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“What color is your Bugatti?” is the slogan of Andrew Tate’s followers. They say Tate’s exposing the “matrix,” teaching men how to live the real life they were destined for—full of girls, sex, cars, and money. Whether Andrew Tate is merely a fad or, as his followers call him, the “Top G,” his influence is undeniable and unavoidable. In just the past year, Andrew Tate conquered the internet, becoming one of the most googled people in the world and racking up billions upon billions of views on social media, exerting an influence on men and, in particular, young boys.
Tate’s initial fame came as a kickboxing world champion, star on the British reality TV show Big Brother, and son of chess International Master Emory Tate. It wasn’t until 2022, however, that Tate would rise to his current level of infamy. But faster than his rise on the internet, Tate was snuffed out and labeled as a violent, radical, misogynist, and even “the scariest man on the internet,” for his statements in his viral online content. Tate’s videos were banned from YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, but wherever they have tried to ban him, he reemerged like a weed, or maybe worse, like an ancient Greek Hydra which grows two heads for every head that’s chopped off.
In December of 2022, the Romanian government detained Tate and his brother on charges of rape, human trafficking, and organized crime, and they have extended his detention for a third time now. But after his detention and ban from social media, Tate’s followers took up his mantle, reposting his video clips and garnering numerous more views. He’s had such a gripping influence on young boys that teachers in the UK created “reeducation” programs for their students “radicalized” by Tate’s supposed “brainwashing.” But are men and young boys actually flocking to Andrew Tate because he is a violent, radical misogynist?
Western society degraded masculinity and the role of men and instead moved to push woke gender ideologies on its youth while advocating for progressive forms of “sex work.” Andrew Tate is merely the byproduct of these new standards. He is the figure that men and young boys will turn to when society destroys the proper masculine role model that young men need; he is the Frankenstein created by the left’s ideologies.
It is important to establish that Andrew Tate is a misogynist, objectifies women, and is a terrible role model for young men, and it is quite obvious. Many on the left make the same claims, pointing to his viral internet clips. Short TikToks are one thing, but they often refuse to address Tate’s worst and most blatant form of misogyny: his porn empire.
In March 2022, The Mirror reported that part of the Tate brother’s multi-million dollar fortune was earned through an adult webcam business. The brothers admit that their webcam business—in which they had organized 75 women to exploit themselves online—was a complete scam. They organized women to sell their bodies online to desperate men, telling fake “sob stories” and raking in thousands from sympathetic men. Tate scammed the very men he promised to help—desperate loners.
This is Tate’s clearest example of misogyny: he is a man who exploits women through objectifying their bodies and selling them online. He profits from many of the same men he claims to help. For many, however, this isn’t what makes Tate a misogynist... it’s just another form of “sex work.” It is the movement to decriminalize sex work that allowed Tate to build this multi-million business and online empire without facing the criticism it deserves.
So if Tate is a misogynist, as both his videos and actions do prove, why are young men flocking to him? While Tate’s media attention is centered on his most inflammatory video clips, I spent the last month watching Tate’s videos, trying to find what it is that his followers actually watch (unfortunately polluting my Instagram feed with too many Tate videos in the process).
Tate’s message to young men is more than anti-woman rhetoric emblematic of the “scariest man on the internet.” His message encourages them to break free from the monotonous lives they live addicted to social media and complacency. He encourages them to go to the gym, wake up early, stop vaping, build friendships, work hard, and make a successful living, many good things. In short, he promotes traditional masculine roles. But for many, this message is just “toxic masculinity.”
There’s an undeniable crisis, an identity crisis, among teenagers. A recent CDC report discovered that an enormous 30% of teenage girls have seriously considered suicide, and nearly 60% “experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.” There is a very similar crisis among men. They are also lost and aimless—and often ignored—searching for something to fulfill them. Andrew Tate is filling that void.
Currently neither society nor schools teach young men the values of hard work, discipline, sacrifice, the importance of character, what it looks like to truly respect women, and the importance of their role in raising and caring for a family. They are instead taught to follow their feelings, wherever their feelings may lead. They are indoctrinated with woke gender ideologies in their schools and taught to suppress many of their natural traits that make them men, discombobulating their identity and stripping them of their moral compasses.
When the proper male role model is removed from families and schools, Andrew Tate will unsurprisingly fill the void as the figure young men will turn to. Tate is deeply flawed—but so am I and any other masculine role model. True masculinity must model grace and humility. The real problem is not Andrew Tate’s rhetoric, it’s the conditions that led to Andrew Tate becoming “Andrew Tate.”
