By Noel Towell
Victorian teachers will be given more tools to help battle the influence of “Andrew Tate types” and other forms of online toxic masculinity in schools.
The state government on Wednesday will announce an updated Respectful Relationships teaching program with new course content specifically aimed at “manfluencers” such as Tate, amid a fresh drive to get the program into more Catholic and independent schools.
Victoria has updated its Respectful Relationships program to reflect the influence of figures such as Andrew Tate.Credit: AP
Students will be taught to recognise online toxic masculinity, hate speech, and material promoting or condoning coercive control, and learn skills to resist peer pressure and counter “alpha male” talking points and arguments.
Deakin University Associate Professor Debbie Ollis, who developed the updated material alongside the University of Melbourne’s Professor Helen Cahill, said Respectful Relationships also taught young men to recognise harmful behaviour in themselves.
Ollis told The Age it was common to find classes where up to 20 per cent of students had “crawled down the Andrew Tate rabbit hole”, and that there were clear links between online influencers and real-world violence and abuse.
When the program – a key recommendation of the state Labor government’s Royal Commission into Family Violence – was rolled out across state schools in 2016, Tate was an obscure figure and the “manosphere” was an emerging internet phenomenon.
But the subsequent growth of the online reach of the former kickboxer and other so-called “alpha male” influencers now has educators, parents and mental health experts worried about the radicalisation of teenagers and young men into extreme misogynist ideology.
With several Victorian schools rocked recently by high-profile instances of deepfake pornography, attacks against female students by their male peers, and other forms of online misogynistic behaviour, Respectful Relationships has been updated to reflect the new social environment.
The government says the new resources will support young people “to counter the influence of Andrew Tate-types, helping them safely navigate issues like consent, sextortion, pornography and gender-based bullying”.
Now, Tate provides a “teachable moment” – an example of societal drivers of gender-based violence.
“Andrew Tate is a catalyst to explore the issues in a very contemporary way,” Ollis said.
Respectful Relationships is mandatory in Victoria’s 1570 public schools, but only 370 of Victoria’s 724 Catholic and independent schools have taken up the government’s offer to teach the officially sanctioned program, with the rest preferring to teach their own programs in the relevant areas.
Education Minister Ben Carroll said he wanted more non-government schools teaching Respectful Relationships and that start-up funding, advice and professional learning support were available to schools. He called for expressions of interest, which are open until November 8.
“The updated materials ensure students are taught how to navigate contemporary issues, and our continued investment will allow for even more non-government schools to teach Respectful Relationships,” Carroll said.
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