Courses for teachers on how to tackle Andrew Tate’s views are selling out. Schools believe that teachers should persuade boys not to engage in Tate’s so-called toxic masculinity.
According to The Times:
Schools that do not tackle misogyny are laying the foundations for rape culture, according to an expert who runs workshops challenging such beliefs.
Matt Pinkett, who has written about boys, gender and masculinity, said rampant masculinity had been tolerated in schools for years, including groping and offensive sexual comments directed at both pupils and female teachers. Workshops he held last weekend for teachers were sold out.
Tate, 36, who is under arrest in Romania over allegations of rape and human trafficking, has promoted extreme misogynist views and has millions of followers on social media, where he boasts about his wealth and expensive cars. He has denied the allegations.
The former kickboxer has previously said rape victims should bear some responsibility for attacks and, if a woman accused him of cheating said that he would respond: “It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Shut up bitch.”
However, boys are often seduced by his dogma of hard work and hard exercise to become successful.
One teacher told The Times it was important to talk to boys about why they admired Tate so their views could be challenged and changed. “Andrew Tate is just a personification of this rampant masculinity that’s existed in schools and been tolerated for years,” he said.
“Sexualised behaviour has been tolerated. Boys harass and abuse peers and teachers and middle-ranking male teachers haven’t done enough to combat this.”
Some took the attitude that “boys will be boys, it’s something you accept,” he said. “Schools have racism and homophobia policies but hardly any have sexism policies; it’s become naturalised.
“For example, boys making sexual comments to young female teachers, girls groped in corridors, boys talking loudly about masturbation in class — not all of them grasp that what they’re doing is sexual harassment.”
Pinkett co-wrote a book called Boys Don’t Try: Rethinking Masculinity in Schools in 2019, before the #MeToo and Everyone’s Invited movements gained prominence.
He said his workshops recommended an evidence-informed approach, as the subject of Tate’s views understandably often provoked an emotional reaction.
