Women manipulating men for a more comfortable life (or even just to survive) is as old as patriarchy itself, being born from the disparity between men and women’s relative positions in society (‘The female Andrew Tate’: the new influencer dating doctrine is extreme – but I can see why it’s popular, 9 August). SheraSeven’s “dating doctrine” is apparently gaining popularity, and both the subject of this article and its writer, Kimberly McIntosh, rightly identify gendered power as relevant context. Men hold more privilege, money, status and agency. Women are perpetually required to adapt to and/or resist this oppression. Here, the focus is on heterosexual relationships. But there is a more sinister undercurrent that McIntosh fails to address.
I found it jarring that the article said SheraSeven had often been described as “the female Andrew Tate”. Although it said this description was used “half‑jokingly”, this nevertheless gives a dangerously misleading impression that an equivalence between SheraSeven and Tate is in some way possible – it is not. Misandry (and actually I saw none of this in SheraSeven’s views) and misogyny are not some kind of gender-swap equivalents. Violent misogyny is actively expressed in every corner of society every day – women are beaten, murdered and raped with impunity – and this is the context for Tate’s vile fame.
