By Sofia Rojas, 10th Grade

Emory Andrew Tate III also known as Andrew Tate is a social media personality and retired kickboxer. Tate gained acknowledgment after making sexist and misogynistic statements on social media. After his instant fame, Tate started offering courses and virtual gatherings, teaching men how to become “hustlers” and increase their “masculinity”. This led Tate to found the Hustlers University, where staff members allege to be teaching more than 20,000 young men how to be able to become “real men”. However, Tate has recently been under the spotlight after allegations of human trafficking started surfacing in Romania. 

On the 30th of December 2022, Andrew Tate was arrested in Romania after severe allegations against him resurfaced. The Romanian police department is accusing Tate of charges like organized crime, human trafficking, and sexual assault. These criminal charges have been surfacing since 2016, after a video of Tate was leaked in which he verbalized enjoying assault and claimed women had to “bare responsibility” for the occurred. 

His commentary on such topics has led many individuals on the internet to feel identified. The same is stated by The Conversation 22 which enjoins that “Tate has become a leading voice of the manosphere, a digital space where men talk about “men’s issues” like fitness and health, dating, relationships, finances, divorce, fathers’ rights, and more. While these are important topics to offer help and support on, the manosphere is correspondingly a space where anti-women and anti-feminist ideologies have taken root, bolstered by a belief in the inherent superiority of men.” This manosphere has led men to feel like they’re losing their social position and privilege that has been forged. Michael Kimmel, has named this phenomenon as “aggrieved entitlement”. 

Tate’s manosphere status has led many men to be inculcated into radical forms of masculine countenance. Sandy, a 22-year-old individual, has expressed concern for the extreme change her dad endured after discovering Andrew Tate’s content. Sandy stated that her dad went from being a woman studies graduate to wanting to murder any “feminine” man he encountered. Similarly, 33-year-old Emme expressed her boyfriend became extremely possessive after he started consuming Andrew Tate’s content. She said her ex-boyfriend started loathing her social interactions and looked for ways to monitor and control her jovial excursions. But, this pedagogy isn’t exclusive to adult men. According to Vox 22 “Much of the discourse surrounding him relates to panic over the well-being of boys and young men; during that time, middle and high school teachers reported noticing a major uptick in sexual harassment and sexist hate speech in their classrooms by their male students.” 

However, Tate isn’t entirely at the fault for his overnight success. An investigation by the Observer recently revealed that TikTok was sharply facilitating Tate’s content into the algorithm of many young boys. This aggressive promotion has led many internet users to side with Tate. Both on TikTok and Twitter, Tate supporters allege Tate has been framed, using hashtags like #tateinnocent to show their support. Others sought to blame the so-called “Matrix” for the occurred, indulging that the organization had sent their “agents” to get him. 

Overall, it is important for parents to monitor their children’s activity on social media. However, it is crucial to not promote hate speech as a form of “expression”. Supporting Andrew Tate has only led to harming young boys and inculcating harmful ideologies that were thought to be altogether erroneous. 

References: 

Das, S. (2023, January 5). Andrew Tate arrest: TikTok and Twitter under fire over false posts from fans. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jan/01/fans-andrew-tate-king-of-toxic-masculinity-flood-web-arrest

Jennings, R. (2023, January 4). Andrew Tate’s arrest for alleged rape and human trafficking, explained. Vox. https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/1/4/23539528/andrew-tate-arrest-jail-rape-human-trafficking

Lawson, R. (2022, October 27). Andrew Tate: how the ‘manosphere’ influencer is selling extreme masculinity to young men. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/andrew-tate-how-the-manosphere-influencer-is-selling-extreme-masculinity-to-young-men-192564

Murphy, B. G. W. A. M. (2022, December 30). Andrew Tate detained in Romania over rape and human trafficking case. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64122628