Controversial influencer Andrew Tate will be in a Romanian jail for another month. Tate and his brother, Tristan, were arrested in Bucharest in December 2022 on suspicion of “human trafficking, rape, and forming an organized crime group to exploit victims.“
The Tate brothers’ spokesman said “their image has been irreparably harmed and it will take years to rebuild the reputation, trust, and connection with the general public.”
Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid thinks Tate’s image is part of the problem. As Reid argues, Andrew Tate is appealing to certain young men looking through social media and searching for an identity, but misogynistic influencers like Tate pose a real danger that parents need to guard against with vigilance.
So who is Andrew Tate? He is a British American media personality who defies neat description but can comfortably be called violently misogynistic and a perpetrator of damaging stereotypes having to do with what it means to be a man.
He first found fame on Big Brother, where all the towering intellects of our time come from. And then he was removed from the show after the release of footage that appeared to show him attacking a woman. He’s sort of known for kickboxing, but he’s mostly made his name running a cam girl business. This is where he and his associates get their girlfriends and other women to perform sexual acts on webcams for money. He has described women as “intrinsically lazy” and said there was no such thing as an independent female, in addition to holding that women bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted. He is charming.
He also got into a very public altercation with [Greta] Thunberg and I think she won this one in a fairly awesome manner because it resulted in his arrest. She is magical.
From what I can see, here’s why Tate is so compelling to young men. I think we can all agree that many, if not most of them, are undergoing an identity crisis. They’re being told to be quiet, let women speak. They’re being told not to do things that probably haven’t even occurred to them yet. Yes, it is a crucial cultural shift. It’s vital, but I also get why it’s disorienting and distressing for young men, especially if they don’t have adults guiding them through this emotional minefield.