Do the effects of Andrew Tate on young boys need to be taken more seriously?Andrew Tate has fairly recently grown a wide amount of popularity due to his misogynistic views and specifically the effect it is having on young boys with access to his content.
Andrew Tate is a 35-year-old former kickboxer, born in America, who later moved to Luton, England as a child. Tate first came under scrutiny in 2016 when he was doing a guest appearance on big brother and some racist and homophobic tweets came to light. Since then, his social media presence has arguably become more and more toxic with quotes such as: “How are women allowed to drive?’ How? A man is good enough at driving to know he’s not a good driver, but women are such bad drivers they genuinely think they’re okay drivers.” and “If I had a woman I would decide not to cheat because I decide. However, I would not see my infidelity as nearly anywhere near even 1% as disgusting as female infidelity.”
These quotes are clearly harmful towards women for many reasons, however the effect it has on impressionable young boys is evidently much more harmful. Satire or not, the online discourse surrounding Andrew Tate has led to a lot of younger boys engaging in disrespectful mannerisms towards women.
When speaking to boys from the single sex school in Sleaford I uncovered some shocking facts involving Tate’s influence on young boys. When being interviewed, 16-year-old boys from said school stated that the influence of Andrew Tate and his misogyny is prominent in the all-boys school, specifically towards the lower years more than ever before.
“I don’t know if it’s a joke or not, but I do hear a lot of Andrew Tate quoted by a lot of year 8s.” To put this into perspective, year 8s in England are between the ages of 12-13. That means 12- and 13-year-olds are referencing quotes like the ones mentioned above. When asked why they believed it to be more prevalent in the younger years one boy stated that he thought it was because “they’re more impressionable.”
Many fans argue that what Andrew Tate is saying is clearly satire and taken out of context however when you are young and ‘impressionable’ it is hard to tell what is ‘satire’ and what is meant to be taken quite literally and when his takes are as harmful as they are (joke or not) things can become toxic- especially in a generation of kids that are so chronically online.
By Kiera Jade Yr12
Carres Grammar School, Sleaford