Parents, you can (kind of) breathe a sigh of relief.
The notorious Andrew ‘King of Toxic Masculinity’ Tate has finally been kicked off YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
Yep, after several weeks of the 35-year-old former kickboxer’s “violently misogynistic, homophobic videos” videos circulating on social media – he’s been banned and they’ve been taken down.
In case you weren’t aware (lucky you!) Tate claims women to be men’s property and that victims of sexual assault should “bear some responsibility” for their attacks in a series of videos that went viral.
He also claims to prefer to date 18-year-olds because “they’ve been through less dick” than older women, and that he’d refuse to give CPR to a man because “that would be gay”.
The potential influence on young men, his target audience, is worrying because Tate ‘walks his talk’: He’s not only been under investigation for sex trafficking and rape in Romania, but has admitted in a video that 40% of his reason to move to Romania was that Romanian police were less likely to pursue sexual assault allegations than police in the US.
Yeah. We know.
Some may say it’s too little too late.
That the damage has been done.
But is it ever too late for parents, especially dads, to model respectful behaviour with and around women to help combat misogyny that runs rampant and often unchecked online?
Some schools are helping provide resources for guardians.
At least two Adelaide schools – Unley High School and Black Forest Primary School – have emailed information home to carers containing advice on how to broach the Tate topic with their kids.
“As a school we do not endorse the views of Andrew Tate and do not want to perpetuate these through the school,” Unley High School principal Greg Rolton wrote to students’ families, as reported by ABC News.
“Please find the resources attached that we have put out to all staff to ensure they have tools to respond to such extreme views that may influence impressionable students.”
The resources were created by Instagram account @theunteachables, which was initially created as a guide for teachers in handling the Tate topic with their students – but it works just as well for parents.
Here’s what @theunteachables suggest you do:
- Don’t ignore the subject: The absolute worst thing we can do is do or say nothing (or very little).
- Open the conversation so you can guide in a way that informs and educates.
- Approach with curiosity and non-judgment and then explain why Tate’s content is problematic (in language that is age appropriate).
- Name the content for what it is: misogynistic and violent (when we ignore, we normalise).
- If you see your child laughing about or speaking positively about Tate, don’t just tell them to stop talking about it. Instead, try to explore why they see it positively and what they think is funny about it.
- If you hear your child actively acting out or expressing these views, immediately name the behaviour for what it is. Eg: “What you have just said is homophobic/misogynistic/sexist/violent/abusive”.
- Then, ensure any victim or witness of the comments is safe and knows the views and behaviour is unacceptable.
- Finally, have a discussion with your child exploring the real harm of these views/behaviours and educate them around the deeper issues. Eg: “Do you understand the things you said are serious and not okay?”
Source: @theunteachables
