Andrew Tate is back in the news cycle … unfortunately. Famed for his tweets and videos advocating violence towards women and bemoaning the current state of the world, he’s infamous for his remarks about how he would deal with a cheating girlfriend. “It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Shut up b****.” Obviously utterly unconscionable and repugnant. And yet, the man has an enduring appeal, especially among young men and boys. Allow me to offer an explanation from what I have seen from my position in school counseling about why this is.
In the middle of the 2022-23 school year, the student I had requested sidled reluctantly into my office and chose a seat. I read the email from his teacher again, then cleared my throat and asked, “So, why’d your teacher send you down?” He looked up, mouth turning up into a smirk, knowing his answer would irritate me. “We were arguing about who was Top G.” I sighed. I was already tired of hearing that phrase. And I knew all too well where it had come from.
Andrew Tate, the original “Top G” (top gangster) and source of that phrase for my students, has become even more of a provocative figure among various online communities. His brash persona, flaunting of wealth, and provocative appeal to masculine ideals made him a lightning rod at the middle school I worked at. He really blew up in 2017, when he made a series of provocative comments around the “Me Too” movement on the former Twitter. Cashing in on that fame, he ran a series of businesses including a pornographic webcam site and a cryptocurrency.
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Beginning in 2022, Tate was singled out for his outsized influence on boys and young men, and his name became a household term, generally uttered in dismay. Time in the spotlight brought to light some concerning accusations, beyond his vile statements. He soon faced criminal allegations with 3 accomplices in Romania, where they were charged with rape, human trafficking, and forming an organized crime group to sexually exploit women in 2023 – allegations related to his webcam business. In August of 2024, the investigation expanded to include trafficking minors, sex with a minor, money laundering, and attempting to influence witnesses. He denies all these allegations and is suing one of his accusers for defamation. Less horrifically, he is also accused of tax evasion in the UK, which he seems to wear as a badge of pride.
Despite these serious accusations, his impact remains significant. When I encountered Andrew Tate in my professional work, it was mostly through the context of short, provocative TikTok videos being quoted by students. The topics varied widely from mocking Star Wars fans to promoting advice about success to questioning the value of college and attacking the tenets of feminism. As he blew up on TikTok and YouTube over the past 3 years, he made quite an impression among middle school students. His commentary is always cutting and provocative, his wardrobe impeccable, his sharp diatribes memorable and snappy, and his “drip” unquestioned.
Recently, he has been mocking the British Labor Party as its reign falls apart. Having converted to Islam, he advocates for women to accept their secondary roles, quite intentionally enraging the establishment feminists in the UK. He also interestingly advocates for faith more broadly. He sees the value of tradition, and praises Christianity alongside Islam as an organizing force for society, without which social collapse is inevitable. Sometimes, he hits right to the heart of the matter. Some of his observations show the deeper insight he has as a child of multiple cultures (English and American) that allows him to be so perfectly cutting in his soundbites.
His appeal, then, is particularly compelling to boys who felt grounded down by the system, who know that the culture around them is not working for their good. Including some boys raised in Christian households, who see the ills around them but find few answers in the pews.
I see the issue in the school I work at all the time. It is a feminized environment. The ability to sit still, focus, complete task after task, and remain quiet are considered essential skills. This tends to cut across the grain of the nature of boys. Girls are more collaborative, respectful to authority, and patient. They fit what we have been trained to think of as ideal for students.
There are some concessions made these days to the masculine tendencies, thankfully. Time outside to play games, sports teams, and club events that break up the school day. Teachers will now routinely take their classes outside for a break, giving boys time to reset their attention spans and work off some of their bubbling energy. We are slowly working to change the environment, to acknowledge and address the fact that school culture, as it has been practiced for the past 50 years, is difficult for boys to conform to. This does drive ADHD over-diagnosis, in my opinion. Some students really do need help to focus … others are medicated for their parents and teacher’s ease. And often, they know it.
Andrew Tate, given how reactive he made women, was and is an outlet for many frustrated boys. He promotes wealth, power over others (particularly women), and intentional ascendance of the hierarchy around you. He does give some surprisingly good advice sometimes and clearly is more intelligent and insightful than his persona allows. But ultimately, he sells a vision of how a boy, or a man, can take advantage of modern culture to get ahead. Most of his advice is shallow posturing, from what I have seen of his videos.
Ultimately, while he can have some surprisingly deep moments of insight into the culture around us, Tate is a self-admitted hustler who is interested in cashing in on his fame and building his brand more than actually offering an alternative to our feminized political and educational environment. He is attractive to his audience in large part because he is provocative. In responding to him, one can offer an actual traditional understanding of masculinity in retort. Developing skills, finding your footing in the world, and building a family are all noble goals beyond his intention of exploiting society and others for one’s own benefit.
Tate offers another path, another will to power. He questions the underpinnings of the modern, secular world, and makes a mockery of social justice, gender theory, and other sacred cows of our times. He tells boys that they ARE different from girls, and that’s not a bad thing, and can even be a source of power.
Boys have been left behind. Men have become villains and buffoons in much of the media we parse, and there is little positive vision of masculinity.
Here’s my advice, for dealing charitably with those aspiring Top G’s in your life. Don’t become reactive. Don’t take your child’s phone or ban them from TikTok (though I advise avoiding it anyways for children and adults), or wash their mouth out with soap. Calmly address their concerns and offer your vision of what it means to be a successful man. Don’t feed the trolls. Leave Andrew Tate to lurk beneath his bridge, and snatch greedily at unwary Internet travelers.
Matthew Allen is a Licensed Professional Counselor and school counselor in Virginia, where he lives with his wife and family. He works primarily with children and adolescents, and also provides psychiatric emergency care at a local facility. He has a background in chaplaincy, education, and business.
