Inside the World of Andrew Tate
Who is Andrew Tate? The guy taking over the internet
A flood of mixed emotions rush over me as I talk about Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate. There is so much I’d like to discuss and open up about my views about him, so let’s start here. Andrew along with his brother, Tristan, started as kick-boxers whom then shifted into controversial online influencers that have since been called sexists, misogynists and racists due to things that he has said in the past and continues to say them now. But is he really the villain that he seems to be? Is he poisoning the youth for what he’s said? And what do I think along with other teenagers think, being a girl and teenager myself? Let’s break down what he’s been accused of so far.
“He’s a misogynist.”
The main source where people find Andrew Tate’s controversial tapes are from him attending different podcasts and putting out very extreme and over-the-top statements. Take, his views on women for example, he’s said in the past that “women are men’s properties” and “women can’t cheat, but men can, and still come home to the same woman”. In the world that it is today, it’s easy to see why people feel so strongly about his content. It’s arrogant, disrespectful and downright rude. Not to mention that after watching a 20-minute section of one of his podcasts’, I was left feeling stunned and offended, by the way he addresses women as “h*es” and “b*tches”. And although I’m young, I have seen healthy relationships and respectful men interacting with women in a gentle and polite manner. Andrew Tate’s statements, are not one of them.
With that being said, there are always two sides to a story. Upon some research, I have also found multiple clips of him stating numerous times that he “absolutely and utterly love women”, and he just believes strongly that women and men have different roles in society, making it clear that men should aim to provide for their women, and strive to form strong loving families. Sure, independent feminists may come back stating, “Well, why can’t women provide for themselves? Why should we live behind the shadow of a man?” But, in my opinion, what he said is completely acceptable here. Growing up, all I’ve understood are men working tirelessly out in society while women give birth, continue the next generations and have a separate role within the household. Though now that I’ve seen more, women absolutely can stand up for themselves and work for themselves. There’s just nothing wrong with Andrew Tate putting it out there that that’s the way he views it: Men and women have different roles in society.
To add onto that, the preaching of “gender equality” and for women to become the same level as men is becoming a little unbalanced, this might be due to the social media circle that I surround myself with, but the same women that reposts feminists pages and supports the femininity movements are the same people who constantly bring me down, to show their independency and bravery. Here’s a quote from a feminist page as a message to men, ”No one is trying to ‘feminize’ you. We aren’t trying to take away your masculinity. You can have your video games, your gyms and your beer. It’s cool.”. I find it slightly off-putting by the way that this was put across, even as a girl. Because the stereotypical “masculine” things are sports, video games and gyms, which not all men like. I would be upset as well if men had stereotyped me or any of my close ones with makeup, sparkly nails and floral dresses.
“He’s poisoning the youth.”
The more I researched on Andrew Tate, the more fascinating I found it to be, not fascinating in a good way, but in a bad way. It didn’t feel real how he was still emphasizing ideas of “women are inferior to men”, calling weaker, less physically strong men “fat f*cks” in this day and age. But that’s not the worst part, as technology becomes more and more widely accepted, young children, no matter their gender, get exposed to these contents on YouTube. If you’ve been bombarded with Andrew Tate YouTube shorts lately, you’re not the only one. Andrew Tate owns an online university called “Hustler’s University”, where he “teaches” men how to make money by giving them different methods for sources of income; The affiliate link to Hustler’s University is granted to different YouTubers who needs to post and advertise this link in their description, in order to receive 50% of the income made through the link by joining HU. Naturally, hundreds of accounts were granted this link and made lots of videos spreading his speeches and statements around social media, essentially exposing young children to his old-fashioned and dangerous views.
Being a teen myself, I trust myself that I know better than what Andrew Tate stands for, he’s putting his views across assertively, shutting down anything that comes in his way and allow no development of thoughts or room for change. But I do worry, for my male friends and younger family relatives, because of how critical Andrew is of feminists and their position in society or a household; They’re going to listen and slowly be influenced by this supposed “world’s first trillionaire” and “alpha male” figure. It’s been confirmed a few days ago that Andrew Tate has been taken off Instagram and Facebook for violating Meta’s community guidelines, and I truly believe that it was for the best for everyone.
“He’s homophobic.”
Due to the fact that Andrew Tate attends lots of YouTubers or streamer’s podcasts, he was often asked about his views on homophobia, and this is where it gets confusing for me. On one hand, he spoke very confidently about the fact that he knew how to do CPR, but if there was a man in need of CPR, he would not save the man. When asked why, he shrugged and made a face and said, “Because I ain’t gay”. This came off to me as aggressive and, again, some joke that a 10-year-old who doesn’t know better would say, but Andrew Tate should and does know better. Lives are lives and if the moment calls for it, you have to save them, even if it means putting your ignorance aside for a moment. Moreover, I had never understood the “hype” around the joke of calling something “gay”. Does it make you feel better that you’re “un-gay”? Why is being “gay” wrong, just because you say so?
