Teachers have spoken out about how young children are being influenced by controversial social media star Andrew Tate.
The self-proclaimed champion of “misogyny” and “toxic masculinity” presents himself to his legions of followers as an advocate of a self-sufficient “alpha” mentality.
He is currently facing criminal charges in Romania, including organized crime, human trafficking and rape, but the former kickboxer turned influencer remains hugely popular around the world.
Now, teachers in Australia are worried about the growing number of young people who idolize him.
Grace (not her real name) told the ABC 7.30 program on Tuesday who overheard one of his students at the Sunshine Coast school where he taught in 2022 talk about how much they “love” Tate.
Teachers have spoken out about how young children are being influenced by controversial social media star Andrew Tate (pictured)
Grace (not her real name) said she “didn’t feel safe” in her classroom.
‘I had just said, “Look, I don’t want to hear that name in this classroom.” I could see some of the girls roll their eyes and sigh,” she said.
Although there were only a handful of kids who were fans of the British-American TikToker, Grace said it set a “haunting tone” for the class.
“Most of what was happening in my experience was sexual in nature,” he said.
‘Students make whining noises in my classes, ask me inappropriate questions, ask me personal questions about my age or appearance.’
Grace was instructed to use “teaching techniques” to suppress the behavior, but ultimately could not control them and decided to leave her career.
“It’s very disappointing that I no longer feel safe in a classroom,” she said.
“Even though I want to be there to advocate for young girls… my mental health was suffering.”
Dozens of other teachers across the country have suffered similar experiences.
Researchers at Monash University interviewed female teachers about Tate’s impact on Australian classrooms and found it was “popping up” everywhere, from rural towns to metropolitan schools.
The study, which included 30 female teachers, found “widespread experiences of sexual harassment, sexism and misogyny perpetrated by boys towards female teachers, and the ominous presence of Andrew Tate shaping their behaviour.”
“The consistency is one of the most remarkable things about what we found in this study,” said Stephanie Wescott, one of the report’s authors.
Monash University’s Stephanie Wescott (pictured) said a study into Tate’s impact on Australian classrooms found it “popping up” everywhere from rural towns to metropolitan schools.
Tate is currently facing criminal charges in Romania, including organized crime, human trafficking and rape, but the former kickboxer turned influencer remains hugely popular around the world.
“What they were telling us is that Andrew Tate appeared in their classroom in various ways.”
Tate has almost 9 million followers on X and was the fourth most searched topic in Google Australia’s news category last year.
According to 21-year-old Jaidyn Davis, he is most popular with men in their teens and early twenties because of the way he talks about men and women.
Davis and many other young men who follow Tate online said they see nothing wrong with the influencer’s core ideology because he is trying to convey the idea that ‘boys’ should be masculine.
Ethan Slater, 25, agreed, saying Tate resonates with younger men because that’s what they aspire to be.
He went on to explain that he believes Tate’s opinions are often taken out of context.