A Hard Pill to Swallow

The following is a guest post by my friend and fellow writer Rebekah Kelley-Moore. 

I started this editorial two weeks ago after a late, sleepless night on Reddit. If you haven't been to Reddit (aka the “Front Page of the Internet”), I highly recommend you check it out. But be forewarned, you will not like everything you see there. They have what are called “subreddits”. There is a subreddit for everything. You like to indulge in Chocolate? Anime? Watercolor paintings? Or want to have your picture drawn by an amateur artist for free? There's a sub for that. I had looked through everything that peaked my interest and happened upon the “random subreddit” button. It was here, at 3 in the morning that I discovered a darker side to Reddit. “The Red Pill” Movement. Let the misogyny begin.

Before I go any farther, I feel a need to explain a bit about me. I am 35, and happily married. I have 3 crazy kids and a house full of animals. I was in the Army from ages 18 to 28. I can say with confidence that I understand and have experienced misogyny firsthand. As I am sure many of you Dear Readers have, too.

But this...this Red Pill movement...I was blown away. The “movement” is all about becoming an “alpha” male. How to trick “bitches” into bed with you. How women who DO sleep around are whores. How mistreating a women will make her want to jump into bed with you. How gender studies is useless. How feminists are “feminazis”. I am not kidding. I thought it was parody. It isn't. It's absolute bullshit. Rage inducing bullshit. It sounds like something some college fraternity kid came up with one drunk night after hitting on girls and getting nowhere. It was, frankly, laughable. I have linked to the sub. Be prepared : http://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/

And then it happened.

Saturday, May 24th, Elliot Rodgers shot and killed 7 people, himself included. He also stabbed three people in his apartment. All of his reasons were lined out in his manifesto. It was his “Day of Retribution”.

“Tomorrow is the day of retribution, the day in which I will have my revenge. You girls have never been attracted to me. I don't know why you girls aren't attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it."

Rogers frequented TRP and his videos, filmed days before his killing spree, touted Red Pill ideas. His manifesto titled “My Twisted Life” was 141 pages of his explaining how worthy he was of sex, how women are degenerates, of how he is everything any woman should have wanted. It was Red Pill garbage. I read the entire thing. There was something wrong with Eliot Rogers and it is my opinion that communities like TRP are enabling the behavior that leads to things like this.

So the question is: how do we combat this? Where does misogyny start? Those of us who are mothers, how do we explain this to our children, especially the boys about to go out into the world? How do we prevent this from happening again?

I feel so bad for the families of all these murdered kids. All over one boy's selfish inclination of entitlement. He thought that women ruined him. He thought he was owed sex and a beautiful women for simply being an “alpha” male. I pray these families, his included, find peace soon. No one deserved this. Even Rodgers himself, who was shaped by our misogynist culture into the violent man he became. 

Note from Tie Dyed Feminist:

It has been really heartening to see a small sliver of light come out of this tragedy. The #YesAllWomen movement has blown up into a force of nature in less than a day. If you haven't already, hop on Facebook, Twitter or Google and check out the hashtag to read enlightening, inspiring and often terrifying accounts of women who have experienced misogyny firsthand. Learn their truths and set your own truth free.