The Red Pill Movement: A New Chapter in the Battle of the Sexes

What Is the Red Pill Movement?

It is challenging to speak of a unified Red Pill front, as various offshoots of the movement have emerged, along with ideologically aligned associations and online publications operating within the so-called “manosphere” – a space for exchanging opinions and assertions centered around men. The most frequent point of reference for their efforts and problems is women. According to Red Pill adherents, women have assumed a leading position in society and family, demanding ever more rights while marginalizing the significance of men.

Male Authority and Responsibility 

Roman Warszawski, one of Poland’s most prominent Red Pill advocates, emphasizes that men are expected to assume responsibility as protectors, defenders, and providers. “Fair enough, every man should be capable of this, but there’s no responsibility without authority. Otherwise, a man becomes a slave with designated duties, facing only punishment if requirements aren’t met,” Warszawski states in an interview.

The crux lies in how to interpret this authority that accompanies responsibility. Last autumn, a founding meeting was held for the “Patriarchy” foundation, which propagates Red Pill principles. The foundation’s founder, Mateusz Curzydło, a 29-year-old IT specialist, described a simplistic history of social order that he claims collapsed with the promotion of equality, including gender equality. Despite earlier revolutionary changes, he argues that healthy principles have long prevailed. Take the approach to law, for instance.

“According to the Napoleonic Code, contracts couldn’t be entered into by the mentally ill, prisoners, children, and married women. Unmarried women still could, but married women couldn’t because they were treated as a kind of property. They surrendered some freedom in exchange for protection,” he explained. These values, he noted, have been eroded by the ethos of egalitarianism.

Women as Property?

The theme of ownership recurs frequently in such discourses. Ronald Lasecki, a publicist and writer whose statements serve as high-octane fuel for opponents of men’s rights defenders, addressed women’s freedom and property rights at that meeting. “Women were formerly part of the household, admittedly with a higher status than livestock or movable property, but nonetheless not participating on equal terms in decision-making processes,” he emphasized. For those gathered, this was the natural order of things, because after all, as Lasecki concluded: “We care for women, but treat them as part of our property.”

Following this logic, inventory, even of a slightly higher rank, must know its place in the hierarchy and sometimes needs to be reminded of it. “The institution of ‘not beating’ women is quite recent, and in Islamic countries, a husband has the right to physically punish his wife,” Lasecki observes. While cultural values in Poland prevent this, deeming women untouchable, legally it was different in the past.

“Men always managed somehow; there was one law. It’s like spanking. The absence of spanking is also something entirely new, and it’s the same with the prohibition of any unwanted contact towards women,” Mateusz Curzydło argued.

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Politics and Church Against Men

Is a return to a world based on “male rules of the game” possible on a broader scale, perhaps through political action?

“If men decide to fight for their interests and return to the Way of Men, they won’t do it through a democratic or social movement or an armed political uprising. It will happen through gangs in places where the state loses power and credibility,” predicts Jack Donovan, promoted by the Red Pill publishing house.

The evil in politics allegedly began with allowing women to vote in elections, though opinions on this matter are divided among Red Pill adherents and their supporters. Some, including former MP Janusz Korwin-Mikke, believe that while women should not have the right to vote, men could have the right to cast votes for women. More orthodox activists oppose even this concession, fearing it might encourage other women to demand further concessions.

The Catholic Church, particularly in Poland, is also seen as an obstacle to “men’s issues”. Some manosphere participants’ aversion to Catholics stems from what they perceive as an overly egalitarian approach to women. After all, the spiritual queen of Poland is the Virgin Mary. In Poland, “Gaude Mater Polonia” (Rejoice, Mother Poland) has been and continues to be sung, and Polish knights charged against the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald with “Bogurodzica” on their lips. The Virgin Mary herself, according to the “Patriarchy” foundation’s narrative, exhibits the characteristic cunning of women, as she “had a child with the best possible man, while also having an everyday man.”

