To those wondering why we created the gold pill, we did so to offer something beyond the typical Manosphere talking points which in recent times have become tired and stale.
As the voice behind the This Is Shah YouTube channel, I have spent my efforts excavating the lost knowledge of marriage transactions in human history. This field has been well documented by anthropologists, especially from the 60’s and 70’s onward. and includes information about marriage transactions such as the Dowry and Bridewealth (formerly Brideprice). Take this quote from The Economics of Dowry and Brideprice by Siwan Anderson:
Most societies, at some point in their history, have been characterized by payments at the time of marriage. Such payments typically go hand-in-hand with marriages arranged by the parents of the respective spouses. These marriage payments come in various forms and sizes but can be classified into two broad categories: transfers from the family of the bride to that of the groom, broadly termed as “dowry,” or from the groom’s side to the bride’s, broadly termed as “brideprice.” Brideprice occurs in two-thirds of societies recorded in Murdock’s (1967) World Ethnographic Atlas of 1167 preindustrial societies. Conversely, dowry occurs in less than 4 percent of this sample. However, in terms of population numbers, dowry has played a more significant role, because the convention of dowry has occurred mainly in Europe and Asia, where more than 70 percent of the world’s population resides.
However, somehow the manosphere has managed to completely miss this information and what it means for relationships in the modern world. I, and the others here who have taken the Gold Pill, aim to correct this.
We have a trove(or rather a dowry chest) full of information which include academic/scholarly papers, newspaper articles, and media from different time periods that more than demonstrate, decisively and precisely, how the marriage market operated with regard to economics and the material concerns of both parties involved.
As the r/goldpill_ subreddit develops, I plan to share what I have and it is my desire to see this forum become a place of honest discussion between participants who wish to understand and absorb the gold pill better. Ultimately, I would like to see people, especially men, process this information in a way that will help us to collectively bargain and negotiate better for marriage and within relationships, in a way that is fair and just. The memory of this information I believe will be necessary to help men navigate the uncertain future we have ahead of us.
Are we going back to the way things were? No, we are not, not in my belief, the world has experienced too many changes, and nothing short of a collapse and total reset will take us back to how things used to be. However, with this knowledge, we will craft a new way forward that gives to each what is owed.
-Shah