Andrew Tate, Conservatism, and the “Death” of Masculinity
Image of Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer with a history of domestic violence.(Supplied: Andrew Tate)
Andrew Tate is a controversial figure who has been in the news a lot lately, for a multitude of reasons ranging from the heinous to the hateful. Along with this media attention, many questions follow: Who is he? What does he do? What does he represent? And most importantly, why is he so damn popular? Due to his immense following, we need to understand what he truly represents to a lot of people, those who dislike him and those who idolize him.
Andrew Tate’s Arrest
Andrew Tate has been in the news most recently due to his arrest in Romania. Tate, a US and UK citizen, was arrested on rape, kidnapping, and human trafficking charges. These charges had been thoroughly investigated by Romanian authorities, who apprehended him after he returned to the country at the end of December.
He was arrested for allegedly coercing women into his pornographic cam business, and then forcing them either by manipulation or financial guilt to stay and continue producing content that he made a vast majority of the money from. In this business, he allegedly manipulates women into doing live cam pornography, accepting tips from viewers. These women were victims of violence and sexual manipulation as well as being surveilled continuously through cameras in the house and monitoring internet activity. These horrible acts were bragged about by Tate on podcasts he was a part of.
He has admitted to these crimes, including coercion, assault, and money laundering all live on air, for all to hear. That included authorities. Authorities who were clued in by Tate’s own social media posts, which let them know he was in Romania.
Andrew Tate was detained with his brother, Tristan, after having his house raided in the Romanian capital. Credit: Reuters
Who is Andrew Tate?
Andrew Tate is a former kickboxer and reality TV star, who runs podcasts and other internet media. In his content, he talks about how to get girls, how to be a man, and promotes his various cryptocurrency scams. He has gained a massive following doing this, and has forced his way into mainstream culture. He has gained most of his followers from his over-the-top, misogynistic content that sees him flexing his wealth, cars, and women, all while proclaiming to “teach” his followers how to follow in his footsteps.
He has proclaimed himself the “king of toxic masculinity,” among other misogynistic titles. But why should we care about Andrew Tate? We know he did some incredibly awful things to get arrested, but why care? Because of his influence and his platform. Tate had over four million followers on both Twitter and Instagram before being banned off those sites. On Tiktok, Tate had an army of fans reposting his videos under new accounts with fake hashtags to artificially make them viral. The #AndrewTate has been viewed an astounding 12.7 billion times on Tiktok alone. On Youtube, through multiple channels both owned by him and otherwise, has garnered millions upon millions of views. All of this is to say that he has an incredible social media reach, with millions of young male fans who idolize him. Despite his growing virality, all of the aforementioned sites have banned Tate. This has helped deplatform him to a degree, though it does nothing to help the thousands of brand new accounts posting his old clips. He has since been reinstated on Twitter by Elon Musk, the site which he was first banned on for saying that rape victims “bear some responsibility” for what happened to them.
He has created a cult-like following behind himself unlike any other celebrity. An army of vile teenagers full to the brim with misogynistic ideas and culture war narratives. They defend him at any cost, no matter the vile things he says. They see him as almost this hypermasculine deity that they must take orders from and organize their life around. This legion of 15 year olds has become an unavoidable part of internet culture in the last year. I personally have seen them in the comment sections of countless posts, arguing that there is some sort of “anti-man” sentiment, or outright arguing that misogyny is justified.
Andrew Tate is the kind of guy who revels in this attention. It fuels him. Negative or positive, he thrives off of it.
How Does Tate Relate?
Andrew Tate is a lot more important than he should be. This fame-obsessed, car-obsessed, self-obsessed, evil, misogynist has a large role to play. He represents the toxic and repressive masculinity that is pervasive in conservative circles. He represents old world ideologies on gender, sex, and plainly how to be a good person. It must be continuously stated: Andrew Tate is not alone in his ideology. He is one of millions upon millions of men who believe the things he espouses, whether they claim it or not. His ideas are not always his own, and that fact must be stated upfront.
Tate is a manifestation of old culture war narratives and conservative talking points surrounding gender. His opinions on women, sexual assault, and the place of men in the world has affected millions, all while being incredibly outdated and vile. He has stated on numerous occasions that rape victims are at fault for their assault, and that they bear some responsibility. This insane, terrible idea was fed by these culture war narratives where women and non-men are placed as this sort of enemy that is always wrong. It is a response to feminism and it is horrible. On multiple occasions, Tate has espoused the idea that men are not only superior to women, but that women themselves are always lesser no matter where they are in life personally or socioeconomically.
Conservatives, especially recently, have preached the word of masculinity and its necessity in society. They have claimed male superiority for years including claiming that a woman cannot be fit to be president due to…hormones? Through all of their nonsense about women being lesser or men having to be a certain way to be considered men, one continuous idea rings through: This is what nature/God wants. They say that whether through divine will, or by mother nature’s ordinance, men are meant to be in charge and solely meant to lead. This unfounded idea is one that permeates itself through so many other narratives surrounding gender, sex, and society.
There is this idea within ideologically conservative circles that men have to be emotionless providers. They have to be these stoic breadwinners in order for their family and society at large to function. That is simply not true. Men are not made to be emotionless, and in this late stage of capitalism, it is impossible for most households to have one single breadwinner. Men are continuously being told by society, and people like Andrew Tate, that they have to be this model stoic breadwinner, but that is simply unachievable for most.
Specific Narratives Surrounding Masculinity
According to conservative masculinity, men are intended to be emotionless. They say that this benefits men in keeping them focused on goals such as money and power. These goals eventually better their family unit and then society eventually. This is bogus. There is no concrete positive result of being a stoic stone block as a man. Instead, there are plenty of negatives.
