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This Padlet aims to discuss and critically analyse the issue of 'Toxic masculinity' and Gender Stereotypes and the impact it is having on education. Three media sources have been evaluated which focus on 'Andrew Tate' and his expression of misogynistic views. As you scroll through the Padlet, you will notice key areas such as; Impact on education, educational strategies that are being used, statistics, and a section for further reading. This Padlet takes a dive into the social issue and how it is being made worse through the sue of media outlets and the reasons for it. I hope you enjoy reading.

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Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education (Department For Education, 2019)

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DfE guidance for misogyny and gender stereotyping

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DfE guidance for misogyny and gender stereotyping

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Statutory guidance on relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

This is statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) issued under section 80A of the Education Act 2002 and section 403 of the Education Act 1996.

Schools must have regard to the guidance and, where they depart from those parts of the guidance which state that they should, or should not, do something, they will need to have good reasons for doing so.

This statutory guidance applies to all schools, and is for:

governing bodies of maintained schools (including schools with a sixth-form) and non-maintained special schools

trustees or directors of academies and free schools

proprietors of independent schools (including academies and free schools)

management committees of pupil referral units (PRUs)

teachers, other school staff and school nurses

headteachers, principals and senior leadership teams

diocese and other faith representatives

relevant local authority staff for reference

To help school leaders follow this statutory guidance, we have published:

Thank you for your feedback

Report a problem with this page

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Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education

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Statutory guidance on relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education.

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Andrew Tate: How schools are tackling his influence (Evans, 2023)

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This article mentions how schools across the UK have started to include this topic within the curriculum. By using PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) studies to discuss the current issue surrounding gender discrimination.

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Intelligent, articulate and disciplined - that's how secondary school teacher Charlotte Carson describes Andrew Tate, the online influencer who is a role model to many of the boys at her school in Belfast.

But the problem is, she says, Andrew Tate is also pathetic, insecure, and promotes "Taliban beliefs" about how to treat women.

Schools across the UK are encountering increasing numbers of pupils who admire Tate - and so teachers are having to work out how to respond.

Some are actively putting out guidance on how to talk about him, as part of a concerted attempt to tackle his influence.

Tate, a former kickboxer, has millions of online followers - despite being banned from sites including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for misogynistic comments.

He's currently detained in Romania, alongside his brother Tristan, as part of an investigation into allegations of human trafficking and rape - which they both deny.

"A lot of the boys can see that there's parts of Andrew Tate that they respect and admire, and then there's parts that they don't - they know that he says a lot of terrible things," says Ms Carson, 46, who teaches Learning for Life and Work - Northern Ireland's equivalent of PSHE in England's schools.

"But also he's glamorous, he's good looking, he does lots of things that they think are cool."

She gives the example of an image of Tate surrounded by flashy cars, while smoking a cigar - Ms Carson and fellow teachers find it a "joke", almost a "cartoon" of "pathetic insecurity" - but some of her pupils want to defend everything he stands for.

One pupil told her they would still admire Tate if he was found guilty of the crimes he's been accused of.

"They said yes. They said: 'Miss, if somebody in your family commits a crime, you still love them.'"

Ms Carson says the pupil eventually backtracked, and agreed they didn't quite see Tate as family - but the kneejerk reaction perhaps shows the desire to protect his status.

"We all want to hold our icons up away from the dirt," says Ms Carson, who founded a project in 2016 to help schools establish feminist societies.

Ms Carson will continue to challenge her pupils about the issues raised by Tate's content, but says parents have a responsibility to educate their children too.

"Parents need to wake up to the fact that if they don't teach their children about the world, then Andrew Tate will."

Tate has not responded to the BBC's request for a comment.

Who is Andrew Tate?

British-American former kickboxer

Was removed from TV show Big Brother in 2016 over a video appearing to show him attacking a woman. He said the video was a "total lie" and had been edited "to make me look bad"

Banned from Twitter for saying women should "bear responsibility" for being sexually assaulted. His account was later reinstated

Also banned from YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, with TikTok citing misogyny

Tate has previously said his views have been "misunderstood", "taken out of context and amplified" to present "false narratives"

Deputy head Sarah Longville says staff at the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle have been educating their pupils about gender-based violence for years, and Tate's content isn't really anything new - but in the new school term they have "had to acknowledge that he was having a lot of influence on the students".

As well as teachers leading discussions in PSHE lessons about Tate's "manipulative behaviour", the school has sent advice to parents about how to talk about the influencer with their children.

Most of what Ms Longville sees in her pupils is merely an "irritating" adulation of Tate's lifestyle - but sometimes his influence has been more serious.

"We have had to deal with the use of quite strong words, such as 'rape', being used without younger children understanding the seriousness of that word, the power of that word," she says.

