As first-year students settled into a lecture room at a school near London, a teacher pointed to a photograph projected on the wall and asked, “What do you know about this man?”
Some of the guys laughed at the mention of Andrew Tate, a social media influencer famous for his misogynistic comments. One boy said he liked her because he “has strong masculinity”, fast cars and a fit body.
The teacher projected some of Tate’s claims, including that women who are raped must take some responsibility. Some guys agreed. “He’s wrong,” said Jake White, the teacher. “That’s a bunch of bullshit.”
In Britain’s schools, educators are fighting Tate’s messages, belatedly realizing the influence it has on their students. Tate, a British-American former kickboxer, gained millions of followers with videos glorifying wealth and a particularly virulent brand of male chauvinism, before being banned from many social networking sites last summer.
In December, Tate, 36, and his brother and business partner, Tristan Tate, were arrested in Romania on charges including rape and human trafficking. They are still under arrest. His lawyer there, Eugen Vidineac, said in an interview with Turkish radio station TRT that they were innocent.
Neither the arrests nor the bans have stopped the spread of Tate’s message. He says women “belong” to men and should stay home. He has portrayed men as victims of feminism and false rape accusations, reviled men who disagree and promoted dubious enrichment schemes.
Educators said it was crucial to counter Tate’s influence early. Since last autumn, principals have sent letters to parents warning of its reach, and Britain’s Education Secretary has said that influencers like Tate could reverse progress made in the fight against sexism.
“It saddens me that it took up important time in the curriculum to talk about Andrew Tate.said Chloe Stanton, an English teacher in east London. “But women have enough to struggle with in society without having to deal with this kind of attitude.”
For the first time in her 20 years of teaching, her 11- to 16-year-old students have asked her if she had permission from her husband to work. She has overheard students talking casually about rape. And at home, her own children defend Tate.
“He’s brainwashing a generation of kids, and it’s very scary,” Stanton said.
One morning at Merchant Taylors’ School, an all-boys school in London, 16- to 18-year-olds were uneasy when asked by two sex and relationship experts to explain Tate’s attractiveness. “It’s the feeling that men are still looked down on,” said one boy.
“So you empowered young people who felt mistreated?asked Allison Havey, founder of the RAP Project, who is leading the workshop. “Yes,” said the boy.
A student wanted to know why it was wrong to say that it was a woman’s responsibility to protect herself if she walked alone at night. Another asked what was the difference between coercion and seduction.
Although it is mandatory for British schools to teach sex and relationship education, the appeal of Tate has pushed groups like the RAP Project to delve deeper into definitions of misogyny and masculinity.
The Church of England School in Epping St. John, where White teaches, organized a week of assemblies in response to Tate’s arrest and his control of young people.
“In this society, material success conveys being right,” said Michael Conroy, founder of Men At Work, a group that trains teachers and youth workers to support young men. “And he is combining that with very dangerous messages.”.
Those messages, educators said, have found fertile ground among young men wrestling with questions about how to be a man at a time when traditional gender roles are being challenged. Some boys find in Tate a validation of that anxiety, through a vision of the world that presents men as victims. His arrest, they said, reinforced that narrative of victimization.
“We have to help educate them because the world has changed,” said Deana Puccio, founder of the RAP Project. “The great thing about Andrew Tate is that we are finally having the conversation.”
By: Emma Bubola and Isabella Kwai
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6584410, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-02-23 23:50:07
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