A theater chain in Melbourne has cancelled screenings of Cassie Jaye’s The Red Pill in response to a petition on Change.org. Good news for feminists? No. Bad news.
As someone who’s writing critically about Men’s Rights activists for years, including many of those who appear in the film, I ask you to NOT support efforts to get the film removed from theaters.
Yes, the film (which I haven’t seen) looks to be a whitewash of some of the most noxious people in the world.
But if you’re interested in fighting against MRAs and all that they stand for, attempts to get The Red Pill removed from theaters don’t help.
I’m against this sort of thing on principle. But it’s also a very bad move practically. These sorts of campaigns give the film free publicity. They allow Cassie Jaye and her supporters to play the part of free-speech martyrs — especially ironic given the ongoing efforts of MRAs and fellow travelers in the alt right to silence women and feminists through harassment.
It’s exactly what they want.
So please don’t start petitions against The Red Pill, don’t sign petitions against The Red Pill; don’t support petitions against The Red Pill.
Let it sink into the obscurity it deserves on its own.
EDIT: As I said in the comments, this is such a boon to MRAs I would not be shocked in the slightest to discover that it was an MRA publicity stunt.
@Rosie, I wasn’t disagreeing with your post – in fact, I think you’re right. That’s what got me digging around a bit. I can’t find out anything about “Susie Smith” (except what I said above, but there’s no evidence that it was the DV worker who started the petition).
And no, Clem et al haven’t given this any attention, positive or otherwise.
Some of the supporters of the original do seem legitimate, but many do not.
Apologies if I wasn’t clear before 🙂
@Craig
YOU ARE ALL SHEEPLE
ANIMAL FARM MAN HATERS
YOU’RE ALL HYPOCRITES!!!
Sheesh at least try to inspire me, that only took me all of ten seconds to write up.
Listen to this man!
Are we sheeple or are we mammoths? I guess we’re wooly either way.
Frankly, I barely realized that the documentary was being shown in theatres at all. Good for her!
Oh, hey, we have a troll here!
lol, thenks, Cregg. Grate commant, +1.
http://pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw363_huge.png
Don’t knock sheep. They provide wool, lawn control, and fertilization for said lawn. They are more useful than people trying to shame us by comparing us to them.
I can’t personally be for witch-burning, on the grounds of being a witch myself. It’s a bit of a conflict of interest.
(I know you’re being sarcastic, I just wanted to chime in on this bit. XD)
Animal Farm? Seriously?
TWO LEGS GOOD! THREE LEGS BAD!
(What is up with the shit-and-run posters? Absolutely no substance, no attempt to engage arguments, and just a list of talking points. Even That_Susan tried to respond…)
You’re all such echo chamber sheeple that you frequently disagree with one another about stuff, sometimes vehemently.
@LindsayIrene
Mammoth sheep? Giant wooly ungulates with horns and tusks?
Personally, though, I’m a llama. So, still woolly.
Oh, Craig is a troll, right? Okay, I’m going to attempt mockery now. Wish me luck!
Mockery start:
affirmative action – I hate that, actually. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s necessary and all, but the fact that North-Western societies are just that fucking sexist/racist that non-white women have to have extra laws written in just to get some goddamn higher education is nothing short of disgusting, don’t you think. Embrace feminism and anti-racism if you want affirmative action gone!
marriage equality – I live in a country where we’ve had this for a while. Society hasn’t toppled yet, nor is it going to. Mostly because gay marriage doesn’t hurt straight people, at all. In fact, straight people can still get married just the same as before. Seriously. Nothing changed for straight people, when gay people could get married. Nothing.
Hillary Clinton – Not American, but if I were I’d vote for her. Liked Bernie Sanders better, but Trump is nothing short of terrifying, so…
a woman’s right to abortion – As a human being with a uterus, the idea that I’m supposed to not have ultimate control over my own goddamn body is nothing short of atrocious. It’s like saying if I ever have sons, I can send them off to war, because they came from me, so I can do what I want with them. It’s a ridiculous and hateful thing to perpetuate that a person is not ultimately in control of their physical self. Stop.
man-made climate change – You mean human made climate change, right? Unless you want to excuse half the population? I mean, I’m a woman, so I’d be happy to be guilt-free here, but I know for a fact, that I’m not. I drive a car, after all. I would very much like the human race to go on, so I’ll support every endeavour that aims to keep us here, thank you very much. We need to take action against climate change. It’s the survival of our species (and several others) at stake here. You might want to take an interest yourself, given that you live here on Earth and all.
feminism has gone too far – No, it hasn’t. Not when WHTM has posts every day about awful things people say about women. Not when my country is only on its second female prime minister. Not when the pay gap is still there. Not when people make “jokes” about how women shouldn’t be allowed to vote. You’re so wrong, you’re inside out if you think feminism has gone too far.
man-hating – I don’t hate men. But I’m sure I could find it in me to hate YOU, Craig. Because you’re nothing more than a puppet, parroting ancient, awful ideas about the world, and thinking you’re somehow better than the rest of us who see the people in this world for the many-splendoured, utterly unique individuals we are, and want to build a world where people can be themselves without shame or ridicule or fear. You’re a sorry excuse for a human being, Craig.
Also, sheep are awesome. They’re have really soft, fluffy fur (which makes for really warm socks, and knitting with wool is awesome), make milk (which makes for really good cheese, actually) and they taste fantastic in stew. In short, sheep is NOT – I repeat NOT – an insult!
