Artifact 18 - “Feminism is a chore to us”: School in the era of Andrew Tate - Cosmopolitan

A 70% rise in teacher reports of classroom sexist language in just one year is, to put it bluntly, a horrifying change. There is a powerful cultural force pushing these young men into sexist, antifeminist positions, and Amber O’Connor is quick to point out one clear culprit: ‘manosphere’ and anti-feminist social media influencer Andrew Tate. It’s hard to express, as a young adult, just how popular this man is with my generation and especially the generation below me. In what feels like essentially all circles, it is possible to find someone who follows him on some social media, or at least once did. His views spread like wildfire: be a man, be strong, be uncaring, get money, women are useless distractions. He appeals to young men disaffected by the state of the world (which, as I may remind, affects women too) and allows for them to feel powerful, in control, and better than the women they see as beneath them.

It is no wonder, then, that this sentiment fosters most heavily in school environments. After all, as Gendered Lives details on page 165, young men who want to fit in at school will often adopt viewpoints and actions in a group that they otherwise would not alone—do something bigger, say something more crazy, and you will be popular amongst your peers. By joining this sexist manosphere movement, these young men are finding a community and solidarity in being toxic, and punishment is only proof of how far they were willing to go. Thus, I believe the best way to combat this is by treating these actions as simply embarrassing, lame, and ‘weird.’ Only by removing the incentive for further harm—increased masculine social status—can we stop this meteoric rise in sexism.