What does “black pill” refer to?

Black pill ideology is inspired by the 1999 film The Matrix, which created a futuristic world in which fighters against the status quo are presented with a choice between taking a blue pill or a red pill. Those who pick the blue pill remain blissfully ignorant about the true ways of the world. Those who take the red pill see the truth about the Matrix, the technological system through which humans are exploited by robots, with all its unsettling and tragic elements, and understand their previously obscured reality. The red pill as a symbol has been seized by alt-right groups as a metaphor for freeing oneself from so-called liberal viewpoints. Black pill ideology has become an extreme extension of red pill philosophy adopted by far-right and white supremacist men’s rights groups to explain what they perceive as the sexual oppression of men by women.

Who has taken the black pill?

Black pill ideology is most deeply rooted in misogynistic online communities heavily populated by incels, or involuntarily celibate men. Commonly called the manosphere, this collection of online sites and forums exists to promote the idea that men are subjugated by feminism and to encourage men to act to change that perceived reality.

About 2016 the red pill view of the world took on an even darker tone. In the black pill world, the only criteria women use to chose male partners are their physical traits. The extension of this worldview asserts that incel status is predetermined by women, not something a man can change. In this context, for men that see themselves as undesirable and unchosen by women, black pill thinking became synonymous with hopelessness. In some ways the black pill is understood as an alternative to the dichotomy of the red pill/blue pill choice.

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Some adherents try to escape their incel fate by changing their appearance—going to the gym or having plastic surgery. This, however, sometimes incurs derision from peers who see this as “norming” or blue pill behavior.

Other blackpilled individuals see radical acts—often mass violence or suicide—as the only way to change the world or their place within it. Within the community, it is not unusual to see the encouragement of self-harm or mass harm of others as a way to address the idea that a meaningful romantic relationship with a woman is unattainable.

Black pill violence

The most famous example of incel or black pill violence involves Elliot Rodger, a British American 22-year-old who called himself a “kissless virgin.” In 2014 he killed six people in a stabbing and shooting spree in Isla Vista, California. Rodger, who said in a video posted before he killed himself that the attack was retribution for his being denied sex, is idolized in some incel circles. In 2018 a 25-year-old Canadian man killed 10 people with his van in Toronto minutes after glorifying Rodger online. In 2021 a 22-year-old man in Plymouth, England, who was obsessed with incel culture and raged about his failure to find a girlfriend, killed five people, including his mother and a three-year-old girl. He had spoken in a video about taking a “black pill overdose.”

Because these and other acts of black pill violence specifically target women, some have called for them to be treated as terrorist attacks.

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How did we get here?

The men’s rights movement has its roots in the backlash against the widespread adoption of the goals of the women’s rights movement of the 1970s. To adherents of black pill ideology, this is a zero-sum game. That is, rights gained by women are equivalent to rights taken away from men. The goal, therefore, of the men’s rights movement in the United States and Canada has been to present men as the victims of sexism and to reinstate men’s dominance in society. The Internet and social media have had a large impact on these reactionary movements, allowing for the growth of online communities and discussion forums, including the manosphere, beginning in the 1990s and continuing well into the 2000s.

It is in these spaces where black pill advocates gather to discuss the ways in which the social hierarchy has left them on the fringes of society and to promote a cultural shift away from feminism.