Labour has announced plans to treat “extreme misogyny” as a form of extremism. While it’s unclear what this will look like in practice, it is clear that the last few years have seen the rise of “mega misogynists” like Andrew Tate. Unsurprisingly, the news is going down poorly with Tate and his copycats:
This woman pretends to care about the safety of women while allowing hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants to arrive by boat.
What is “extreme” misogyny?
Being masculine.
They want to kill the spirit of any man who will resist enslavement. pic.twitter.com/yaJJtozJWt
— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) August 17, 2024
Mr Misogyny Andrew Tate
“What is “extreme” misogyny?” Andrew Tate asks himself.
“Being masculine,” he answers.
It’s true that people criticise “toxic masculinity“, but the key word in that phrase is “toxic” – an adjective which is there to clarify that we’re not talking about masculinity in general. No one is criticising men for pursuing a career as a lumberjack or for helping an elderly neighbour with their gardening; they’re criticising men for:
- Suppressing every emotion except anger.
- Rejecting any feminine trait.
- Believing that women should be subservient to men.
- Asserting that men need money, power, and/or fame to have worth.
The ideals of toxic masculinity are impossible for any man to live up to, as Tate himself should appreciate:
In light of Andrew Tate’s apparent ability to ‘tuck’ expertly….some people were asking for suitable drag names for him.
I would like to propose ‘Miss Ogynist’#FarageRiots #FarRightThugs #EnoughIsEnough #ToriesGone36 pic.twitter.com/zkqOZxGdNw
— calum mackenzie (@calummack1961) August 9, 2024
The result of toxic masculinity as an ideology is you end up with a load of angry, self-loathing dickheads who channel their insecurities into an all-consuming and ever-growing rage.
But is Andrew Tate actually as bad as people say he is?
The man himself has said that he’s “absolutely a misogynist“, adding: “I’m a realist and when you’re a realist, you’re sexist. There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist”. Tate has also admitted to and encouraged using a process identical to the ‘loverboy method’, which is used by pimps to ensnare women. Here’s what he said on that:
My job was to meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, test if she’s quality, get her to fall in love with me to where she’d do anything I say, and then get her on webcam so we could become rich together
The “become rich together” part is disputed, however, Tate faces charges of “rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women”.
Clearly traits like ‘thinking ahead’ or ‘self-preservation’ aren’t part of toxic masculinity, as Tate has recorded himself multiple times “self snitching”:
The Andrew Tate effect
The problem with Andrew Tate isn’t Tate himself; it’s the men and young boys who agree with him. A YouGov poll from 2023 found:
Overall, 54% of children aged 6-15 have heard of Tate, including 60% of boys that age. Among boys aged 13-15 that figure increases to 84%.
One in six 6-15 year old boys (17%) have a positive opinion of Andrew Tate, including 23% of 13-15 year olds.
If you’re a woman, it’s easy to understand why 17-23% of men believing you should occupy a lesser position than them is bad news. If you’re not a woman, just imagine that for whatever reason 17-23% of men believed that you personally deserved to hold a lesser position (and also that they could pimp you out and keep the money).
While it’s a good thing that more children and young men disagree with Tate than agree, it’s a worrying trend – especially when you consider the real-life examples of this misogyny in practice. As Sally Weale reported for the Guardian in 2023:
I listen in on one Men at Work training session, attended by 20-plus teachers from state and private schools. Many of those attending are also parents, worried about the impact of influencers such as Tate on their sons. “We see misogyny every day in my school, with everything from boys ignoring instructions in corridors from female staff to serious sexual assaults,” says one teacher. “We need to do something.” Another describes how boys entertain themselves by seeing how many times they can slip the phrase “Make me a sandwich” into her lesson.
“They feel a shared confidence, as they are all accessing the same content online,” says one teacher. Another adds: “Our boys have an emotional connection to the influencers they are accessing. They will use any argument to defend both their views and their behaviour.”
Labour steps in
Of course, the fact that extreme misogyny like Andrew Tate’s is causing genuine problems doesn’t mean that Labour will provide genuine solutions. A BBC article on the announcement reports:
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has ordered a review of the UK’s counter-extremism strategy to determine how best to tackle threats posed by harmful ideologies.
The analysis will look at hatred of women as one of the ideological trends that the government says is gaining traction.
Ms Cooper said there has been a rise in extremism “both online and on our streets” that “frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy”.
The review will look at the rise of Islamist and far-right extremism in the UK, as well as wider ideological trends, including extreme misogyny or beliefs which fit into broader categories, such as violence.
It will also look at the causes and conduct of the radicalisation of young people.
Ms Cooper said the strategy will “map and monitor extremist trends” to work out how to disrupt and divert people away from them.
It will also “identify any gaps in existing policy which need to be addressed to crack down on those pushing harmful and hateful beliefs and violence”, she said.
Interestingly, Cooper adds:
Ms Cooper said that action against extremism has been “badly hollowed out” in recent years.
The Canary has criticised successive Tory governments for their approach to extremism, but rarely did we argue that the problem was that the state’s ability to police its citizens had been “hollowed out”. If anything, too much money and effort was being directed towards policing minority groups (particularly Muslims) and activists. Cooper’s words suggest that Labour doesn’t want to improve on what the Tories were doing; they instead just want to throw more money at the issue.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s familiar with Labour post-Tony Blair:
Tony Blair “I always saw my job as to build on what Margaret Thatcher had done”. pic.twitter.com/lFCRsACUNj
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) January 22, 2022
Unbiased
At the Canary, we’ll be watching these developments with interest, and we’ll be reporting on them with the same level of scrutiny that we applied to the Tories. We’re in agreement that misogynists like Andrew Tate are having a clear and intolerable effect on society, but we’re mindful of Labour using the issue to build on the draconian surveillance state. You should be wary too.
To end on a lighter note, though, here’s an example of the ridiculous lengths that toxic macho men will go to in order to defend their hero’s lack of any visible length:
Yer dad's gone out to bat for Andrew Tate's willy on Facebook pic.twitter.com/BMrgm6eYpN
— Francy ™️🐍 (@DanceyFrancy) August 13, 2024
These men are both the inmates and the guards of a mental prison they’ve constructed for themselves.
Featured image via Andrew Tate – (YouTube) – Keir Starmer (Flickr)