"Whether that's Tate or not, I would suspect [he] possibly has an influence.

"They're not bad children, they're just using language that they don't understand."

St Dunstan's, a fee-paying school in Catford, London, has drawn up entire lessons focused on Tate, with content tailored to different age groups.

Year 8s might get a lesson on what stereotypes are and where they come from, while older students will take part in more of a discussion-based lesson about Tate.

Deputy head Jonathan Holmes told the BBC: "We find out what the kids know [about him] first, and then we would want to facilitate discussion about the impact of echo chambers, the impact of the sense of those views online being endorsed, giving the appearance that they're being endorsed by quite a wide audience - when actually it's the case that they're not - and getting them to understand the credibility of those views."

When Labour asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday how schools should tackle pupils being "brainwashed" by Tate, he pointed to the Online Safety Bill, designed to ensure tech firms enforce age limits to protect children from harmful online material.

The Department for Education says it has also published guidance for schools in England on how to be alert to issues such as misogyny and gender stereotypes.

Schools are also trying to focus on what other role models pupils could look for.

"There are so many absolutely incredible men who are incredible role models to young people. You look at people like Marcus Rashford who is successful, who's healthy, who has got incredible levels of empathy and understanding," Helen Hinde, assistant head at Meols Cop High School, in Southport, tells BBC 5Live.

"We've all got to work collaboratively and collectively to support young men to reframe masculinity - away from this toxic ideology that's presented by the likes of Tate."

It's been a rollercoaster year on social media for Andrew Tate.

His notoriety snowballed after teenagers started spotting videos of him, some promoting misogyny and targeting women, all over their social media feeds back in the summer.

So if you think your child might have been sucked in by videos like this on their social media feeds, what can you do?

Experts in child welfare tell me the most important thing is that parents talk to their children about what's being served up to them online - and to ask about influencers like Tate.

Discuss how the algorithm works, and its tendency to recommend emotive and reactive content. Just because a video is being pushed to your feed by automated systems on social media doesn't mean you have to agree with or even like what you're seeing.

Encourage them to question everything they're seeing online, and where it's come from - especially when it feels like its deliberately being pushed to them.

Have you been affected by the issues raised here? You can get in touch by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

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Andrew Tate: How schools are tackling his influence

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Intelligent, articulate and disciplined - that's how secondary school teacher Charlotte Carson describes Andrew Tate, the online influencer who is a role model to many of the boys at her school in Belfast. But the problem is, she says, Andrew Tate is also pathetic, insecure, and promotes "Taliban beliefs" about how to treat women.

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Bronfenbrenner's (1979) theory includes the 'Exosystem' which how a child can be impacted by the indirect environment. The Exosystem includes the 'media' as a factor that can impact a child's identity. The media can significantly affect the exo-system by influencing political discourse, creating community values and norms, socialisation and development, and encouraging consumerism and commercialism. In order to make wise decisions and encourage the exo-development, system's it is vital for people and communities to be aware of these effects and to critically assess the messages and values that are propagated by the media.

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Strategies to promote diversity and identity

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Strategies to promote diversity and identity

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Educational institutes can play a large part in ensuring diversity and identity are protected. Some of these strategies include:

Hiring a diverse group of staff and faculty members can help create a more inclusive environment and provide students with diverse role models and mentors.

Training, staff, and teachers that receive cultural competence training can better comprehend and navigate cultural differences as well as become more conscious of their own prejudices and presumptions.

Providing support services for students from diverse backgrounds, such as mentoring, tutoring, and counseling, can help to ensure that all students feel valued and supported within the institution.

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Why is "Boys Will Be Boys" Still Accepted Wisdom In Our Schools? (Treleaven, 2022)

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An article describing the problem with 'Toxic Masculinity' in schools

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An article describing the problem with 'Toxic Masculinity' in schools

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Note: This article contains references to suicide and mass shootings. If it's better for you to avoid those topics right now, check out one of our other articles.
I was on a walk last weekend and stopped to chat with a neighbor. She asked what we were giving my 17-month-old son for Christmas this year, and I told her that a miniature cutting board and toddler-friendly chopper made the list.

"A kitchen set? For a boy?" she asked. I could tell what she was thinking by the way her eyebrows shot up. Since I know her well enough to joke with her, I jumped in before she could.

"Domestic skills are important for boys too, Marnie!" I chided her, smiling.

She laughed, and we talked about how "rules" about kids' toys have changed since her children were young. She conceded that maybe it would have been good to let her now-adult boy play with similar toys when he was young, since he still doesn't do any cooking or cleaning for himself.

While my neighbor meant well and was receptive to seeing things differently, her response reminded me of a mindset I saw a lot during my time as a teacher. While girls were "allowed" a wide range of emotions, interests, hobbies, and personality traits, boys didn't have that same freedom. I heard it in hallways, in parent conferences, and even in my own classrooms: echoes of toxic masculinity.