Mockery end.
So how did I do? I’ve never actually tried this mocking thing with a real live troll before, so I’d love some feedback. I was going for informative with a side order of “go away”. Did I get somewhere in the vicinity of that?
@Frigid Virgin (hey, I’m trying to stop global warming over here, what’s your excuse?),
http://38.media.tumblr.com/3b719f9343d3c875caff8ad66b059b9f/tumblr_ng5begvuSF1tk7dago1_250.gif
@Frigid Virgin (hey, I’m trying to stop global warming over here, what’s your excuse?)
Nicely done, you addressed all his points with your counterarguments quite well with some pretty good writing. A way to improve it, I suppose you could provide a couple sources with links and quotes that show his argument to be flawed/false. Overall I’d say you’ve done a pretty damn good job.
9 gesture hands and feet/9
http://i.imgur.com/A41rnDt.jpg
Wait shoot I forgot the gifs.
http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/2/27295/2620105-tumblr_muu00y2kg01rk8pddo1_500.gif
@ Everyone: Thank you so much! *blushes* I’m still so new, so I just want to get it right, you know? But it feels really good to talk back to these awful people. So good, actually.
Also: I don’t really have any proper links, or anything. My google-fu isn’t the best, and I’m never really sure what statistics are the right ones for my arguments and I always worry that they’re not legit. There are so many that seem okay on the surface, but then when you read them closer you just go “wait, what?” and some of them are too easy for people to poke holes in (or at least, make like that’s what they’re doing, when they’re just trying to silence whatever argument is going on) and…
Also also: I’m worried I’m going to mess up linking stuff and then I just feel (and look) stupid and I’m a woman so I can’t really afford that, I don’t think, at least not when it comes to Craig and his ilk. IDK, I’m probably over-thinking everything. I do that. Sorry.
Also also also: Thank you for being such a nice community! I feel so welcome here!
Oh no! Editing ran out! Well, here goes:
I wanted to post this with the previous post. Uhm, I’m sorry if I’m posting too many cute animal pictures and all, but I want to do something nice for everyone willing to deal with all the awfulness. I know, cute animal pictures aren’t much in the grand scheme of things, but I can’t do much else and… Gah, I’m over-thinking again. I’ll stop now. Promise.
Its OK, Craig, I understood that when you said we all support man-made climate change, in your fumbling way you meant that we have listened to the evidence that anthropogenic climate change is real and significant, and we accept that evidence.
Clearly that makes us sheeple. Tell me, what other scientific theories embraced by rational beings should we also be rejecting for reasons of political expedience?
Evolution? The germ theory of infectious disease? Gravity? Astronomy?
Are you a Creationist AntiVax Flat Earther, Craig?
How STEMmanly of you, Craig.
ETA, adding to the applause, Frigid Virgin
Wait, wait. Only groupthinky sheeple all agree on anthropogenic climate change? Shucks, I thought that was actually the rational position to take, based on, y’know, evidence and science and stuff.
Presumably craig’s meninist bros include significant numbers of flat earthers and intelligent fallers, because of true equality?
(incidentally, ‘man made climate change’ isn’t actually about blaming men. dicks don’t generate large quantities of CO2. hillary will not send the EPA out to cut off your chonson, dude)
I’m all for boycotts and activism against hate speech, especially dangerously misleading documentaries (e.g. Vaxxed), but it’s way more effective activism to let this film die in obscurity with a handful of bad reviews and hilariously biased ones than to get it removed from theatres.
In my opinion, it might be more effective to get more reviewers to see it either in critic screenings or in theatres to give an accurate impression of the film to counteract the clearly biased and/or fake ones, such as what we’re seeing on The Red Pill’s Rotten Tomatoes page.
Of course, it could be an MRA publicity stunt as you folks have theorized (given how 4chan managed to spread #endfathersday, #killallmen, #pissforequality and #freebleeding as fake feminist movements, it’s not impossible to imagine they or a similar group of trolls are behind this), if someone could prove that it’d be awesome, but until then it’s best to not give this movie the controversy it so craves.
@Frigid Virgin
Oooooohhh snap! :p
Also, maybe clarify this part:
WHAT? 😉
Ironically, this discussion is also legitimising The Red Pill through a misinterpretation of the facts!
The Red Pill was only ever going to be seen in Australia by a very small audience. The film wasn’t picked up by distributors for release in Australia. The Red Pill was planned to screen a single time in Australia. It was a one-off screening booked by the Melbourne chapter of Men’s Rights Activists; “Mens Rights Melbourne”.
See these facts in a letter from Palace Cinemas here.
Now let’s stop talking about it, thus inflating its legitimacy even further!
@Craig
Wow. No one has ever posted anything so powerfully insightful before. Truly one of the great minds of our time. And of course feminism is cancelled forever, now. I promise no one will ever start a rights movement or engage in a discussion about rights that makes you slightly uncomfortable sometimes ever again. You hero.
That’s not how comment boxes work, Craig. After typing the question, you have to hit “submit comment” before other people can see it and respond.
The Red Pill film had inspired surprisingly few threads in the Men’s Rights subreddit before this; I looked in on it a few minutes ago and now it’s full of indignant threads about the “banning.”
I’m just baffled. What’s with all the sheep hating?! O.o
http://cdn.pcwallart.com/images/cute-sheep-wallpaper-1.jpg