Why Aussie men cannot get enough of Andrew Tate

The cigar-smoking "sexist" young blokes look up to.

The cigar-smoking "sexist" young blokes look up to.

Ben Smith thinks Andrew Tate is the role model his generation needs. 

The 19- year-old Sydney student started following the self-proclaimed "self-help guru" on Instagram this year, for his hot takes on relationships and success. 

“He just says it like it is,” Smith told The Oz. “It’s like, he doesn’t worry about what people think about him. He just says what he wants to say.” 

@tatetruthspeech

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Tate has skyrocketed to internet infamy for his controversial perspectives on men and women, racking up millions of followers on Instagram and banking billions of views on TikTok.

Google trends show his name was searched more times than Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump at the end of July.

The British-American kickboxer – who poses with expensive cars, guns and portrays himself as a cigar-smoking playboy – talks about choking women, stopping them from going out and their inability to drive.

His claims - including that rape victims "must bear some responsibility" - have sparked calls for his removal from social media, and for TikTok to review their community guidelines to prohibit this sort of content.

But young men around the world, especially in Australia, have continued to resonate with the content creator. 

Some agree with Tate that it is acceptable for a man to have multiple partners, but women should not.

Or think it's acceptable to call a woman a "dumb hoe".

Teachers from an all-boys school in New Zealand took to social media this week to share how Tate is "becoming an almost poisonous addiction" of their students.

"They're starting to genuinely believe being successful is synonymous with abusing women," they told the Shit You Should Care About podcast.

According to them, 13 and 15-year-old boys are talking about Tate. 

A lot. 

In class, by quoting him in speeches, and in the playground.

Some of the conversations they've overheard include them parroting his points of view on how women dress ("like hookers") and "if a woman has had abortions she already loses the right to use the statement 'her body, her choice'."

FullStop CEO Hayley Foster said men praise Tate because his comments strengthen their view that “women and girls are playthings for their own enjoyment.” 

“It’s in the interests of men to back (Tate’s) views, because they serve the status quo power, and reinforces the idea that women are there to serve men,” Foster said. “Perpetuating these views results in them having more access to power and using women for their own purposes.”

In 2016 Tate was removed from Big Brother UK after the release of a video in which he whips a woman with a belt in what he claims is "consensual role play". 

The following year he was permanently suspended from Twitter.

He also runs an online learning platform called Hustler’s University where he charges members $70 a month to access courses about how to get rich quickly through cryptocurrency and the stock market.

Subscribers can also get a slice of Tate's purported $30m fortune by selling memberships to their friends, similar to a multi-level marketing scheme.

"I have a jet. A boat. And 27 supercars," is one of his promotional lines.

And he makes fun of his male critiques who question his legitimacy. "Oh maybe I'll scam you out of a Nando's. Oh no. Boo, f..king, hoo," he said in a recent podcast. 

While Tate has the younger, Love Island-loving, TikTok-dwelling market sewn up, his schtick isn't unique. 

He appears to be cut from the same controversial cloth as Canadian psychologist and far-right celebrity, Jordan Peterson.

Peterson went from obscure scholar to internet sensation a few years ago. Now more than 5 million subscribers are glued to his YouTube videos which denounce identity politics, political correctness, feminism and compare trans activists to being authoritarian.

Peterson, like Tate, found his base amongst disaffected blokes.

Since the release of his book, 12 Rules for Life, in 2018, he has also become a lifestyle guru for men and boys who feel displaced in a world where "white male privilege" is under attack. The best-seller became a cult self-help manual for anxious, lost young (and not so young) men.

Tate's influence however is more potent right now. While Peterson is a mercurial, calm uni lecturer character, Tate is brash, loud and funny. 

Peterson may be in a position to buy the drinks, but Tate is the life of the party.

Behavioural scientist Juliette Tobias-Webb said figures like Tate attract younger audiences, specifically, because they are prone to risky behaviour, and are less likely to understand the consequences of their actions. 

"It's a stage when you haven't had serious relationships or you probably haven't been held accountable for really poor behaviour," she said. "They haven't developed the empathy skills and that inhibition to sort of curb some of these urges."

Dr Tobias-Webb called on men to stand against Tate, and call him out for unkind behaviour so others can understand why it is wrong.

"There seems to be a kind of a lack of consequence for what's happening, and that's what perpetuates this in some ways," she said. "He's able to get on platforms, and able to speak with no consequences and no fear of punishment."