Content Warning: This article contains language and a discussion of sexual assault and may not be suitable for all ages and readers.
You’ve probably heard the name “Andrew Tate” before. You may know him from his kickboxing career, maybe from his Twitter (now “X”) feud with Greta Thunberg or maybe, like me, you know him from the hateful rhetoric he spews on his podcast, “Tate Speech,” which is seemingly a play on words that makes a mockery of hate speech.
Tate is just one of many “alpha-male podcast bros” that have spawned as of late. These men attempt to gain the respect of other men by portraying themselves as hypermasculine beings, believing they gain more male power and dominance in this world by adhering to strict gender roles. And they seemingly get this power in a “who can be the biggest misogynist” contest. They feel that the more they demean women, the more respect they get.
Tate and similar podcasters tend to do everything in their power to demean women, in both big and small ways. The small acts manifest themselves in these “alpha males” perennially referring to women as “females.” The term “female” refers to the biological, whereas “woman” is a more holistic term referring to the whole human being. While this may seem like a small change in vocabulary, it’s an intentional usage of a term aimed to reduce women into what many men want them to be: a vessel for men to use without human thoughts or feelings of their own (very dystopian and “Handmaid’s Tale”-esque, I know).
However, the big acts are Tate’s beliefs that women are men’s property and shouldn’t be able to drive, his support of domestic abuse towards women and his victim-blaming of sexual assault victims, among many other beliefs. Last year, Tate was charged in Romania with rape and human trafficking, proving that his misogynistic beliefs manifest themselves in real-life harm.
Not only is this rhetoric in and of itself dangerous and disgusting, but it also has real-life impacts on the impressionable minds of young boys. Andrew Tate lures people in by promoting a lavish lifestyle of boats, women, alcohol and strength and keeps these audiences through his misogynistic rhetoric. Young boys who see and admire this lifestyle believe that they too can live this life by adhering to Tate’s belief system.
Because Tate not only posts his “motivational speeches” sprinkled with misogyny to Spotify but is often featured in other famous “alpha male” creators’ YouTube content, such as George Janko, and viral TikTok clips, he continuously gets more exposure. It means that young boys can’t escape the frightening and traditionalist rhetoric he pushes.
New studies have found that the increasing legions of “podcast bros” have had actual effects on the ways young boys treat women.
A Vodafone study found that, since Tate and other similar “alpha male” content creators rose to social media prominence, 70% of teachers reported a rise in the use of misogynistic language, mirroring that used by Andrew Tate, in their classroom over the past year, with one in five parents claiming the language their sons use to describe women and girls have gradually and negatively changed.
Furthermore, a study from Ipsos and King’s College London has found that one in five men aged 16 to 29 in the U.K. look favorably upon Andrew Tate, even after his charges of rape and sex trafficking were made public.
It’s incredibly scary that many young men don’t seem to care about the serious accusations levied against Tate, and they still feel the need to follow in his hypermasculine footsteps.
This issue stems from the fact that young boys consistently feel pressure to adhere to toxic masculine standards enforced by the patriarchy. They feel like the only way to fit in, to be “one of the boys,” is to follow the norms set by people who portray themselves as the epitome of masculinity.
Tate also spreads the rhetoric that people who don’t have a similar lifestyle are “pussies” and “lazy.” And — unfortunately — to many young boys, being called a “pussy” is the worst thing that could happen, as they view the connection to female anatomy as an attack on their male identity.
The question is, how do we change the way people view Tate if even his criminal charges can’t? The main solution is to change the way young boys view themselves. We should reassure young men that it’s okay to be purely and utterly themselves, rather than a carbon copy of another. We, as a society, should aim to redefine what masculinity is, so young men don’t get sucked into false lifestyles and pretenses of what it is to be a man.
If we start reassuring young men that the standard Tate has set should not be the standard for life, maybe they’ll begin to see that Andrew Tate isn’t some cool “alpha male,” but rather, an insecure man who takes out his insecurities on the women around him.
