The Red Pill Not So Easy To Swallow

By Jackie Shannon

On November 6, Palace Cinemas had pencilled in a screening of the documentary, The Red Pill, at its Kino Cinemas location in Melbourne. The film, which aired in the US earlier this month, explores the world of the Men’s Rights Movement through the eyes of its director, Cassie Jaye. The director spent a year filming men’s rights activists such as the controversial Paul Elam, the founder of “A Voice For Men”, and has stated that her work on the film has led her to question her long-held feminist beliefs.

Upon the announcement of the screening (which was to be held by the group, Mens Rights Melbourne), however, a petition was set up at change.org by Susie Smith, who called the film “misogynistic propaganda”, and asked the like-minded to join her in campaigning to have The Red Pill pulled. The petition received 2,370 signatures, and Palace cancelled the November 6 screening. Mens Rights Melbourne has now responded with their own petition at change.org, calling for the screening to be put back on. “I believe that if anyone at Palace Cinemas watches the film, they won’t see any need to pull the film,” director, Cassie Jaye, told The Citizen.

Palace Cinemas, meanwhile, has been copping it deluxe on its Facebook page and other online forums, with no-holds-barred comments hurled from both sides of the argument. “This is fucking nonsense,” Miles David wrote. “I generally admire Palace, but screen this garbage and they will never see my face again at their cinemas.” Palace publicity manager, Caroline Whiteway, told The Herald Sun that their patrons’ feedback was instrumental in The Red Pill being removed from possible consumption. “We support freedom of speech and reserve the right to allow private venue hire of our cinemas to a broad cross-section of groups,” she said. “However, at the time of the booking, we were unaware that this screening had the potential to cause distress to our valued clientele.”

The debate continues…