Social media has become accessible to anyone, anywhere; and has become the perfect feeding ground for hate speech and misogyny to thrive. Labeled under the title of “alpha males,” they describe themselves as strong, confident, assertive, and in control, able to lead and inspire their peers while maintaining power. Additionally, alpha male influencers spread misogynistic views to encourage young men to feel superior to women. Alpha male influencers have gained popularity on social media, mostly on platforms like YouTube and TikTok through podcasts. The title “alpha male” has been most associated with Andrew Tate.
Andrew Tate, known as Top G, rose to popularity in 2016 after appearing on the reality TV show Big Brother. He was soon removed from the show after a video of him hitting his ex-girlfriend with a belt (warning: violent content), which he claimed was consensual, surfaced online.
Tate began creating videos online proclaiming his alpha male status and offering online life improvement programs. Although he was not the first, he brought popularity to the “alpha male” label on social media, and soon came others such as Sneako, Fresh Prince, and Myron. It’s no surprise that the misogynistic ideologies Tate spreads online have manifested into reality. Tate has recently been charged with rape and human trafficking along with his brother, Tristan. Separate charges such as money laundering and trafficking of minors are still under investigation.
However, the popularity of “alpha males” is causing a rise in toxic masculinity among men and spreading harmful rhetoric about rape culture. For example, Myron Gaines, the Fresh and Fit podcast host, believes “Women are not as special as they think they are. There’s a younger, hotter version of you that has less bags, that’s more feminine, that isn’t a h*e and that’s submissive.” He sees women as replaceable property and promotes these beliefs to his primarily teen male audience.
When young boys don’t have strong father figures or a strong parental figure to teach them respect, especially towards women, they lack someone to look up to and teach them to be decent human beings. According to Psychology Today, fatherless children deal with “Diminished self-concept and compromised physical and emotional security,” meaning they struggle with emotions and sense of self. These “alpha males” target the younger generations because their opinions are more easily molded and they need someone to look up to. Since the opinions of others easily influence children, they begin believing every word and give alpha male influencers an audience and following.
There have been many more instances of young boys expelling the hateful ideologies that they hear from men in their lives. Boys say misogynistic stuff but adults just brushed it off as “boys being boys.” The behavior carries on as they become older and only gets worse. Again, adults ignore it because “it’s just their hormones” or “they’re guys, what do you expect?” There are never any major consequences for these kids. A kid who you’ve known since elementary who was a sweetheart is now an unrecognizable misogynist.
As a teenage girl with four brothers, this worries me a lot. The rise of “alpha males” on social media is perilous. I have one older brother and three younger brothers (and more to come). I can’t do anything to change any of my older brothers’ misogynistic beliefs, but with my younger brothers, I try my best to educate them.
Although I wish I didn’t need to, I have to teach them that women are their equals and that they should always be respectful. It was a talk that my parents neglected to have with my older brother and it’s very apparent since he holds a lot of the same beliefs that “alpha males” promote on social media. As of now, the oldest of my young brothers, who is old enough to understand, is very respectful to women and others. He doesn’t like associating himself with bigoted people. I can only hope that he continues to practice what I teach him.
I can’t control the content my younger brothers watch because I have no parental authority. They have unsupervised access to the internet which worries me more. If there are no restrictions on the harmful content that people post, my younger brothers can easily be exposed to the ideologies they promote. “Alpha male” influencers cannot continue to have such a large platform. In this case, my brothers have someone to teach them (me) right or wrong but many little boys don’t have that person.
Society raises young boys to become aggressors. With major access to social media, every young boy now has a bridge to misogynistic ideologies even when none are present at home. In this case, social media must begin de-platforming content creators like Andrew Tate and eliminating any misogynistic ideologies on social media.
TikTok has been taking steps to completely ban Andrew Tate from the platform and flagging content due to violating TikTok’s policy that excludes “content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanizes an individual or a group.” The following platforms: Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook have also banned Andrew Tate and his content. Unfortunately, similar creators are not being flagged and removed from any platforms. Podcasts like Fresh and Fit are still gaining massive popularity, more so it’s created a new trend of podcast content with similar editing styles and premises.
Along with monitoring the algorithm on social media and banning harmful content, parents need to begin speaking to their young children about media literacy. They should point out the normalized misogyny and gender-based degradation hidden in popular media. Parents, particularly fathers, should speak to their sons about identifying bigoted ideals and finding alternative role models to Andrew Tate and other misogynistic content creators. If normal talks don’t seem sufficient enough to eliminate the problem, parents could take the step to add restrictions to the content their children view. TikTok provides parental controls, allowing for content preferences and family pairing. Instagram offers similar controls as well and has a strict policy of no “hate speech”, which misogyny constitutes under.
Misogyny hurts everyone. There are no ‘winners’. Men are emotionally and psychologically damaged by it. They cannot express their emotions because they fear being called “weak”. They must take on traits such as risk-taking behavior, violence, and dominance. They take on playboy personalities and prioritize their jobs over anything else. Resulting in negative mental health such as recently, men being 3.90 times more likely to kill themselves than women. Essentially, all this pressure put on men puts women at a high risk of sexual assault and other forms of violence. 1 in 4 women have been sexually assaulted in the United States, that is far too many. There should be none. Women can take all the protective measures they can and there’s still a chance it will happen. However, if young men and women focus on the root of the issue, misogyny, change can be made.
The feminist movement has done the most to combat these issues, more than any other movement. Many people get lost in the concept of feminism and don’t realize that feminism benefits men as well. Feminism has been advocating for men’s mental health for a long time. Feminism recognizes that phrases such as “man up” do not allow men’s mental health to be taken seriously and are directly caused by misogyny. Additionally, feminism has been an advocate against the immense violence done to women. In 1994, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act which provided an adequate response to gender-based violence, sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking as well as a way to prevent it and support survivors; it was last updated in 2013. Undoubtedly, feminism has done a lot for both men and women.
The solution to misogyny’s effects on society lies in society itself because we must fix those issues, it’s on us to educate future generations. It all starts at home, it’s a parent’s responsibility to raise their children correctly. That way, outside influences such as social media do not easily influence them. It’s better to start implementing good values and morals in your children early on, so they can tackle issues such as misogyny in the future. Any bad behavior must be shut down early before it leads to another case of sexual assault or domestic violence, or before they’re another man spewing hateful ideologies online.
But to come in with the new, we must eliminate the old. Now is the time to begin de-platforming alpha male influencers to make room for the new, less-bigoted generations ahead, as well as preserving the innocence and respectability many young boys, such as my younger brothers have towards women. I will continue to do my part to teach my brothers that women are humans and no one is exempt from respect, regardless of their gender.
