If you are on social media, you have probably heard of red pill content and its creators. These creators talk about how little they respect women, make bio-essentialist arguments, and often are harming women in their lives outside of content creation. A popular example is Andrew Tate, who talks over a podcast microphone about being an alpha-male. This content is so successful, in part, because these men target boys and young men who are impressionable. However, when the message overtly tells young men not to respect women, women do not like it, and they will not listen to it.
However, if the content is repackaged, women will listen, and they have been. Have you ever seen a video about being treated so well by a man that it brings out your “divine feminine” or seen a comment section praising a man talking about how women should not have to work because they should be provided for? That is red pill content repackaged for women, and the dangers of this kind of rhetoric are real. Working may be unpleasant, but it provides something essential: financial independence and autonomy. If a woman does not work, she cannot leave her husband if need be. What is the implication when the video says to allow your “feminine energy” to project? It is to be docile and submissive.
The bio-essentialist arguments hold up in the repackaged content as well. Have you ever seen a video that says “women cannot work effectively because the 24-hour cycle is right for men, but women have a monthly cycle”? I cannot speak to the daily cycles of humans based on sex, but I can deduce from those videos that they are not saying we need to change the professional schedule because it was built on colonialism, racism, and sexism. Those videos are saying that women cannot be as effective as men in their work. Those videos are encouraging young women to give up on hard work, find a man, and be provided for. Which, again, is dangerous.
I am not saying that a man cannot safely provide, lead, or that there is something wrong with being a stay-at-home mother (labor at home is still labor, and we should value it more highly than we do). I am saying that we need to be cognizant and think critically about what the media we consume is trying to spark in our minds.