Content warning: sexual assault, human trafficking, misogyny, child abuse
Andrew Tate’s misogynistic views are reprehensible, but to anyone who is aware of his childhood experience, they shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Andrew Tate has gained infamy because of his hateful views on women, among other things. In the past, he was banned from X (then Twitter) for saying women who had been sexually assaulted should “bear responsibility”. The self-proclaimed misogynist has described women as “intrinsically lazy.” Not to mention, he and his brother Tristan are currently awaiting trial in Romania after being charged for crimes including rape and human trafficking.
The way that Andrew thinks about women is degrading and disgusting, especially as a new generation of teenage boys find his content and begin looking up to him. Although there is plenty to be said about Andrew’s despicable comments and actions, upon learning about his childhood, his views become less surprising.
Andrew’s father, Emory Tate, was a renowned chess player seen by many as a fantastic tactician before his passing in 2015. In 2007, he received the designation of International Master, besting grandmasters and winning state championships in the process. In the chess world, he was a force to be reckoned with.
Whenever Andrew speaks of his father, it is with great respect and admiration.
“My father was a massive influence on my life. I think I had the best father on the planet,” Andrew said on his podcast. “I think he was the smartest man who’s ever walked the earth bar none. Smarter than me by 100 times.”
While Andrew’s descriptions of his father might make Emory seem like a positive father figure, his childhood stories paint a different picture.
“Up until the age of 10 I saw my dad once a week,” Andrew posted on X. “Then I saw him once or twice a year. I was raised by my mother. My father raised me over the phone. I was STILL AFRAID of him, 3000 miles away. ‘I’ll fly today and hurt you boy.’ I obeyed my mother, due to fear of my father.”
While at first glance it might appear as though Andrew is opening up about a traumatic experience, this post is actually a demonstration of respect towards his father. Andrew was raised with the belief that young boys should fear their fathers, and this is his attempt to publicly appreciate Emory’s brutal nature.
But children shouldn’t have to live in fear of their parents. This fear can easily affect a child’s development and mental health, among risking various other forms of psychological damage. Yet, Andrew admires his father for instilling him with this fear – and it doesn’t end there.
Andrew posted about the time he asked his father if he could beat Bruce Lee in a fight, to which Emory said that he could have easily defeated Lee. When young Andrew dared to question this, his father would respond intensely. “This is a world of MEN,” Andrew recalls his father telling him. “You are a BOY. A CHILD. Nobody gives a f— what you think.”
Looking back, Andrew not only respects his father’s answer, but he also agrees with it. “Thinking back, as with every single story I think back about my dad. He was right,” Andrew continued. “Wtf do 5-year-olds know about combat? Be the f— quiet.”
The list of Andrew’s saddening childhood stories goes on and on – and they just keep coming.
A post that particularly stands out is one in which Andrew recalls a childhood experience – one where he innocently enjoyed a girl’s company.
“I took a girl called Jessica home to my house after school,” wrote Andrew. “We rode the school bus together, I musta been around 9. We played Super Nintendo. She stayed an hour and left. [My dad said,] ‘Oh, you playing on your own now? This your only girl, son? Why isn’t there a line outside?’”
This post reveals a major factor that helps explain Andrew’s misogynist attitude: Emory raised his son to believe that girls cannot simply be friends and that he must always be on the lookout for the next opportunity to attract a sexual partner. If there was any possibility that Andrew could have grown up to respect women, his father’s indoctrination killed it.
Andrew didn’t draw his bigoted conclusions from thin air – he wasn’t ever taught that women deserve respect; instead, he was made to feel foolish for wanting to be friends with them. He grew up with the false notion that men must be tough and brutal, and those who aren’t feared have failed at being men. From a young age, he was brainwashed with misogynistic views and raised to believe that men should seek out women to make food and clean the house.
Andrew Tate hates women because it’s all he’s ever known.
None of this is a justification for Andrew’s behaviour. His mentality is abhorrent regardless of his childhood experience because it still belittles women and teaches a new generation of boys to follow in his footsteps. Let it be perfectly clear that I vehemently oppose his thoughts and actions.
Despite the factors that likely contributed to Andrew’s current outlook, it’s worth noting that he still chooses to be so. It is evident that he has not considered the feedback of those who oppose him, instead adopting a mentality founded on ignorance and arrogance. This is why he, and not his father, is ultimately to blame at this point – his father’s behaviour simply provides some context for Andrew’s misogynistic origins.
Andrew Tate’s opinions on women are despicable, but they didn’t come out of nowhere. Looking past the hatred that consumes Andrew today reveals a side of him that is often forgotten. Andrew is not just a hateful misogynist attempting to radicalize the next generation of boys; he is a broken man who spends every day of his life desperately yearning to please his father, even beyond death.