Prosecutors have confirm the 21 charges that Andrew Tate, the self-proclaimed misogynist, and his brother Tristan Tate will face when they return to the UK. The charges include rape, actual bodily harm, and human trafficking.
The two were previously arrested in Romania back in 2022, in which they denied the charges and spent months under house arrest.
Tate is known for his misogynistic narratives on social media, in which he’s previously stated women should “bear responsibility” for rape and sexual assault on Twitter, a post he was banned for, but has since been allowed back onto the platform now known as X.
In the last week the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has authorised these charges with a warrant issued to bring the pair back from Romania for trial, where they are currently under investigation for separate charges.
Men Excusing Men: The Political Social Crossover
After a two year travel ban imposed on the Tate brothers in 2022 due to criminal investigations in Romania, the brothers touched down on US soil late last year. When Trump was elected into the Whitehouse Tate posted on X “My case is being dismissed. Watch this space” and about a week later “The Tates will be free, Trump is the president. The good old days are back”. Although Trump denies knowledge of a lifted travel ban, Tates social media posts suggest otherwise.
Outside the courthouse in Romania Tate said to the media ”Donald Trump is the future of the western world, everybody knows it, and everybody needs to get in line and obey him. He runs the world. He’s a good friend of mine and I’m going to help him.”
In the current western political climate, relations between individuals like Tate and convicted felon president Trump could be detrimental to the safety of women and the fight for equality, with a the pair hosting a high level of power and influence in the social and political spheres.
Read more about the effect the trump administration is having on women
Trump and Tate have further parallels in the way they indoctrinate their dedicated fan base. Both fan bases are convinced their idols are being honest and morally correct within a ‘corrupt system’ which is out to get them.
The Manosphere and Tate
Tate belongs to the online communities known as the Manosphere, a network of creators who advocate regressive ideologies about hegemonic masculinity, gender roles and gender-based violence. Tate himself has said that’s “there’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist”, and that there is “no such thing as an independent female”.
The manosphere focuses on real issues affecting men such as a shifting global economy and reduced jobs which are classed as “manly” jobs, as well as the rising male mental health crisis, however in addressing these issues, the movement argues women are the culprit of blame.
Something which has been referred to as ‘aggravated entitlement’, which occurs when those who hold the dominant, privileged or powerful positions in society view equality movements like feminism and their loss of dominant status as a smear campaign.
Read more about the Manosphere and incels here
Radicalising young people
The social media manosphere, is unregulated digital sexism, but with very pressing impacts within the real world. This media landscape has been linked to radicalisation in young boys, subscribed to like a way of life.
In fact police officers have noted that Tate could be radicalising boys and young men with these extreme misogynistic ideologies in a similar way that terrorists amass their followers.
In the current attention economy that is social media, many young people are consuming this content to an extent that it becomes their reality, consumed by red pill echo-chambers. The blingy lifestyle of Tate from fast cars, to almost limitless cash becoming something they aspire to, his ideologies wrapped up in this identity.
Exposure to this content has been found to foster a belief of male supremacy in classrooms which generates hostility and sexism to towards their female peers and teachers. This is especially worrying since misogyny online is being overlooked under counter-extremism policy.
In an interview with the BBC, a mother recalls an incident at school between her son and his teacher in which the boy and his friends repeated Tates views to make the teacher “squirm”, something which the mother worries is consumption radicalisation.
