Toxic masculinity: 8 days of 'male power' for just €1,990

A knife lies on the side table, next to it a single blue rose, probably made of plastic. So-called "media personality" and anti-feminist "man-fluencer" Andrew Tate sits with his legs spread wide on a leather chair, his eyes hidden behind dark, rectangular shades.

"I've analyzed the entire earth. All of it," he says grandly before waving a sword.

In his view, the cause of every problem in the world can be traced back to the fact that not enough men walk around their homes with a sword.

"There are not enough men like me, who do whatever they want," Tate explains. "I'm the guy who does whatever he wants. And now I want to smoke a cigar, it's just hard to find my cigars among all the money in my pocket," he jokes.

Now Tate comes to the core of his "analysis", namely to those who are actually to blame for everything: Women. Or as Tate like to say, "females." In his view, females manipulate men and control society.

"The female's entire life process from top to toe is that she never really thinks for herself. [Females] are just an empty vessel waiting for someone to install the program and then they become conservative, liberal, feminist, or whatever," Tate explains.

All this can be seen on a YouTube video titled "The Truth About Women" that dates back to 2022. 

Andrew Tate had his luxury cars seized but they were later released as none of them was registered in his name. Image: Alexandru Dobre/AP/picture alliance

It was uploaded by a fan because YouTube had banned Tate and it's been viewed over 41,000 times, although admittedly that is comparatively few viewers for the self-proclaimed misogynist, who is followed by over 10 million people on X (formerly Twitter) alone.

His two Telegram channels are read by over half a million users.

Trademarks: Money, fast cars, misogyny

To many, the misogynistic, "ani-feminist" influencer is synonymous with what is known as toxic masculinity. But Tate is not the only current example of this in pop culture.

German author and philosopher Ole Liebl says there is no standard definition of toxic masculinity.

"Toxic means poisonous. The term describes men who behave like assholes," Liebl told DW. "In other words, harmful, destructive or hurtful behavior that is gender-coded."

Initially the term was coined by women's rights activists back in the 1980s to describe male behaviour characterized by dominance and insensitivity.

Ole Liebl says toxic masculinity harms men as much as it does womenImage: Privat

However, many people are bothered by the term.

"It contributes little to the scientific analysis of patriarchal structures," Liebl said. "Critics also warn that it places masculinity under general suspicion and damages the mental health of men."

A survey of 255 participants from Saudi Arabia's Qassim University and the Centre For Male Psychology in London came to the same conclusion.

Above all, the concept is about power, Liebl says.

"It's an emotional concept, and emotional concepts are important for liberation struggles, they activate us. But it's not helpful for science," he explains.

Wealthy with misogyny

Social media star Tate may talk a lot about women, but he is not that interested in them as customers. He uses his social media channels to lure his followers to his website where he sells online courses. There he promises to make them rich and successful and free them "from the matrix," all for the annual price of €480 ($500). 

Andrew Tate has been banned on YouTube but still has millions of followers on X and TelegramImage: Cobratate@Telegram

The model has attracted countless imitators.

On X and YouTube, thousands of others sell similar guides and online courses to men.

They call themselves "Alphamen" and may, for example, set up forums where they discuss how to "pick up" women for sex and how to rediscover their masculinity.

The phenomenon is not limited to the virtual world either. Weekend workshops named "being authentically male" or "living masculinity" can also be booked online.

The organizers label themselves coaches and personal motivation trainers and will sell clients "eight days of manpower for €1,990." Clients can pay in instalments, they add helpfully. 

The workshops supposedly introduce participants to the archetypes of the "wild man, the inner boy, the warrior, the seducer." 

'What do I do?'

Hundreds of women, whose partners are Tate fans, and even mothers, whose young sons have become radicalized, have posted messages on the social media forum Reddit looking for help. 

One of them is the 27-year-old user "Mystic_Falls36."

In a  post, she describes how her long-term partner has been consuming Tate's content and how he has changed since.

First he asked her to give up her job and become a housewife. Now she has been at home for a year and is pregnant with twins but her partner continues to make abusive comments.

He says things like: "you stay at home all day and still can't keep the house or yourself clean" or "you have the time to go to the gym now, so do it."

The abusive comments were followed by action. In front of his family, the Tate fan punched her in the face.

"What do I do?" she asked on Reddit.

A court in Bucharest just ruled that the trials against the brothers are unlawful so for now, they are free Image: Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo/picture alliance

Incapable of meaningful relationships

Such behavior not only harms women, but also the men engaging in it. Various surveys have attributed lower emotional intelligence, more aggression, higher suicide rates, fewer close friends and less frequent medical check ups to these kinds of men.

According to Liebl, this behavior also results in an inability to enter into meaningful, intimate relationships.

In 2022, Andrew and his brother Tristan Tate were arrested in Bucharest on charges of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal organization.

They are also charged with money laundering and tax evasion by the British judiciary.

The Tate brothers deny everything.

But only a few days after verdicts in the Gisele Pelicot rape cases in France and the discovery of a global rape network on Telegram, a Romanian court declared the criminal proceedings against the Tate brothers to be unlawful. They are now free again.

This article was originally written in German.