What Is Toxic Masculinity?

Toxic masculinity refers to a narrow view of masculinity that suggests boys ought to suppress emotions and embrace aggression as a way to solve problems. In toxic masculinity, certain traits, interests, and emotions are "OK" for boys to have, while others are considered weak or feminine.

What Toxic Masculinity Looks Like in the Classroom

In preschool and kindergarten, young boys might be discouraged from playing with dolls or using kitchen/cleaning sets in imaginative play.

Boys who are nurturing, polite, or shy by nature might be considered weak or feminine or need to "toughen up."

Adults might use phrases like "boys will be boys" or "you know how boys are" to downplay the seriousness of fights, bullying, and disrespect toward female teachers.

Many teachers are reporting that their middle and high school boys are under the spell of influencers like Andrew Tate, who openly promotes misogyny and sexual violence. A seventh grade teacher said the boys in his class call women and girls "holes" and any boy who defends or is kind to girls a "simp."

Middle school boys might feel pressured to limit their elective choices to sports or woodshop instead of things like dance or family sciences.

Teenage boys might resort to violence or aggression when their masculinity is threatened.

Some parents fear that kindness, empathy, and other SEL skills are threatening masculinity.

What Toxic Masculinity Is Not

The suggestion that all masculinity is toxic. Healthy masculinity, by contrast, is a masculinity that doesn't limit what kinds of emotions, interests, skills, or relationships boys can have.

An attempt to "erase gender" or "an attack on manhood." Boys can still play with trucks, knock down their own LEGO towers, act out with dinosaurs, and play tackle football. But they can also cuddle a doll, learn how to knit, be in tune with and in control of their emotions, and help out with cooking and chores. There's no "one way" to be a man.

An inherent trait in boys.

A problem for all boys.

A problem that only boys perpetuate.

Why It's a Problem Beyond the Classroom

Predictably, the problem of toxic masculinity doesn't disappear after 12th grade. It's easy to imagine how a version of masculinity that suppresses emotion and equates vulnerability with weakness might play a role in the fact that 80% of people who die by suicide are men. Or that 98% of mass shooters are men.

Critics might say that these statistics have nothing to do with toxic masculinity and simply reflect the way men are by nature-more aggressive and less in touch with their feelings.

But are men violent and out of control by nature? Or is that what happens when we tell them they can't be anything else?

How To Counteract Toxic Masculinity in Your Classroom

It's important that teachers of all grades and content areas are on high alert for the ways toxic masculinity shows up in schools. Here are just a few of the ways we can help all our students embrace and uphold a healthier version of masculinity.

Be crystal-clear about boundaries and consent.

Teachers need to have zero tolerance for students who don't respect other students' physical boundaries, whether they are playfully stealing a hat or snapping a bra strap.

Don't police students' cultures or home values.

Many families uphold traditional gender roles and views on masculinity, and it's not our job to evaluate or change the parenting of our students. We can only help shape what happens in our environment. If a student responds to redirection by saying that behavior is accepted at home, say, "In our classroom, we don't make fun of boys for choosing pink" or "One of our norms is to keep your hands to yourself no matter how frustrated you are."

Validate students' feelings and experiences.

If we're going to help boys feel comfortable talking about feelings, we have to create judgment-free opportunities for them to do so. Model empathy and kindness by walking through emotional situations with students out loud.

"How do you think that made them feel?"

"How did it make you feel?"

"Thanks for telling me that made you sad. It's brave to share hard feelings."

"All feelings are valid, but not all decisions are. It's OK that you felt angry. It's not OK for you to hurt someone else when you're angry."

Do not let harmful speech or ideas go unchallenged.

Sometimes the best example you can set is by demonstrating what you won't put up with. Be kind but firm. Use your best teacher judgment to decide whether to call out (addressing lower-stakes situations out loud in a group) or call in (have a private conversation with a student right then or later on).

Calling out:

"What? You're reading American Royals? That's for girls!"

"Wait, wait, wait. Guys can totally read American Royals! Would you say girls can't read Percy Jackson?"

Calling in:

"You cried? Are you a girl?"

"Hey, Levi-meet me in the hall real quick. We need to chat."

The good news is that unlike a lot of society's ills that we expect teachers to solve, addressing toxic masculinity is not an additional burden for teachers to carry. It doesn't demand their time, their money, or additional paperwork. It just asks them to be on the lookout for ways we can protect our boys, and in doing so, protect all our students.

What are your thoughts on toxic masculinity in the classroom? Let us know in the comments.

Looking for more articles like this? Be sure to subscribe to our newsletters!

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Why is "Boys Will Be Boys" Still Accepted Wisdom In Our Schools?

