Photo: cobratate / instagram
His influence on young men is really unparalleled.
By Katie JgIn — Written on Oct 15, 2022
Editor's Note: This piece was originally published on August 10, 2022.
If you thought Dan Bilzerian was bad, well, buckle up.
Because there’s a new raging misogynist on the horizon. And he’s probably worse than all of the other ones combined.
Chances are, you’ve already heard about him.
His name is Andrew Tate.
He currently has over 4 million followers on Instagram. (Editor's Note: Tate was banned from almost every social media platform after this piece was published.) His videos on Tik Tok alone have been viewed 11.6 billion times. And last month, he was searched on Google more times than Kim Kardashian or Donald Trump.
But what’s particularly worrying is that he’s not only popular with incels and other chronically online misogynists but also men in general. Some are even praising him for his ‘marketing genius.’
Right.
So who is this toxic masculinity’s new ‘it boy’, and what exactly are his beliefs? Why are so many men praising him?
And why should we care about any of that at all?
Andrew Tate’s worldview is as misogynistic as you can imagine
Andrew Tate is a 35-year-old American-British former kickboxer currently living in Romania.
And judging by his Instagram account, he’s your typical side hustle bro the social media world is full of: he poses with fast cars, guns, and women and portrays himself as a cigar-smoking millionaire while teaching men how to ‘escape the matrix.’
Although he made a brief appearance on Big Brother in 2016 — he was quickly kicked out for hitting a woman and threatening to kill her — it wasn’t until this year that he started to be… everywhere.
And I really mean it — everywhere.
So how did he go from obscurity to one of the most talked about people in the world so quickly?
Well, by appearing on right-wing and ‘manosphere’ podcasts like InfoWars and Fresh and Fit and saying all sorts of misogynistic and harmful things that stir a lot of controversies.
Here are some of them:
Women should bear some responsibility for being raped.
Women are men’s property and should obey them without question.
Women are like dogs or children.
Female promiscuity is disgusting.
Women can be used to make money.
Women belong at home and shouldn’t be allowed to drive.
Women only deserve to be resuscitated when they’re hot.
If you want to handle a girl, you have to first slap her, grab and choke her, tell her to shut up and then have sex with her.
If a woman accused him of cheating, he would bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck.
Teenage girls are better to date because they have been through less dick than women in their 20s and because they’re easier to make an imprint on.
Men who live with women are weak.
Performing CPR on a man is gay, and he wouldn’t do it.
Right.
What a fantastic role model for boys and young men everywhere, isn’t he?
The influence this man has is terrifying
Interestingly, it’s not Andrew Tate who posts video clips of himself saying any of the things I’ve just mentioned.
No, it’s thousands of members of his private online academy called the ‘Hustler’s University’, which costs £40 a month and promises to make them rich by earning a commission for each person they refer.
And not surprisingly, it seems to be mostly men and boys — including some as young as 13 since the program has no age restriction — who fall for what looks like yet another get-rich-quick pyramid scheme.
But the fact that he’s scamming people online and being openly violent, misogynistic, and hateful isn’t even the worst part.
At the beginning of this year, a story about Tate and his brother Tristan broke out, reporting that they’re ‘raking in millions from webcam sites where men hand over a fortune as they fall for models’ fake sob stories.’
They even admitted that ‘it’s a total scam.’
In April, the Romanian police broke into Tate’s compound after they received a tip that a 21-year-old American woman was being held against her will. The allegations then went further and alleged that Tate and his brother forced the women they were holding into sex work.
The investigation subsequently escalated to include ‘crimes of human trafficking and rape’ as well.
He was also previously investigated in the UK for 11 sexual abuse allegations, but when police started looking into it, he left the UK for Romania. And then, in one of his videos, he suggested it was because it would be ‘easier to get off on rape charges’ because of how ‘corrupted’ Eastern Europe is.
Yup. This is the kind of man young boys and men are looking up to now.
A dishonest self-help guru. A violent misogynist and homophobe. And a man being investigated for quite severe charges of sex trafficking, sexual violence, and abuse.
The impact his actions and harmful opinions can have on his audience — particularly teenage boys — is beyond terrifying.
And that shouldn’t even be up for discussion.
Because he teaches them that women and girls are inferior. That we don’t deserve the same amount of respect as men. That we aren’t equal to men. That it’s normal to harm us if we ‘misbehave.’
And that it’s okay to be a violent, misogynistic, homophobic asshole.
I’ve already seen multiple posts by concerned women describing how their boyfriend’s ‘attitude and opinions’ had changed ‘dramatically’ after watching videos of Tate.
That’s just scary, isn’t it?
But hey, apparently, it’s all good because he’s also — wait for it — a ‘marketing genius.’
Some men really couldn’t be any more ignorant
While writing this piece, I came across several articles about Andrew Tate that were the exact opposite of what you’d expect. Because they praised his ‘business acumen’ and ‘marketing skills.’ Some even dubbed him a ‘genius.’
Here’s what one of the side hustle productivity bros on this platform wrote:
Andrew Tate is a polarizing figure. And it’s human nature to be affected by his emotionally charging statements. But, remember that controversy is Andrew’s product. It’s not personal — it’s business.
And not surprisingly, one of the other bro writers commented on that post, saying, ‘He’s the best marketer online right now.’
Wow, that’s great.
And to think I was worried before about the fact that millions of impressionable boys and men are listening to this misogynistic man’s every word.
But if it’s just business, it’s just business.
What a relief!
Honestly, I don’t know how some men can be so blissfully ignorant.
But they are.
Well, newsflash to all the men out there who think it doesn’t hurt anyone to praise this guy or stay neutral: online misogyny sadly has real-world consequences. It results in women and girls being harassed, assaulted, trafficked, beaten, tortured, raped, kidnapped, exploited, and murdered.
And it’s not only us who are harmed by it.
It’s everyone.
Over the past years, several homicides, mass shootings, stabbings, and hate crimes have been attributed to incels. Including one of the worst mass shootings in the UK in over a decade.
And how exactly do boys and men become an incel? They go on social media platforms and forums. And then they are slowly being radicalized by men like Andrew Tate and many other misogynists who couldn’t care less if their content inspires people to commit violence in real life.
As long as they’re making good money, that’s all they care about.
And according to some men, including writers on here that’s perfectly okay. How lovely.
When misogyny goes unchecked, we all lose.
And it’s really baffling to me that this still needs to be said. Over and over and over again, many people still don’t get it. Or don’t want to get it.
It’s equally baffling, though; why do social media companies allow Andrew Tate’s videos to circulate? Why aren’t they censored when they’re clearly in breach of their rules?
I have a friend who was recently permanently banned from Tik Tok for dancing in an oversized T-shirt without wearing a bra, yet videos of Andrew Tate talking about harming women are still on there.
They are still being watched and reshared every day by millions of boys and men.
And that’s just scary.
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Katie Jgin is a writer and activist whose work covers women’s rights issues, pop culture, and news.
This article was originally published at Medium. Reprinted with permission from the author.