Schools across the UK started encountering increasing numbers of parents worried about the influence of Andrew Tate and pupils who admire him. Tate, is a former kickboxer, and has millions of followers online - he has been banned from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for his misogynistic comments.
Tate is currently in police custody in Romania on charges of organised crime, human trafficking and rape. Tate denies any wrongdoing. He still has plenty of supporters and his videos have been watched over 11 billion times.
I felt it was important to investigate. Was it his success and his rich lifestyle that boys were attracted to, or was it what he says, specifically about women, that they agree with? I wanted to know why young boys and men were looking up to someone like him. Teachers had to work out how to respond to playground arguments, and other increasing incidents around misogyny.
One school in West London, who wants to remain anonymous, felt that a whole school assembly was necessary and enforced a ban on 2 words, Andrew Tate. Another school sent out a letter to parents and introduced the topic during lessons on a PowerPoint presentation.
Stories like his demonstrate just how successfully social media and its algorithms can promote controversial and hateful narratives. And I wanted to find out first-hand what men thought about him.
I was left feeling that perceived inclusivity was part of the wider problem, where a lot of men don't feel like they have 'masculine' role models who they can look up to, or more importantly, the influence of the feminist MeToo movement has some men needing to find their voice in the gender-equality conversation.