However, with that being said, when asked about what would happen if his son/daughter were to come out gay, he replied in such a way that I actually agreed with, “I wouldn’t care about their sexual orientation, I would never accept a degenerate member of my family, as long as they’ve got their head screwed on, I’m okay.”. For once, he demonstrated his soft side, that is understanding that we are all equal, no matter our sexualities, and it’s the person we are, the things we do that determines us.
“He’s racist.”
Andrew Tate is being called everything you don’t want to be called in 2022. Racist, homophobe etc, but is it just an attempt to cancel him and so the internet throws insults at him or has he said something that has infuriated the entire internet? Upon listening to the FungBros Podcast about Andrew Tate’s views on Asians, I can assure you that, it’s the lack of awareness and arrogance that causes him to be under attack all the time. The first clip was Andrew on another podcast with 2 black males discussing whether they have ever seen a Chinese pregnant lady before, and to someone whose mom is Chinese and has Chinese roots through and through, this was just unbelievable. Their realization that they’ve never seen a Chinese pregnant lady just screams 12-year-old behaviour. Just because you live in a country with barely any Eastern Asians does not mean that you have to react in as if Chinese ladies would lay eggs instead of giving birth. I’d also like to say that by watching the podcast, you can see a pattern of Andrew Tate basing off all the Chinese people in the world (1.45 billion to be exact) to be those that he’s seen in his life. He puts forward statements like the Chinese pregnant lady example just from his experiences with Chinese people and not thinking globally.
In a separate podcast, Andrew Tate was asked about his views on racism, and here’s an interesting take by him; he claims that “pattern recognition is different from racism”, realizing that “if a purple man attacked you on a street, the next time you walked down a street, and you see a purple man and a green man, you’d of course be more cautious of the purple man than the green man.”, firstly, what a weird example! And secondly, I would say that unfortunately to a certain degree, I understand and agree with what he has to say here; Though this can also be called stereotyping individuals, you have to be more careful around them because of what you've gone through because everyone is different. Hence, why I say you have to be careful when using the words pattern recognition.
This leads me to my final point, that is pattern recognition is dangerous, it very might well lead to racism, we have seen this many times in the past, for example, the George Floyd incident where a black man named George Floyd was murdered by a white policeman, Derek Chauvin. Initially being arrested for supposedly using a counterfeit $20 bill, it turned out to become a homicide as George Floyd struggled to breathe due to the white police officer kneeling on his neck. The internet exploded, calling Derek Chauvin a racist, relentlessly kneeling on Floyd’s neck despite his cries for help, causing the uprise of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. It was clear that Derek Chauvin had done so because he’s seen “people like George Floyd”, perhaps he might have dealt with coloured individuals who had committed similar crimes and had unpleasant encounters like Floyd himself. But that is no excuse for his actions, he killed a man and the white police officers around Derek Chauvin did not step in and do anything. That is racism.
To say the least, Andrew Tate is putting forward statements in such a charismatic and professional manner that even if the things he says are absurd, people still seem to enjoy and buy into his content. As you can probably tell, I have lots to say about him but I have to say, I respect him for being able to tear apart the internet in such a short amount of time due to his business strategies and charismatic self, but I wish to stay away from him due to his hostile demeanour and archaic views that should be left in the past. If you listen to things that he say, it’s all extreme. In his eyes, it’s always polar opposite ends of a spectrum; It’s called a spectrum for a reason, to allow for freedom of thought and room for compromises together. I hope this breakdown has been entertaining and gets you thinking a bit, I know it made me realize a lot more of my values.
Edit: Shortly after this post was finished and posted, Andrew Tate uploaded a final message on his website explaining that he will be taking a break from social media (ever since he got banned), despite the fact that he still truly believes and stand behind all the statements he’s said, he’s taking a step back to reflect on the way his messages had been delivered, and has to be delivered in the future. In a way that packs with entertainment, truthfulness, but also to not trigger the public. He’s also explained that the multiple accusations towards him and the shorts posted about his statements were edited and manipulated in a way where it seemed as if the channels were twisting his words and would put clips together and cut clips out to deliver their message: Andrew Tate is bad.
After all this Andrew Tate saga, I do feel a sense of sympathy on his behave, though, lots of the things he’s said are aggressive and might well not even be true, but I also think that not a lot of the things people’s said about Andrew Tate himself is true as well, which is unsurprisingly the danger of social media. But throughout the video, Andrew Tate has promised to donate to men’s mental health charities and women’s rights charities, while stating that the people who’ve met him in real life knows the kind of person he is, and there’s nothing he can do to divert the hate. To me, he seemed genuine in the video, and it’s just taken me back by a little because of the 2 sides to the story, and it was good to hear his side; Once and for all, this saga may come to an end.
Thanks for reading and see you all in a bit.
-Winnie 20/08/2022
