Image by Anything Goes With James English from WikiMedia Commons
I’m sure you have already heard of the controversial internet personality Andrew Tate. But aside from his misogynistic comments online, he is currently facing more serious criminal charges in Romania, including human trafficking, rape, and forming an organized criminal group.
He denies all allegations, but while the legal battle plays out offline, his influence as a self-proclaimed alpha male continues to live on. Welcome to the Tate Effect.
The former kickboxer turned influencer has built an entire online personality through wildly misogynistic comments that somehow still go viral.
One hyper-masculine remark at a time, Tate has become a household name among Gen Z boys and young men. But while some celebrate him as a self-made inspiration, others warn that his influence is reshaping gender attitudes in deeply troubling ways.
Tate’s rise wasn’t exactly slow or subtle. His face became inescapable on TikTok by mid-2022, when he was flooding For You pages with his sexist ideals. But for teachers, researchers and alarmed parents alike, the real concern wasn’t just what he was saying, but who was listening.
Craig Haslop has spent many years researching ‘lad culture’ and by working closely with boys aged 13–18, he found that Tate’s name came up time and time again: “Some boys praised Tate’s fitness and self-help advice, others were indifferent and a few were critical of his misogyny. But regardless of how they truly felt about him, many admitted they couldn’t escape his content, and even found his videos funny.”
That’s the trick. Tate’s content uses humour, trolling, cringe-worthiness and straight-up shock-factor to blow up online. It’s not just what he says, but it’s how he says it, and by the time that you even realize what he’s said is problematic, it’s already been liked, shared and turned into a viral sound.
Haslop explained that this is largely through a sort of controversy humour as “he has built his name on the promise of saying what others won’t, which boys seem to find funny.”
“Tate mainly does this by creating a so-called gender-war, claiming that men are losing out on opportunities to women. Even though this isn’t the case because gender isn’t a competition, and no one is winning or losing, this does earn respect from some.”
Essentially, for boys who feel confused or alienated by feminism or gender equality, they may see Tate as someone on their side. And that’s the appeal; He’s like an anti-hero standing up against ‘woke culture’.
Whether he genuinely believes everything that he says is up for debate, but his most viral clips are the ones that anger, irritate and annoy. It goes without saying that the rage-bait gets the engagement, the followers and of course the money… and lots of it.
A huge part of Tate’s pull comes not just from his ideals, but his luxury lifestyle. He sells a vision of fast cars and six figure bank accounts which as Haslop mentioned “many young men, especially those feeling uncertain about their future, often think that his advice might be useful and look up to him in that way.”
While Tate’s content may seem like digital noise to adults, the impact is being felt in real-life. Haslop explained that teachers in the UK have reported students adopting his mentality, making sexist remarks, and even mimicking his gestures: “This isn’t just online, but these harmful views about women and this toxic masculinity is being seen in classrooms, locker rooms, anywhere really.”
But here’s the catch, experts warn that demonising Tate won’t actually help: “If you attack him, the boys will defend him, and it only validates his whole message that society is out to silence men.”
Instead, Haslop recommends focusing on teaching young people to question where their beliefs come from and who benefits from them: “Schools need to educate better, boys need spaces to talk about masculinity without being shamed and social media platforms need to step up.”
Despite being banned from several sites, Tate has been allowed back onto other platforms like X thanks to leadership that favours “free speech” even when it veers into hate speech.
Haslop says: “Social media platforms have done the bare minimum and where there is very little real regulation, influencers like Tate will continue to take full advantage of that.” … And it’s clear that he is.
Whether Tate ends up in prison or not, his ideas have already gone viral. The question now isn’t whether he’ll be silenced, but whether we’ve already started to echo him without even realizing it.
For more People stories, click here: https://illuminatedmag.co.uk/people/