This concept, though usually employing different examples, forms one of the main theses of the Red Pill movement. Women, guided by hypergamy, seek a father for their children who surpasses them in social and financial status. This is said to apply to intellectual status as well.

Failed Dates, Problems with Women…

This is why many Red Pill advocates believe that women’s education should not be given particular importance. Ostensibly for their own good, as more intelligent and better-educated women find it harder to secure husbands. Similarly, taller women struggle to find partners, as they seek men taller than themselves, significantly narrowing their options. Women, therefore, seek alpha males. While they are also interested in beta males, these are primarily needed to ensure later financial security for themselves and their offspring.

This concept, borrowed from evolutionary psychology and popularized by some, is often challenged by scientists who note the selectivity of the publicized arguments and the multitude of other factors that alter this picture in practice. Thus, while such female behaviors do occur, it is difficult to consider them as the sole or even predominantly leading factors.

Why, then, do many men radicalize their approach to relationships with women? According to research by Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr from University College London, some young men sought community and belonging, and feedback from other manosphere participants confirmed and amplified their sadness. After appropriate stimulation, their loneliness transformed into anger.

Meanwhile, according to Matteo Botto and Lucas Gottzén, sociologists from Stockholm University, the most common argument for young men joining manosphere communities was that they felt vulnerable in relationships with girls. Their helplessness stemmed mainly from dating problems, relationship failures, lack of sexual experience, or domestic difficulties in their family homes. With low self-esteem, especially during COVID-induced isolation, it is easy to end up in areas of the internet where simple answers to everything can be found, and weakness instantly transforms into apparent strength.

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“I Beat Him to the Max”

Is the struggle of activists defending men’s rights merely nonsense invented by insecure men to gain control over women they can not handle? This is how combative feminists would like to see it. However, that is not the entire truth.

In 2016, ardent feminist Cassie Jaye produced a documentary titled “The Red Pill” To her surprise, instead of encountering aggressive men wanting to shout her down or beat her, she met calm men broken by a legal system uncritically siding with women. Men have little chance of even equal treatment in child custody cases. Their rights often end at paying alimony and acquiescing to their partner’s demands, even if the children are not theirs. The documentary also proves that domestic violence limited solely to aggression against women is a myth. According to cited data, in the US, one in three women experiences physical violence from their partner, but one in four men also reports it.

In 2007, the feminist blog Jezebel published an article titled “Have You Ever Beat Up A Boyfriend? Cause, Uh, We Have.” The blog’s authors described how they could hit their partners for trivial and incomprehensible reasons, knowing the men would not retaliate. These reminiscences were discussed in a jocular style, and the comments were often no better, for example, “I don’t even remember the reason […], I started beating him to the max. I felt really bad about losing control like that, but later I realized that it’s much worse that I’m with someone who can make me so angry.”

Just Don’t Let Them Ever Understand Each Other

The name “Red Pill” comes from a key scene in “The Matrix,” where the protagonist can choose between a blue or red pill. The former allows him to remain in a comfortable but illusory reality, while the latter opens up a brutal but true reality. However, are the agitators prescribing the red pill, and the patients being treated with it, prepared for such a cure? Are feminists not also trying to take their own miraculous remedy, trusting that it will alleviate all previous ailments? If so, then it is enough to lower women’s status and rights for men to feel better, gaining women’s obedience and respect. That’s all for women’s own good, of course. On the other hand, it is enough to define men as oppressors by default, who must be opposed, and build oneself on nurturing a sense of victimhood.

The protagonists of both narratives often demand gentler treatment and understanding while simultaneously calling for retaliation for losses suffered. Such emotions are relatively easy to stir up, losing sight of real problems along the way. Such furies also easily unite some against others. Moreover, groups anchored at two poles of extreme emotions are easy to manage. All that is needed is to never let them understand each other.

Translation: Klaudia Tarasiewicz

Polish version: Red Pill, czyli kto przełknie czerwoną pigułkę. Nowa odsłona wojny damsko-męskiej