Red Pill Women: strategic appropriations of Evolutionary Psychology by an online community of antifeminist women in pursuit of traditional relationships.

This article focuses on a qualitative study analyzing the r/RedPillWomen (RPW) subreddit, an antifeminist online community of women who adopt evolutionary psychology (EP) to frame their views on sex, gender, and heterosexual relationships. The study identifies thirteen themes centered on gender essentialism, sexual marketplace dynamics, mating strategies, and self-improvement, noting that RPW ideology parallels its male counterpart by using evolutionary reasoning to pursue traditional long-term relationships while endorsing submissive roles. The researchers critique RPW’s use of EP for exaggerating sex differences, erasing within-sex variability, and reinforcing sexual double standards that favor men, raising concerns about the autonomy and wellbeing of women relying on this interpretation. This preprint study has not undergone peer review. [Extracted from the article]