“I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free.”

Almost overnight, Andrew Tate went from obscurity to one of the most controversial people on the internet. This past July, students from his online “Hustlers University,” pushed his videos to go viral, quickly gaining traction all over the Internet.

He’s been making headlines for years now – in 2016, he was removed from “Big Brother” after a video of him hitting a woman surfaced. Along with being investigated for human trafficking and rape allegations, he’s said racist and homophobic slurs on his Twitter account. 

After watching countless videos of him, I understand why people might like the so-called “king of masculinity”; he behaves like the role model teenage boys believe they might need: a confident and assertive man. But here’s the issue: Tate is literally a dreg in society. His appalling advice encourages domestic abuse, homophobia, and rape culture. He emphasizes women are objects and a man should strive to be dominant.

Tate exploits the vulnerability of young boys in need of male role models. He’s perfect for the grown men out there who scroll on Reddit all day; insecure with their masculinity and looking for any excuse to express dissatisfaction towards women. And unfortunately, he markets his disgusting life as “luxurious.” And for the young, impressionable minds of teenage boys, who wouldn’t want to live the luxurious life Tate advertises? Who doesn’t want 22 cars and girls around their arms 24/7?

positive male role models by Ayma Malik [STUDENT]

Plus, it’s not like we don’t have positive role models; there’s plenty out there. It’s just that we tend to pay more attention to the people we don’t like instead of the ones we do. Instead of constantly watching hateful people, our best bet is to report, block, and ignore any accounts that spread similar content. We give all this unnecessary attention to the people we don’t like, so why can’t we start giving the same energy to the ones who actually play a positive, empowering role in the world?

Being a man should not equate to being big, strong, rich, owning Bugattis, and being better than women. It’s about time we rewrite the concept of masculinity, and we can start by boosting content made by men who are actually secure with themselves. We’ve been conditioned for generations to think within gender specific guidelines, hearing phrases like “boys don’t cry” or “you play like a girl.” By dropping phrases like those, we can start to create a space where the ideas of being male or female aren’t within a binary of dominant vs. submissive.

If all of us make an effort from the heart to prevent the spread of misogyny, we can create not just a safer environment for women, but for the young men looking for role models. We could teach young boys that toxicity and masculinity do not go hand in hand.