Is it all over for Andrew Tate? On Monday, Tate and his brother were detained in Romania and handed an arrest warrant by UK authorities. The allegation is “sexual aggression”, in a case that dates back to 2012.
The two have rejected the charges but this is just one more addition to their pile of legal problems — in December 2022 Tate was arrested in Romania over allegations of rape and human trafficking. Tate denies these too. We do not know the specifics of the charges and it will be for the courts to decide whether he is guilty of them.
Tate hints at reform — the man who once proudly declared himself a misogynist now says he isn’t — but I suspect that the repeated blows to his reputation could be now pretty much fatal. The source of Tate’s glamour and appeal, of course, is the idea he is a supremely successful kind of man, and that other men can follow in his footsteps. Complete a few simple steps, and you too can end up living in a mansion with scores of submissive and attractive young women at your disposal.
But now that Tate’s story includes handcuffs and unflattering mugshots, his product could be dented. Concerned parents and teachers now have a nice morality tale to tell Tate’s young male fans who want to know how they can make money and get girls to like them.
Tate has said rape victims must “bear responsibility” for their attacks, that he dates women aged 18 because he can “make an imprint” on them, and has acted out the violent way he would respond if a woman accused him of cheating. “It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Shut up bitch,” he said in one video. This is where misogyny leads, teachers and parents can say. These sorts of ideas about women can take you directly to a police station.
These slightly cuddlier versions of Tate — unlikely to be carted off by police — are everywhere.
Andrew Tate’s story does indeed have a feeling of inevitability to it. Misogynistic beliefs do link strongly to violence against women. But I worry that a focus on Tate — rather than the scores of influencers like him — could now make us complacent. The name Andrew Tate has become synonymous with an online industry of toxic anti-woman advice — sometimes known as the manosphere — but he is not the only influencer of his type, just the most well known.
Not every online entrepreneur spouting this credo will also be accused of sex trafficking. The law won’t step in to save us from every misogynistic influencer.
Tate may be on the wane, but the section of the internet formed partly in his image is not. Tate’s huge and sudden fame demonstrated to millions just how lucrative his approach could be. There is for example the Fresh and Fit podcast, hosted by Why Women Deserve Less author Myron Gaines and lifestyle coach Walter Weekes, which has more than one million subscribers on YouTube, regularly viral, and frequently demeaning to women. In one clip, the hosts say that for women in relationships having an Instagram account is tantamount to cheating. In another, they say they refuse to date black women.
A recent Mail Online report also dredged up YouTuber Hamza Ahmed, who has 1.5 million subscribers. In one video he says: “The most common dark desire is of total f***ing dominance over women.” Another influencer, Connor Prankerd, runs an online dating course estimated by TikTok to have made some £9.9 billion in advertising revenue in 2022. In one video, he says,“women are a by-product of your success”. In a second, he tells viewers: “When you are dealing with women, make sure that they are not trying to run the show. Just don’t let it happen. Because as soon as you let it happen, it’s over.”
These slightly cuddlier versions of Tate — unlikely to be carted off by police — are everywhere. The wiser among them will know to stay within the parameters of legal behaviour. It won’t stop the spread of misogyny. Relative to many other parts of the world, Britain is not sexist, but influencers like Tate show how these feelings can be manufactured and magnified. Stirring up resentment among men against women seems to be a lucrative business.
Parents and teachers may cheer at Tate’s most recent arrest. They may soon see their young male charges lose interest in the troubled celebrity. But that doesn’t mean the problem is over.
