It was a warm PE class not long ago when the typical so easily slipped into a situation that let on far more than met the eye. The coach, leading our stretches, stopped and asked us for 10 push-ups. The class was bemoaning this and getting into position when there was a sudden voice: 

“The girls don’t have to do it.” 

Everyone looked at the speaker – an athletic classmate, with his ever-smiling eyes, who was still standing.  

“What do you mean?” The coach asked.  

“Only the guys have to do push-ups- that's what Andrew Tate says.” 

I’d been perplexed at the claim from the start, but that presently morphed into an eye-rolling

annoyance. 
“Who’s Andrew Tate?”  

“He’s a fitness influencer.” 

“He’s a misogynist,” one of the girls mumbled, but the coach didn’t react. 

The tall, obnoxious boy was suddenly assailed with a flurry of “shut up”s from my friend, who had apparently seen enough.  

“Hey, hey, stop,” shut down the coach. “Stop, he can live his own life, and you can live yours. We need to find our own paths in life.” 

I was very tempted to bring up Tate’s criminal history, but our coach quickly moved us on to the next stretch, and that was the end of that.  

The coach’s reaction left a bad taste in my mouth. He may not have known who Andrew Tate is, but surely one of his students saying women weren’t fit to do push-ups was cause for alarm. His shutting down of my friend and not the boy was something to wince at, and one has to wonder why it happened.  

Andrew Tate’s sudden rise to popularity this summer has been devastating for the young male population. A seemingly typical fitness influencer starts teaching teenage boys horribly vitriolic ideas towards women – not to mention his connections with far-right figures. Teenage girls were by no means safe before, but I’d argue they’re even less safe now. Even though Tate’s newfound infamy was mostly due to shock and disgust for his ideas, his ideas have now been exposed to the population en masse – including impressionable teenage boys. It’s only early autumn now, and there are countless stories of young boys being horrible to their teachers, their mothers, any woman in their lives. 

Tate himself has been banned from many social media platforms, but his ideas still spread like wildfire. My classmate says vehemently that the woman Tate beat, on video, with a belt, asked him to do so – but even if she did, why did he accept? He was a previous MMA fighter, so why would he accept the offer to physically assault someone he had a huge physical advantage over? It doesn’t matter if she asked him to – Andrew Tate is a violent misogynist and woman-beater and is still being lauded by adolescent boys all over the world. He has been investigated for human trafficking since April. For the safety of every woman, he needs to be charged, deplatformed, and publicly denounced.

Why are my male classmates allowed to "find their own path in life” following violently misogynistic men and my female classmates get shut down for calling it out? If a girl in my class expressed admiration for, say, Valerie Solanas, would she get the same treatment? Would she be allowed to “follow her own path in life?” If one looks up Solanas‘s name, they will likely give an answer of a resounding ‘no.’ But... why? 

...I think we all know why.