Why do millions of men admire internet womanizer Andrew Tate?

In addition to espousing motivational messages about fitness and financial well-being, controversial influencer Andrew Tate is also a self-described misogynist who advocates male supremacy and celebrates violence against women. Although banned on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, he has gained a large online following with fan-posted videos garnering millions of views and shares. He has more than 4 million followers on Twitter.

The 36-year-old American-born, British-raised former kickboxing champion was arrested on December 29 in Bucharest, Romania, on charges of rape and human trafficking. Tate hired 75 women in webcam business; some accused her of arresting her and forcing her to do sex work. Many fans are expressing their support for him for his miserable situation, argued that Tate was a positive force on men and that the Romanian government was trying to silence her for telling the truth. Tate encouraged this idea. “The Matrix attacked me,” he was heard telling cameras as he was led away in handcuffs, and he tweeted, “It seems that great revolutionaries of every generation suffer from unjust imprisonment.”

Tate is just one of the many figures who make up the “manosphere,” an Internet ecosystem that combines self-improvement advice with casual and sometimes violent misogyny. Robert Lawson is Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics at Birmingham City University, UK, and author of a forthcoming book Language and Mediated Masculinities, explores how men interact with each other online. spoke Today, explain‘s Noel King on why Tate appeals to some misogynist men today.

Below is an excerpt from the conversation between Lawson and King, edited for length and clarity. There’s more in the full podcast, so give it a listen Today, explain including where you get your podcasts from Apple podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotifyand Seamstress.

Noel King

When did you become aware of Andrew Tate? Do you remember when this person crossed your radar?

Robert Lawson

I am interested in language and masculinity, especially media spaces. Unfortunately, due to my own research, I have to spend time on the less enjoyable, less pleasant parts of the internet. So I’m going to manosphere subreddits, manosphere blogs, forums, etc. I spend time trying to understand how masculinity is configured and understood in these places. I think Tate first appeared in one of those attacks, and it would probably have been something to do with the Jordan Peterson video or the Ben Shapiro video or the Steven Crowder video. This is what is sometimes called the “intellectual dark web.” YouTube’s algorithms put it on my front page.

From there, what the YouTube algorithms and many other social media sites do: They start serving you more of the same content. The idea is to increase engagement and specifically increase ad views. This becomes a really dangerous path from a form of content that can seem harmless enough to potentially more extremist and more radical content.

I wondered why this man was so popular. What is he selling that people are buying? If you go to any of her YouTube videos and read the comments below the video, almost all of them are positive, praising Tete for how insightful, courageous and inspiring she is. There are very few distinct voices in these YouTube comments.

Noel King

Talk to me about where your mind goes when listening to Andrew Tate: This man appeals to millions of people – why?

Robert Lawson

I think he is so attractive to such a large audience because the image of masculinity he sells is so rooted in traditional masculine traits. He has a very high opinion of the alpha male, the one in control, the one who always knows what he’s doing, the one who always gets what he wants, the one everyone expects. [on] hand and foot to them, and this opinion he is infallible. I think some men might find this a particularly attractive feature, but it’s also big on conspicuous consumption. He lives a very reactive lifestyle: fast cars, private jets, mansions, expensive vacations far away.

And then he has a really traditional and, I think, antiquated view of what relationships should be and what the role of men and women should be in those relationships: The man is not only the protector, but also the patriarch, the provider. It’s either his way or the highway; Women are only there to take care of the house, take care of the children, and really serve the relationship. I think my immediate reaction was probably sadness that this was the image of masculinity being sold.

Noel King

In the society we live in in 2023, what makes Andrew Tate acceptable and attractive to millions of men?

Robert Lawson

One of the best accounts I’ve read, especially of young men finding this expression of masculinity, and someone like Tate championing it, is Michael Kimmel’s idea of ​​victim rights. It is based on the idea that the world has changed over the past 20 to 30 years in a way that predominantly young, white men have been marginalized and moved from the center of society to the margins of society.

Someone like Tate is fascinating because he presents young white men really openly and very openly and basically says, “You are important, you are needed, your masculinity is needed to fight against all the changes that are happening in the world. the world. The world is no longer for you, or it doesn’t want to invest in you.” Women are no longer financially or emotionally dependent on men. Someone like Tate is basically saying that we’re going to fight back by reclaiming this primal, traditional sense of masculinity. And it’s a story that even goes back to the 1980s.

In some ways, much of what Tate says is not really new. This was done in the 1970s, in the 1980s by Robert Bly and others. is a re-expression of the crisis of masculinity discourse that we saw through the men’s movement led by people like from fixing the world. He is just another entry in a long line of other men who have done something similar.

Noel King

Does your research tell us anything about whether these young people who were influenced or seduced by Andrew Tate were fundamentally hateful people? Are they fundamentally misogynistic, or are they sycophantic youths taken for a ride by a misogynistic con artist?

Robert Lawson

Someone like Tate is trying to normalize misogynists. He finds it socially acceptable. He concludes it with a speech of rationality: “This is the way the world is. This is the case with people.” I don’t think the men who engage in this content are fundamentally misogynists. Maybe by re-engaging with his content, posting about it on forums or Twitter or YouTube comments or whatever, they can be directed to those positions. But that’s what a lot of radicalization looks like: taking someone from a position and gradually working their way through that radicalization, where views that initially seem extreme become normalized.

Noel King

So the question is, if not Andrew Tate, then what? We want to do better than this person. If young men want optimism and strength, if they want to focus on men’s issues, if we can call them that, but where should they go without misogyny, without misogyny?

Robert Lawson

So the first thing I would say is that young men should not look at their social media personalities as being masculine. They are better off looking to their local communities, families, and friendship networks to emulate the masculinities they find supportive, nurturing, and healthy. Places like community groups are really important places for young men to meet other men that they can look up to and mentor them. For young men who are really struggling with their sense of masculinity and what it means to be a man, things like counseling can be really helpful, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with seeking out those forms of support.

When it comes to the manosphere, I have hopes—not great hopes, but some hopes—of what a more progressive manosphere might look like, one free of the misogynistic and anti-feminist positions we see in many manosphere spaces. Whether this will be realistic is an open question. But Tate is selling me a really romanticized and pretty superficial idea of ​​what it is to be a man. I know many men. I don’t know anyone who acts, talks or behaves like Andrew Tate. Tate is the epitome of Hollywood masculinity, but it’s as deep as a pond. There is no substance. The men I looked up to—people like my dad, my teachers at school, my teachers when I was in my youth groups—these are the men who taught me the greatest lessons of my life. These are the men I will continue to watch and learn from. And there are men out there that other young men aspire to be like, to look up to, to learn from, and to be guided by. But I don’t think Andrew Tate is the person we should be putting on the podium.