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Note: This article contains references to suicide and mass shootings. If it's better for you to avoid those topics right now, check out one of our other articles. I was on a walk last weekend and stopped to chat with a neighbor.

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Watch time: Videos that are more likely to keep viewers watching for a longer period of time are given priority by YouTube's algorithm. A video is more likely to be shared with other users when it has received more watch time.

Relevance: The relevance of a video to a user's search or viewing history is another factor considered by YouTube's algorithm. For instance, the algorithm is more likely to suggest relevant videos if a user has been watching a lot of videos on a specific subject.

Engagement: The YouTube algorithm is more likely to promote videos that earn more likes, comments, and shares. Engagement is regarded as an indication of viewer interest and happiness with the video.

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Opinion: This is why young men are still listening to Andrew Tate (Edwards, 2023)

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Why young men are still listening to Andrew Tate and his views

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Why young men are still listening to Andrew Tate and his views

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If you're still unfamiliar with Andrew Tate, you're one of the lucky ones. Wherever it is you're sheltering, I hope it is warm, comfortable and you have enough tinned food for the foreseeable.

Tate sells himself as a hyper-masculine, ultra-wealthy, red-pilled lothario, who is willing to teach his young Padawans the ways of the world, women, and of the secrets of his own success. He offers young men the inside track on life. A ticket to the dream they didn't quite know they had. In short, he is selling them a blueprint of how to be a man. And with a dearth of alternatives, they are more than willing to buy it.

There is something fundamentally underdeveloped about Tate. I don't mean physically, but emotionally, intellectually, culturally. He radiates so much insecurity - masked with aggression and arrogance - that personally, I feel I need to squint when I watch him. Perhaps that's why he always wears sunglasses.

But watch him people do. Mainly young men. Enthralled by the wisdom that their 36-year old guru from Luton is dishing out. Quick spoiler on the blueprint: "how to be a man" turns out to involve quite a bit of dehumanising of women, violence, sexual assault allegations, denial of depression, ownership of a machete, that kind of thing. Lest we forget, Tate was also arrested in Bucharest on 29 December for rape, human trafficking and organised crime charges.

He's been banned from TikTok and Twitter ( before he came back under Musk's diktat, arguably giving him an even bigger boost) and is currently in prison - but Tate's influence abounds. Why? What's the appeal? If Tate's views are so objectionable, and he's such an obvious charlatan to the rest of us, why isn't he coming across that way to so many young men? Why are thousands of them taking him seriously?

At its core it is fairly simple: it's because he is speaking to them and we aren't.

Teenage boys are small animals who love to be edgy, offensive and provocative. It's no surprise that their attentions would be drawn to Tate. But they are watching Tate's content at the same time they are forming their own identities. Add to that the confusing world of puberty, sex and transition to adulthood, all wrapped up in a body that's changing every time they look in the mirror, and you have a person who is both vulnerable and perfectly primed for messaging.

The thing is, they want messages. Young people want to understand the world around them, how it works, and what their place in it might be, but we leave it to toxic characters on the internet to fill in the blanks. Two of the largest influencers in the past five years have been Jordan Peterson and Tate, and both became powerful in exactly the same way: offering themselves as self-help gurus to an unaddressed demographic, who are looking for answers.

Tate and Peterson present narratives of why young men feel the way they do, they give them a lens through which to view the world, and (literally, in Peterson's books) rules to live by.

These gurus' prescriptions are filled with all kinds of sinister techniques that appeal to insecurities - scapegoating, resentment, in-group, out-group thinking - but the reason why it thrives is because these narratives also have an element of aspiration and self-betterment to them. Young men want to be better, they want to live a meaningful life, but how can they get their bearings when it's only the grifters selling the maps?

It is no accident that this is the same audience far-right groups and ultranationalists target and recruit from. They, too, engage young men with a lot of the same feelings, fears and grievances. They, too, offer narratives of how the world works and why things are a certain way.

Tate is not the cause of this. Rather, he is symptomatic of a problem. The problem is a lot of young men are in crisis and there is no obvious support for them.

So what do we do? How do we help those who have bought the snake oil that "Cobra Tate" is selling?

As a former teenage boy/small animal who, on reflection, could have gone in numerous different directions in life - not all of them good - I have a few ideas of what might work. I suppose we can't expect Marcus Rashford to do everything.

For starters, on an interpersonal level, understanding their point of view is crucial. Tate has made it his business (literally) to address the concerns of alienated young men, and we need to do the same. Our silence is his oxygen. The more you can learn about the content teenagers are watching, the better. Ask them how they feel about it, and what it is they're connecting with in Tate's videos.

Our language surrounding this needs to be supportive and open-ended. If you tell a teenage boy not to watch something, he'll take out a subscription. How we frame masculinity is equally important: there are young men who think the only time they hear "masculinity" is when it has the word "toxic" in front of it.

