Making and Taking the Red Pill: Deconstructing the Key Manosphere Narrative Tool and Using It to Decode Popular Culture

Abstract

This theoretical work is a critical discussion of the online misogynist communities known as the manosphere. It examines how men’s dissatisfaction with lack of success in romantic relationships escalates into a complex shared imaginary which of a feminist-controlled world which oppresses men, which leads to sometimes devastating real world consequences. The narrative bridge which links this dissatisfaction to the radicalized worldview is the concept of the red pill, taken from a scene in the 1999 film The Matrix. The red pill is deconstructed into a complex blend of ideas from neoliberalism, evolutionary psychology, and zero-sum thinking which consolidate into a sense of aggrieved entitlement which unites various hybrid masculinities around a single adversary: misandry; the shortcomings of the red pill are also analyzed. The red pill will then be used as a decoding tool to discuss two films popular with the manosphere: Joker (2019) and Taxi Driver (1976).