Virtually every society that survived did so by socializing its sons to be disposable. ~ Warren Farrell

By this time tomorrow, 400 more Americans will suffer a shooting injury, and another 1,100 will face a criminal with a gun. ~ Gavin de Becker, “The Gift of Fear”

“The Red Pill” documents Cassie Jaye’s three year odyssey tracing the Men’s Rights Movement to deliver a well-crafted, poignant and insightful film.

Western civilization - which Gandhi thought would be a good idea - is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people. I would guess that the vast majority of the over 100 million murders committed during the 20th century (including all wars) were at the hands of men, most probably white men. Not to mention the raping, pillaging and countless heinous acts that have been the result of men’s behavior.

So a backlash against the primarily white, Judeo-Christian patriarchal hegemony is to be somewhat expected and I do not think that educated people can call the ideas of the feminist movement(s) inaccurate. Yet while investigating the cries of men who supposedly have suffered due to feminism, Cassie Jaye uncovers a swath of men who are quite sympathetic. And there are even some women who empathize with their plight.

Deftly inserting personal video diaries of her own trajectory, Ms. Jaye questions paradigmatic shifts in gender roles, power and privilege with a unique and refreshing sense of wonder.

I greatly appreciated Ms. Jaye’s ability to hear her subjects - both mens rights activists and feminist scholars - and edit together their strongest arguments. Ms. Jaye has a genuine interest in dispelling disingenuous misinformation about Men’s Rights Activists and allowing the audience to decide for themselves who has legitimate gripes and who does not.

Displaying the heartfelt complexities of men and boys issues faced today, “The Red Pill” skillfully presents a compassionate and reasonable look into a subject - given the history of atrocities committed by men - that some might find absurd or counterintuitive. In particular, the ideas of Dr. Warren Farrell, the author of “The Myth Of Male Power” and “Why Men Are The Way They Are” resonated with me.

We are living in a time where identity politics is fueling national debate and civic unrest. We are witnessing massive misinformation campaigns disseminated through traditional and social media platforms. “The Red Pill” is a groundbreaking documentary that measures our own level of compassion for men and boys, and expertly challenges the accepted narrative of the gender divide that some of us still feel a need to desperately cling to.

Cassie Jaye is a truly gifted director and editor and I hope that “The Red Pill” receives the recognition it deserves and begins the conversations needed to heal gender inequalities.