But I think what would really help is building from the foundation. We need to empower all young people in this country with critical thinking skills. That way they at least have a hope of parsing the tide of information that washes through their phone screens every single day. Forget teaching maths all the way up until 18, Rishi Sunak - if you actually care about the future of young people, then make philosophy a core part of the UK curriculum.

Hear me out: philosophy is a subject woefully overlooked in this country, yet it specifically engages people with topics such as personal identity, social roles, morality, ethics, rhetoric, literature - as well as many other areas of keen interest to curious minds.

Philosophy doesn't give you the answers, but it does help you address the questions in a clearer way. It gives you the ability to think for yourself, instead of simply doing what a guy who used to get hit in the head for a living is telling you to do. It provides a place for conversations to happen, fosters reasoning and analytical abilities and allows space for people to ask questions and discuss these topics at length. These are practical tools we are not taught anywhere else.

Why are we relegating such important discussions to the playground or online forums that have been shown to radicalise? We're all familiar with the "three Rs" in this country: reading, writing and arithmetic, considered the essential skills taught in schools. It's time we added a fourth R: reasoning.

We need to teach young people how to think, before the next self-appointed YouTube or TikTok guru comes along and tells them what to think.
Clint Edwards is a stand-up comedian and writer

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Opinion: This is why young men are still listening to Andrew Tate

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If you're still unfamiliar with Andrew Tate, you're one of the lucky ones. Wherever it is you're sheltering, I hope it is warm, comfortable and you have enough tinned food for the foreseeable. Tate sells himself as a hyper-masculine, ultra-wealthy, red-pilled lothario, who is willing to teach his young Padawans the ways of the world, women, and of the secrets of his own success.

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Goffman investigates how people portray themselves to others through a variety of "performances," whether in person or through various media. According to him, self-presentation is an important part of social interaction, and people constantly modify their conduct and look in order to leave the right impression on other people (Goffman, 1959).

Relating this to what we are seeing with today's usage of social media, young people are molding their identity around what they are exposed to in the media and portraying their views through ''self-presentation'' to please people. An example of this is young people mirroring what they see on social media to either make friends or to fit in with a desired group of people.

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The toxic influence of Andrew Tate: How society has failed a generation of young men and boys (Guest, 2023).

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A blog on the impact of Andrew Tate in the media and young men

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A blog on the impact of Andrew Tate in the media and young men

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By Dr Sophie King-Hill, Senior Fellow, Health Services Management Centre and David Russell, Community Safety & Justice Manager
Andrew Tate is not far from the news at the moment. Although the online influencer claims to support males in negotiating society and bettering themselves, his ideologies are underpinned by dangerous and extreme misogyny.

On face value to young men and boys he may seem appealing - he is young, fit, masculine, rich and owns fast cars and nice houses. Yet scratch the surface and the issues with Tate and the negative influence he has is clear to see. Previously, he has stated that women are the ' property of a man ' when married, that they should stay home and that women are inferior to men. This is against the backdrop of his recent arrest for human trafficking and rape. Nevertheless, it would be naïve not to recognise that Tate has gained popularity amongst men and boys and that, as a society, we must explore why this is.
The redundancy of masculine perceptions
The position of the young man and boy in contemporary culture is key to understanding how people like Tate have influence. Masculinity - when defined as a man being strong, emotionless and the provider - has become somewhat redundant in recent years with the evolving position of the young women/girl.

Women no longer need a man for financial stability, they form an integral part of the labour force, they have sexual autonomy via contraception and abortion access. Whilst the landscape is far from fair for women (i.e gender pays gaps for instance) the position of the woman now compromises the perception of masculinity. Quite rightly there has been a focus upon young women and girls of late and how they negotiate the evolving nature of femininity and womanhood. Yet, there has been little focus upon boys and how masculinity fits - or should evolve - in conjunction with this.

Tate isn't the only platformed person with this rhetoric. Jordan Peterson, a Canadian academic with a large following, asserts that these changes for women are detrimental and a more conservative, traditional family should be the aim. Whilst we would argue the opposite and that masculinity needs to evolve in light of the changes for women, rather than encouraging regression.

Running alongside this is the blame culture that currently surrounds men and boys. This blame culture has stemmed from high-profile murders of women such as Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa and Ashling Murphy. This ignited the Reclaim the Streets movement, which resonates with the #metoo and Everyone's Invited movements, further highlighting the issues facing women and girls at the hand of men and boys. This blame culture fosters shame and feelings of worthlessness within the male gender. This, coupled with the toxicity of masculine expectations, leaves the door wide open for people like Tate to tap into these feelings and fill the gap that society has missed.

