OPINION A TOXIC CULTURE

Hypermasculinity

Andrew Tate's reach

Though Andrew tate has been locked out of much of social media, his clips still circulate online, and educators say his influence on teenagers is concerning

Fans still spread message

Despite being arrested on charges of rape and human trafficking in December, his influence has not waned, and his fans continue to share his videos on social media.

Preteens mimic his rhetoric

Experts say that preteen boys are particularly susceptible to his toxic masculinity and that they are copying his offensive, violent rhetoric in classrooms.

Teachers have observed a disturbing increase in misogynistic language, including rape jokes.

— Sources: Education Week, The Social Institute

School Culture

RYAN WALTERS Staff Writer

The arrest in December 2022 of Andrew Tate, the poster man for hyper-masculinity, aroused mass polarization on social media, as comment sections were rich in people preaching terms such as “Free Tate” or “Innocent until proven guilty."

Even before the arrest of Tate, when he truly boomed in late 2022 in the school atmosphere, I noticed a deep transformation among my male colleagues..

Students would be watching his videos during class, during breaks in huddles of people cheering and praising in a trance-like state to everything he said, especially when it came to when he talked about how teenage girls would act.

Tate had been too powerful of an influence on these boys.

When a well-known celebrity would be accused of sexual assault or rape, Tate would be quick to defend the side of the oppressor. Instead of ridiculing those for committing these actions, like these same boys would have done five years ago, they’re now dismissing and even praising these men for fitting Tate’s ideal of a “man’s man,” where they should be able to “control their woman.”

What was especially alarming to me is that some thousands of comments on a post, made by @rap on Instagram which covered his initial arrest, were voicing these things despite Tate and his brother Tristan being arrested on the premises of human trafficking and the rape of potentially multiple women in Romania.

On average, according to the Department of Justice, while the rate of violent victimization crimes has decreased significantly since 1993, just over 1% of sexual assault and rape cases actually end up in the conviction of the oppressors.

Tate rose to fame on Tiktok and Instagram in late 2022 following a stint on Big Brother UK in 2016, where he was kicked off the show after physically assaulting a woman contestant with a belt, which gave some sort of evidence to point that he could have very well been capable of committing actions such as human trafficking or rape.

Further evidence to back this up can be found diving into some of the things he has actually