Kindell Readus is a junior and a reporter for the Fishers Tiger Times. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper. 

   “Who cares what she likes, she’s not allowed to like things. Her opinions are invalid. She’s a female. She is barely sentient. She can’t think for herself, you are [men] supposed to think for her, to come along and say ‘look you’ve been thinking thoughts all your life and all its ended up getting you is in my bed.’”   

   Toxic Masculinity is a term used to define unhealthy and oftentimes traditional views of what a man should be and how he should treat those around him. This type of thinking states that men need to be unemotional, violent, power-hungry and borderline narcissistic.

   The quote above demonstrates attributes of this philosophy from the viewpoint of the internet’s newest controversial figure Andrew Tate. Tate gave this quote as a piece of relationship advice to listeners, telling them the women are too soft, too emotional, to be able to think for themselves so why not just think for them.  

   Figures like Tate have built their self described “cult like” following through social media. The former famous kickboxer has always had a large fanbase, a fan base that due to his previous career was largely young aspiring athletes. As the years went on however and his content began to reflect more of his belief system and less workout tips his target audience changed but those young fans were happy to stay along for the ride. Tate and others that think like him present a danger to the young boys that look up to figures like this as well as the women who find themselves the target of these harsh words. 

   Young boys are now correlating being strong and successful with narcissism, misogyny, as well as physical and emotional abuse, meaning that this generation of boys will continue this haunting and terrorizing legacy that Tate and those before him worked to uphold.   

   In light of Tate’s recent ban on social media people must call in to question Tate’s part in a long standing issue and whether a simple ban, no matter how many people, is enough to stop widespread social issues that have been instilled in society as a whole.