Recent research by King-Hill and Vyleta into these issues with boys aged 13-19 gave insight into the plight of the boy. They found that young men and boys have an internal self that is emotional, sensitive, thoughtful, fun and respectful. Yet they have an external self that related to masculine ideals such as being emotionless, cold and strong. It is this conflict that needs support, but that is lacking. It is useful to note that young men and boys are situated within a hierarchy of masculinity, with those with the more 'manly' traits being seen as the epitome of maleness. Conversely, this generally forms the underpinning motives for sexual harassment. Rather than being solely for sexual gratification it is also driven by asserting their position with their peers. All of this is situated within a culture of misogyny.

Recent reports on the London Fire Service and the MET police demonstrate the issues within wider society and that there are some serious issues that need addressing quickly. It is this conflict, lack of support and misogyny in wider society that provides Tate traction.
The concerning growth of the incel movement
Tate's 'Toxic Alpha Male' misogynistic following has recently highlighted the growth of the dangerous 'incel' subculture. Incel is the abbreviated term for 'Involuntary Celibate' and refers to men that cannot gain romantic or sexual involvement with women, despite wanting to. The movement was originally formed in the 1990s by a female in relation to discussing sexual inactivity in safe space, with all genders, with an intention to support others in a similar position. However, the space very quickly became dominated by males with a strong theme of hate towards women and 'attractive males'. The incel movement frequently refers to the Matrix and 'pill ideologies'. This is linked to the 1999 film and refers to life choices and categorising people. Pertinently, Tate often refers to the Matrix in his rhetoric, seemingly appealing directly to the incel movement.

Often the media highlights incel forums in response to mass acts of physical violence and extremism, such as school shootings, and less coverage on the fundamental make up that frequently promotes sexual assault, rape and the endorsement of violence against women and girls. The exposure of such content to often young, isolated, and vulnerable males can influence a belief that women are to blame for their low self-worth and their inability to progress within an intimate or sexual context. Incel attitudes echo those of Tate and can have a significant detrimental impact on young and vulnerable males and their entire view of women, girls and the wider world.
What can we do?
So, what can we do to address these issues and to combat the impact that Andrew Tate is having. First and foremost, we need to start listening to boys and not shut them out of the conversations on gender and equality. Importantly, we need to accept that we may not like what we hear about how they are feeling. However, if young men and boys are sticking to 'social scripts' and say what they think we want to hear then the issues they are facing can never be addressed. Robust relationships and sex education that explores these issues in a safe space is desperately needed. Yet schools can't shoulder this burden alone. Resources and education for parents/carers need to be available and a joined-up approach, with a focus on boys is required.

But the current position is clear - if people like Andrew Tate have gained traction, then as a society, we have failed our young men and boys. Recognising this, however hard it is to acknowledge, is the first step in addressing the problem.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Birmingham.

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The toxic influence of Andrew Tate: How society has failed a generation of young men and boys

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By Dr Sophie King-Hill, Senior Fellow, Health Services Management Centre and David Russell, Community Safety & Justice Manager Andrew Tate is not far from the news at the moment. Although the online influencer claims to support males in negotiating society and bettering themselves, his ideologies are underpinned by dangerous and extreme misogyny.

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Children have a platform to exhibit themselves to the world and create their own online identities through the use of social media. People can create profiles that accurately reflect their personalities, values, and interests, and interact with people who have similar identities and interests.

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Danah Boyd's view in addition to what has been said above

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Danah Boyd's view in addition to what has been said above

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Boyd examines how young people display themselves to their friends on social media in certain ways, frequently in an effort to attract their attention and obtain their acceptance (Boyd and Yale University Press, 2014).

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Figures that lay bare the shocking scale of Andrew Tate’s reach among young men (Oppenheim, 2023)

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Researchers, who polled over 1,200 people in the UK aged between 16 to 24, discovered that 45 per cent of men have a positive view of Mr Tate

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Researchers, who polled over 1,200 people in the UK aged between 16 to 24, discovered that 45 per cent of men have a positive view of Mr Tate

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Figures that lay bare the shocking scale of Andrew Tate’s reach among young men

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Exclusive: Polling finds eight in 10 teenage boys have watched Tate’s content

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The political beliefs and perspectives of young people can also be shaped by social media. Although social media sites like Instagram and YouTube are frequently utilised for political activism and discussion, they can also result in echo chambers and confirmation bias. This can have a significantly large negative impact on the strategies that are used within schools as students may feel they do not feel the need for the support offered due to being trapped within an echo-chamber, which can be easily misconceived as a positive thing.

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Chomsky's views on ''Spin'' Media manipulation

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Chomsky's views on ''Spin'' Media manipulation

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''Spin'' Manipulation in the Media and how Tate has been affected by this.

