understand the MRM platform, and now that I've gone on that journey, the goal is to complete this film to help create a better understanding, so we can all engage in these tough conversations. Some people will probably refuse to watch this film (one feminist told me she doesn't want to cloud her brain with those thoughts, thoughts being the MRA POV). I think the biggest deep-rooted fear that anyone can have is the fear that they could possibly be changed. That is a scary thought.

How do I deal with that? Hmm.. I dunno. Hope that other people trick them into watching this film? DVD stocking stuffer? No... I think the best thing that could happen for this film is a viral, word-of-mouth "you have to see this film and then let's talk" ripple effect. That's my hope for this film, that it becomes a conversation starter, but you can't be a part of the conversation until you've seen the film. That way at least everyone is clued into the issues and the opposing views. Right now I see a lot of misinformation floating around and that is severely stalling progress.