It should be noted that this masculinity, one that is present in so many of men, politically conservative or otherwise, is rooted not in the merits of masculinity, but in an opposition to femininity. Men are “meant to be” stoic breadwinners unlike women who are caretakers and homemakers.
Growing up, young boys are taught many things about who they are, including that it is shameful to be seen as girl-adjacent. This idea sticks with most men for the rest of their lives. Women are lesser, and it is shameful to act like one, or be in proximity to one that you are not actively pursuing. This insane idea is a staple of conservative masculinity and has branched its way into so many other aspects of society that masculinity itself has become solely a rejection of femininity. Due to these conservative ideas on masculinity, it has died. It is no longer the masculinity of old, it has become a corpse of hatred and violence. Rooting masculinity as a rejection to femininity is what has resulted in these ideas of stoicism being so ubiquitous across men in America, specifically.
Negative Effects of Conservative Masculinity
Toxic masculinity is a term that has been thrown around a lot lately, and only sometimes with accuracy. It is a hostility to femininity, it is a rejection of emotion, and it is a promotion of violence. There are many ideas that can be conflated to toxic masculinity, but in its definition there must be emphasis on the violence and the hostility to femininity. Regardless of how it's employed, the impact of toxic masculinity is felt worldwide in patriarchal systems. Not only is it explicitly violent towards women, it is inherently harmful to all men, despite the masculinity they may possess.
Toxic masculinity is not the same as conservative masculinity, but they are extremely similar with a lot of overlap. They overlap in the way that they reject emotion and prioritize masculinity over femininity as a sort of competition. Among their differences is the emphasis on socioeconomic placement. Toxic masculinity does not care about the socioeconomic place of either the perpetrator or the victim, whereas conservative masculinity places a lot of emphasis on how wealthy the perpetrator is, using their socioeconomic status as a catalyst for their actions. To sum it up, the richer the man is, the more patriarchal he can be.
One of the most impactful end results of toxic masculinity and conservative masculinity is suicide rates. Men commit suicide at a rate that is 3.88 times that of women. This astronomical difference is the result of years and years of indoctrination into a masculinity that is founded upon economic success, rejection of femininity, and an encouragement of violence. Men who feel that they can’t live up to certain ideals of “manhood” take their own lives as a solution. This horrific and terrible reality is one that was forged by years and years of toxic and conservative masculine ideals, pounded into the minds of men across this country. These ideas are not some ethereal force that just so happens to affect men, they are real thoughts that are taught on purpose in order to prolong the effectiveness of the patriarchy.
Another direct result of toxic masculinity is intimate partner violence. Men are significantly more likely to perpetrate intimate partner violence (SOURCE). This violence is not only allowed by the patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity, but is directly encouraged by it. Intimate partner violence perpetrated by men is something that is built into the system of masculinity that we live in. This sad reality is one that is proof that not only does masculinity harm men, it causes harm to those around men, and those who are attracted to men. This violence is endorsed by the patriarchy, and is the reason for deaths, suicides, and hospitalizations all across the country.
These effects are felt all around the country, whether it is known or not. Toxic and conservative masculinity continue to perpetuate themselves, and that results in violence, suicides, and whole generations of men lost in the chaos.
What Is To Be Done?
The content that he has produced must also be erased. In all its forms, from video to text, he must be erased in order to curb his influence. There must be systematic erasure of content produced by him, and this effort has to be demanded by people, and enacted by the tech companies that profit off of his engagement. These companies are culpable in his influence, having not shut him down earlier. This is not a free speech issue, because what Tate and his lackeys spew is hate speech. Hate speech must be stopped at every level, and tech companies that allow it on their website have to be held responsible.
One of the key ways that the influence of people like Tate can be curbed is by systematically replatforming them and their copycat accounts. His follower count slowed dramatically once he was removed from social media sites, which serves as proof that deplatforming truly does work. As well as Tate’s own personal accounts, his copycat accounts made by fans must also be deplatformed and erased for distributing his content. His loyal fanbase of reposters has kept his misogynistic spirit alive.
As well as his content, his followers have to be monitored for their own activity that may mirror Tate’s. They admire Tate and want to emulate him, which means they may spew the same rhetoric all across the internet, which is still hate speech, even if it is not their own words. Their hate speech, which is in the name of Tate, must be curbed and silenced, or else it breeds more misogynistic, bigoted assholes.
A Message of Positive Masculinity
But there is hope. It’ll take a lot of effort, but masculinity can change for the better.
Masculinity is not some hard nosed, stoic, lack of expression, but instead can be a tool for love and acceptance. It’s hard to imagine, but I feel as though there can be kindness in masculinity. There is the kind of masculine love brothers feel, or the way men love their friends, whether they say love or not. It’s in the way they love each other that the key to saving masculinity is found.
There is also room for self expression and the expression of emotions in masculinity that is being repressed. Men do not have to be stoic and unemotional for any reason. It is unhealthy and it is killing us. Expressing those emotions, no matter how hard, is good for mental health and good for the soul. Men often don’t express emotions for fear of rejection from potential partners, but in at least my own personal experience, my own emotions have only drawn me closer to my partner. There is room for emotion in masculinity. It just has to be found and expressed.
Men are killing themselves at a rate that is continuously increasing. Tate and his fellow Manosphere talking heads would have you believe that this is the fault of women “not needing” men anymore, but this is false. The reason for all of the strife men feel in regards to masculinity is a lack of positivity or acceptance.
Edited by Joshua Smith and Abigail Loomis