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''Spin'': A manipulative technique used by the media

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''Spin'': A manipulative technique used by the media

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''Spin'' Manipulation in the Media and how Tate has been affected by this.

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A graphic showing the reach of different social media platforms aimed at people aged between 16-25

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Andrew Tate vs Piers Morgan | The Full Interview (Morgan, 2022)

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An Interview with Andrew Tate, with Piers Morgan challenging his views

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An Interview with Andrew Tate, with Piers Morgan challenging his views

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Andrew Tate vs Piers Morgan | The Full Interview

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This interview was conducted on Piers Morgan's program ''Piers Uncensored''. During the interview, Tate said several contentious comments, including that women, should be subservient to men, that overweight people are unmotivated and lazy, and that mental health issues are frequently not genuine and can be resolved with willpower.

Tate's opinions were criticised by Morgan as being outmoded, offensive, and hurtful. Tate interrupted Morgan and talked over him a lot during their contentious conversation.

On social media, the interview received a lot of backlash from users who disapproved of Tate's viewpoints and Morgan's conduct of it. Some claimed Morgan gave Tate a platform to spread his damaging ideas, while others claimed he effectively exposed Tate's ideas as undesirable.

However, Tate argued how his videos have been manipulated to make him sound worse, and take his comments out of context. For example, YouTube creators have evidently been trimming clips of Tate and removing the context of the conversation. Tate believes that this is the reason why he has been subjected to bad press and maintains that he is not a misogynist.

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According to Gill's (2007) argument, the media frequently perpetuates traditional gender roles and stereotypes by depicting men as active subjects with agency and power and women as passive objects of male desire. She has also emphasised how the media frequently sexualizes and objectifies women's bodies, turning them into nothing more than something for males to consume.

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Former kickboxing champion Andrew Tate is a well-known figure on the internet for his contentious opinions on men, love, and women. He has referred to himself as an "alpha male" and has gained notoriety in the so-called "manosphere," a broadly defined online community of males who uphold ideas about gender and masculinity that are frequently regarded as damaging and misogynistic.

Tate has a sizable following on social media, where he has shared his opinions on a range of subjects, such as relationships, business, and fitness. In addition, he has produced films, podcasts, and a number of books on these subjects.

Tate's ideas have drawn heavy criticism for encouraging toxic masculinity and fuelling a misogynistic and violent society towards women (Javed et al., 2023).

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A Guardian News Article on Andrew Tate's impact on boys in education

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A Guardian News Article on Andrew Tate's impact on boys in education

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When Abbie Marsh (not her real name) overheard a 15-year-old boy in the West Midlands school she works in praising Andrew Tate, the social influencer known as the "king of misogyny", she asked him if he understood Tate's views on women. The boy replied: "Well, men are better than women, so he's right." His friends all nodded in agreement.

Marsh reported the conversation to her school's head of safeguarding. She says misogyny is rife, even among students as young as 12, and is convinced Tate's videos are fuelling it. "I heard one student in the playground introduce his girlfriend and as soon as she was out of earshot he was asked by several friends if they could 'have a go' with her," she says.

"I don't think the staff are fully aware who Tate is and what he stands for," she adds. "I worry for these boys' girlfriends."

The 36-year-old British American is in custody in Romania after being arrested with his brother, Tristan, on 29 December as part of an investigation into human trafficking, rape and organised crime. But while the spotlight has switched to his activities in eastern Europe, schools in the UK are fearful Tate's boosted media profile in the last few weeks could make his influence stronger than ever.

Many parents may be hearing about Tate for the first time, but schools across the country say he is already a hugely familiar figure to many of their pupils. Many are giving teachers training on how to talk to students about him. Some are holding special assemblies, or using personal social and health education lessons to encourage students to question the content he puts out.

Teachers say boys are often sucked into his "glamorous" ultra-macho world by more benign content on fast cars or fitness. But in his videos he also says women are a man's property, cannot do jobs as well as men, and belong at home. He thinks rape victims should "bear responsibility" for their attacks and boasts about seeking out 18-year-old girls because they are "fresh".

Michael Conroy, whose company Men at Work trains school staff on talking to boys about these issues, says: "Algorithms make it possible for someone like Tate to be hugely well known to 14- to 18-year-old boys"

Conroy has run sessions in 50 schools on online misogyny. Teachers have raised Tate's influence in every one. One teacher talked about a lesson on sexual consent in which a boy quoted Tate, saying if a woman went out alone at night and was attacked it was her fault. Conroy says teenagers also mention Tate as a form of "micro-aggression" towards female teachers.

In one session Conroy discussed the sexist meme "make me a sandwich", used by some men on social media to belittle women. "A female teacher said: 'I've got a lad in year 10 who always writes MMAS at the bottom of my homework,'" he says. "She hadn't known what it meant until then. But he was trying to humiliate her."

