Jessica Ringrose, a professor of the sociology of gender and education at University College London’s Institute of Education, has worked in schools on issues of masculinity, gender inequality and sexual violence. She focuses on 13- to 15-year-olds who are particularly vulnerable to gendered misinformation online. From her experience, 15% to 20% of the boys taking part in her workshops are “somehow buying into this ideology”. The two branded women we meet at Tate’s rented house have been with him for years. They are both being treated as victims by the prosecutor, but both say they’re not victims at all. “I’ve never seen [either] of them being aggressive or rude. They’ve always respected people,” Jasmina told Romanian TV station Antena 1. Seemingly unaware of the possibility of psychological coercion, she told reporters: “The girls were never deprived of their freedom … the door was always open.” There are cases such as where a kid draws a swastika or say that they want to join Isis. The inclusion of Andrew Tate within that – in small and bigger ways – is quite new,” said one. The Tate brothers, who are dual British-US citizens, and the two Romanian suspects were detained in late December in Bucharest. The brothers won an appeal on 31 March to be moved from police custody to house arrest. In 2016, his public-facing career appeared to be over when it had barely begun, when after being cast in Big Brother he was ejected from the house over a video of him hitting a woman with a belt. A second video emerged shortly afterwards, in which he is shown telling a woman to count the bruises he apparently caused to her. Both Tate and the women denied any abuse occurred, and said the clips showed consensual sex.

They feel a shared confidence, as they are all accessing the same content online,” says one teacher. Another adds: “Our boys have an emotional connection to the influencers they are accessing. They will use any argument to defend both their views and their behaviour.” There is a brief section on the women more obliquely affected by Tate’s influence: those whose boyfriends had started off “sweet, maybe a bit vulnerable” and been radicalised during the relationship; teachers worried for the impressionable boys in their classes; and, above all, the 14-year-old girl on the verge of tears about “all the horrible things” the boys in her class feel able to say to girls. million. That’s how many likes Thunberg’s first tweet in response to Tate garnered in just one week, becoming one of the most liked tweets ever. Tangent

Uncommon Knowledge

Rather than focusing on Tate and his ilk, Ringrose recommends an affirmative approach. “It’s about calling boys and men allies and trying to find relatable ways to understand equity and want to fight injustice. There are really great programmes trying to call boys and men into the conversation, raise their awareness of gender inequality and gender stereotypes. They’re doing good work.” After 13-year-olds were also seen making the hand gesture, the teacher said “this morning we’ve had specific guidance in school to keep an eye out and deal with it.” She is frustrated that officials at the Department for Education (DfE) have been advising heads who reach out for help not to encourage discussion of Tate’s views in personal, social and health education (PSHE) lessons, and are refusing to offer any training or resources. Campaigners fear Tate’s views are even seeping into the minds of primary schoolchildren. Last month, the Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones spoke in parliament about Tate’s “toxic” influence on schoolboys and criticised Rishi Sunak for being “too slow to recognise the damage this is causing”. As a result, she was “bombarded” with rape and death threats. But wall-to-wall media coverage in the past few weeks means teachers and parents are increasingly aware of Tate’s poisonous messaging and the threat it poses. Secondary schools across the country have mobilised to arrange additional training for staff, workshops for pupils and awareness-raising events for parents.

To ensure the victims’ loyalty and that they will perform only to the benefit of the members of the group, they were forced to tattoo the name or face of the group member exploiting them,” the prosecutors said. Sean Maher, the headteacher at Richard Challoner, a Catholic boys’ school in New Malden, Surrey, with a co-educational sixth form, describes how he has seen Tate’s influence spread through his school. “It wasn’t really coming up last year,” he says, adding that isolated incidents were dealt with as they arose. “But now it’s got to a point, probably due to the arrests, that he is mainstream. In terms of student knowledge, it’s a common discussion point.” Many Tate videos appear, at first glance, to be harmless, even funny. In his trademark straight-talking style, he derides men who drink tap water instead of sparkling water and people who own cats. “Real men have dogs,” he says. Other material is presented under a banner of male self-improvement.The Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones received rape and death threats after criticising Tate in parliament this month. Photograph: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/PA We need to focus on the issues and not the individual,” says Conroy, who spent 16 years working in secondary schools before setting up Men at Work. “It’s not about Andrew Tate; it’s about misogyny. These issues have been there for ever.” He is, however, concerned about the amount of pornography to which children and young people are now exposed. Recent research revealed that one in 10 children in England have seen pornography by the age of nine, and one in four by 11.

He added that teachers shouldn’t be worried by the gesture itself, but more by what it represents. “For women and girls who are around it, that doesn’t really make much of a difference – ‘ironic’ endorsement of violent misogyny is, in many instances, indistinguishable from the real thing and creates an unsafe atmosphere for them.”

Timeline

Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter raised in Naarm on Wurundjeri country, but now calls London home. They have worked as a reporter across three continents in print, newspapers and broadcast. They specialize in culture, politics, LGBTQ+ and health reporting, and have done so for 10 years. Shannon has covered high profile celebrity trials such as Andrew Tate and Jonathan Majors, along with industry analysis of all the big trends in media, pop culture and the entertainment business generally. They are no stranger to A-list red carpet events and awards shows, industry trade events, including Mipcom in Cannes. Shannon stories have featured on the cover of the Newsweek magazine multiple times and has been published in prestigious publication such as, The Guardian, Monocle, The Independent, Pink News, SBS, ABC, Metro and The Sun. Languages: English, Greek, Spanish. For Tate’s fans, the findings will come as little surprise. Much of his history is not hidden but has been openly discussed in podcasts, and supporters say his straight-talking style is an antidote to so-called cancel culture. In Bucharest, we’re still following the money. And casinos are in the frame because Top G says he owns a chain of them. It’s a natural fit for Tate. “The story is,” he tells his followers in a video clip, “there were three brothers, mafia guys (naturally) who owned 400 casinos across eastern Europe. I went to them … ” He claims he got involved. Made a fortune. Designed a business model.

Tate was arrested by Romanian authorities alongside his brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women in December. The men were kept in jail for three months and released into house arrest in March as Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism investigated them.Andrew Tate has previously denied the gesture is connected to the conspiracy theory in the same video where he explained why he does it. To close the deal, you should take her out to dinner with a webcam girl already in your employ who will help turn the screw. “Martinis, martinis, martinis,” he says, clinking imaginary glasses, “bang, threesome … put both girls on camera together the first day, give them a bottle of vodka.” The money will come pouring in, he says, and they’ll be hooked. “That’s how you recruit girls,” he says emphatically. “You can’t recruit girls any other way.” In a reflection of some increased awareness of misogynistic ideologies as a priority, separate Prevent statistics published last month listed incel as a discrete category. The shape appears to be taken from the yogic practice of mudras, which are hand gestures believed to help direct energy throughout the body. None of our talks or workshops focus exclusively on Tate, as we try to support young people, staff and parents to understand the roots of gender inequality and gender-based violence and see Tate as one small part of that wider issue.”