‘Andrew Tate is thought to influence young, vulnerable minds – but do teenagers truly follow his example?’ by Lewis Hodson and Aaliyah Taylor

Emory Andrew Tate III, born December 1st, 1986, was a professional kickboxer and is now a social media star. His sudden growth in fame came due to his misogynistic comments on social media, which led to him being banned on multiple platforms.

These ideologies first came to light in 2016 while he was on Big Brother, making many sexist and homophobic remarks. He was even seen beating a woman with a belt, which lead him to be banned from the show after only six days.

Many teens came across Andrew Tate after the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, who reinstated Tate’s formerly banned Twitter account. Once reinstated, Tate tweeted “Mastery is a funny thing. It’s almost as if, on a long enough time scale, losing simply isn’t an option. Such is the way of Wudan.”

Not only Twitter, but also TikTok, helped spread Andrew Tate’s views, encouraging his followers to agree and view the world through a different lens. Tate calls this ‘escaping the matrix’.

Women are often the topic of Tate’s social media posts. In his sexist tropes, Tate dehumanises and infantilises women, claiming that they are less than human: “You can’t be responsible for something that doesn’t listen to you. You can’t be responsible for a dog that doesn’t obey you, or a child if it doesn’t obey you, or a woman that doesn’t obey you” This caused a stir in the media, with headlines all around the world warning parents and teachers about Tate’s influence.

However, no one took the time to consider a student’s point of view, so we took matters into our own hands.

Our college holds approximately 1,600 students and we interviewed just under 50. Strong opinions about Tate were expressed on both sides.

Almost half of those we spoke to decided that Andrew Tate’s ‘persuasive’ ideology was a disgrace to the human race. People criticised him for making vulgar comments about women, how they should be treated and how they should be viewed from a male perspective. It was mostly girls, women and and members of the LGBTQ+ community who expressed their strong disagreement

with Tate – this is understandable as his words announced publicly are inexcusable and clearly targeted to belittle anyone but a male.

However, it seems that many boys and men agree with his views. Some students in our college seem to support his misogynistic beliefs. He portrays a lavish lifestyle, influencing young men to buy into his toxic masculinity and it this is a cause for concern for our future.

It is clear Andrew Tate has affected society, but is it possible for us to prevent this going further?