Conroy believes Tate is "grooming" young men in a similar way to terrorist groups or gangs, and his image of "conspicuous success" woos boys desperate for a connection.

A teacher at a primary school in north London agrees. "It's the most vulnerable and socially awkward boys that are drawn in and given a sense of belonging to something that is very dangerous." She describes an "extremely vulnerable" 10-year-old "praising Tate and parroting his vile ideas" as "terrifying". The school's lessons on respect "can't compete with the tidal wave of misogyny online", she adds.

Helen Hinde, assistant head at Meols Cop high school in Southport, has shared training resources on Tate with other schools, and asked her staff to be alert to any mention of him. "Boys are attracted to him because he tells them he is successful and rich. He is selling a lifestyle," she says. "When we mention his hatefulness towards women, some excuse it as simply creating a successful life for yourself."

But she is "determined" to educate her pupils about the darker implications of what he is saying. "We don't want to blame young people. We want them to learn to question the attitudes they encounter online."

Ben Karlin, who advises teachers on Twitter about how to counter Tate's influence, says: "It's important to try to explain what he's doing and why. Yes, he's successful and rich, but he made his money off you. Acknowledge that not everything he says is hateful: that's his whole tactic."

Karlin describes Tate's influence as "grooming on a massive scale" and insists schools must talk about him, as well as explaining how he has "gamed" the social media platforms and exploited their algorithms. "He may go to prison, but there will be another one playing the same game," he adds.

Thomas Michael, deputy safeguarding lead at a school in the West Midlands, says schools must have open conversations with boys about the issues Tate champions. "I told our year 9 boys that I grew up in a male-dominated family where aggression was celebrated. I got into fights. Then I realised I had to change. I asked them 'Does that make me less of a man?'"

But he warns that some well-meaning schools are only boosting Tate's popularity. "There are lots of videos on TikTok of kids recording assemblies on Andrew Tate and they are loving making fun of it," he says. "He tells them teachers don't want them to hear the truth. Schools are doing his job for him."

This article was amended on 8 January 2023. An earlier version misnamed Michael Conroy as "Michael Conway".

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'Vulnerable boys are drawn in': schools fear spread of Andrew Tate's misogyny

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When Abbie Marsh (not her real name) overheard a 15-year-old boy in the West Midlands school she works in praising Andrew Tate, the social influencer known as the "king of misogyny", she asked him if he understood Tate's views on women. The boy replied: "Well, men are better than women, so he's right."

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Andrew Tate About Women | TikTok Compilation (Dino, 2022)

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A YouTube compilation of Andrew Tate's TikToks 

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A YouTube compilation of Andrew Tate's TikToks 

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Andrew Tate About Women | TikTok Compilation

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YouTube's audience is diverse and includes people of all ages, backgrounds, and interests from around the world. However, the platform is particularly popular among younger generations, with a significant portion of its audience being under the age of 35.

YouTube has created a platform for all ages to access visual forms of information for all ages. This is a problem as mentioned earlier, most of the users are under the age of 35 which means that young people and especially those still in education are prone to extreme views as Tate presents.

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The article continues by describing some of the beliefs and behaviours that Tate has pushed in his speeches, such as the notion that males should rule over women and that physical violence is occasionally acceptable in romantic relationships. While some experts have urged schools to stop asking Tate to speak and to be more sceptical of his ideas, others have countered that doing so would have the opposite effect.

In addition, the piece covers the broader subject of toxic masculinity and the difficulties schools have in tackling it. According to experts, schools need to do more to encourage positive interpersonal interactions, dispel negative stereotypes, and provide support for vulnerable boys who may be in danger of developing negative attitudes and behaviours.

The article's overall message emphasises the worries some experts have about Andrew Tate's influence on males in UK schools and the need for schools to be more proactive in fostering healthy and good views regarding gender and relationships (Fazackerley, 2023).

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This YouTube video shows a compilation of Andrew Tate and the comments he has made about women. It is a video with clips compiled from 'TikTok' (another social media platform) which shows Tate using misogynistic phrases in a derogarotive manner.

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The Guardians Political Stance and Intended Audience 

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The Guardians Political Stance and Intended Audience 

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The reporting, analysis, and opinion pieces in the newspaper all reflect its center-left political perspective. The Guardian is frequently referred to as a liberal or progressive journal because of its emphasis on social justice, human rights, the environment, and internationalism.

The Guardian's target audience is large, but it concentrates on readers who are interested in superior journalism, liberal politics, and social issues. The newspaper is widely read worldwide, with a sizable following in the United Kingdom.

Therefore, this concludes how young people in schools may not be directly exposed to this standpoint on the matter as it is more targeted at teachers. However, this means that there is a possibility of the information being passed on through the voice of various members of staff in schools.