Richard Hogan: Masculinity is not what Andrew Tate says it is

To be a ‘high-valued man’, as Tate calls it, you have to have fast cars and be physically aggressive. In my experience, that is the stuff of really insecure men 
Richard Hogan: Masculinity is not what Andrew Tate says it is

Andrew Tate. Picture: Cobratate/Twitter

I remember sitting in my old business class in Rochestown College, Cork, while Mr Kennefick explained to us young entrepreneurs, the concept of caveat emptor — let the buyer beware. 

He basically told us how products are often advertised or presented in a certain way and that we, the consumer, had to be careful not to be tricked by unscrupulous marketing and sales tactics.

Good lesson.

Well, I’m here today to pass on another important lesson on the same topic to parents. Except my lesson is called parentes cave — parents beware. 

There is a sleight-of-hand trickster, a grifter, targeting your children and you should be very aware of his name, what he stands for, and what he is teaching your children, young boys in particular. 

Andrew Tate was the most searched name on Google this year. A Big Brother reject, a mildly successful fighter, but an absolute internet sensation. His videos have over 12bn clicks, he has millions of followers, and the reason I’m speaking about him is because of his message.

I have worked with teenagers for over 20 years, and over those years I have watched trends come and go. But I’ve never seen the reaction that Tate provokes among boys and girls alike. He is a divisive figure, some boys really like him, some girls like him, while others find his particular brand of brash, transgressive, motivational talk repulsive and degrading to women.

His recent public taunting of Greta Thunberg was something straight from Hollywood, childishly tweeting at her: ‘Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.’ 

Tate obviously thought he would win accolades from men tired of the climate change narrative and who enjoyed the Tiger King viral posts, but instead he walked himself into one of the greatest rebuttals of the last 10 years.

Thunberg, having tussled with Trump and won, shot back: ‘Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.’ 

Wonderful stuff from the 19-year-old activist. Her rebuttal quickly became one of the top 10 tweets of all time. 

While I have never been a fan of the term toxic masculinity, because I think it alienates and divides, rather than include men in an important conversation about social mores, internalised prejudice, societal expectations, and destructive negative ideas about a man’s role in society, Tate was clearly feeding into the idea that men are selfish, and against sustainable practices. Toxic masculinity in all its garish forms. 

He was obviously licking his wounds after Thunberg, a young liberal female, kicked his ass in an internet exchange, because it took him nearly 10 hours to reply.

Police officers escort Andrew Tate outside the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) where prosecutors examine electronic equipment confiscated during the investigation. Picture: AP Photo/Alexandru Dobre
Police officers escort Andrew Tate outside the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) where prosecutors examine electronic equipment confiscated during the investigation. Picture: AP Photo/Alexandru Dobre

And here is the real stinger in the tail for Tate, his reply, draped in a dressing gown, cigar in mouth, was a rather pathetic attempt to assert his dominance, but it in fact allegedly exposed his whereabouts and he was arrested for terrible allegations of sex trafficking. Although the authorities have explained this wasn’t exactly the case, let’s not let the truth get in the way of a great story! 

Tate vehemently denies all wrongdoing, and his supporters say they saw this coming. They see him as some sort of anti-woke warrior who is fighting for traditional values that have been eradicated by the far-left brigade. And so, he has been victimised and persecuted by the new wave of left-leaning ideologues hell bent on toppling all that is good and wholesome. Bloody cultural Marxists!

This is the real problem we have in our society, left versus right. 

We are constantly fed the worst of each ideology, there is no middle ground on social media; the algorithms are designed to feed sensationalist material from both sides. 

It’s clickbait material that generates massive income but also massive hysteria, which further polarises and allows for the birth of a rough beast like Tate to emerge. 

But what exactly is Tate saying that should be worrying for parents? We should all be aware of the online space known as the ‘manosphere’, where ideas like Tate’s get propagated. 

Tate and those like him suggest we are being overrun by a gynocentric world that is dedicated to eradication of men, and so when words like toxic masculinity get thrown around, it is confirmation of this terrible left ideology. 

He tells young boys that women are naturally hypergamous, only interested in alpha males who exude traditional masculine attributes such as competitiveness and aggression. Therefore, boys/men are being tricked by feminists who are attempting to metaphorically castrate them and transmute them into ‘incels’ — ‘involuntary celibates’.

It would all be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. We have to help our sons to be able to critically evaluate what people like Tate say, because they will consume it. Social media platforms will make sure of that. We have to equip them with the tools to process negative messages like Tate’s and teach them how to spot a charlatan when they see one. 

To be a ‘high-valued man’, as Tate calls it, you have to have fast cars and be physically aggressive. I’m afraid not.

In my experience, working clinically, that is the stuff of really insecure men who have been let down by people and feel vulnerable and so come up with unhealthy interventions to protect themselves from coming into contact with their reality. 

Masculinity is about strength, compassion, vulnerability, empathy, courage and humility. Not what Tate is selling.

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