Wagga Councillor Richard Foley thinks some of Andrew Tate’s ideologies “make perfect sense”. Photo: Chris Roe.
CONTENT WARNING: This article mentions violence and sexual assault.
Wagga Councillor Richard Foley says society should take a nuanced view of controversial British influencer Andrew Tate and recognise he can have positive impacts on men.
Cr Foley was responding after Wagga feminists named Mr Tate a key player in popularising negative attitudes towards women.
Mr Tate is the world’s most famous self-proclaimed misogynist, with more than 10 million followers on X (formerly Twitter).
He was previously banned from the platform in 2017 after stating that women belong in the home and that rape victims “bear responsibility” for their attack, although X, under new owner Elon Musk, reinstated his account in 2022.
Cr Foley said that while he disagrees with a lot that Mr Tate says, we shouldn’t believe the mainstream media narrative that Mr Tate was all bad.
“Some things that [Tate] says are completely and utterly provocative, quite deliberately,” he said.
“I don’t think the man’s a fool. I think he’s entirely intelligent. Some of the things he says make perfect sense. I think men focusing on physical health and getting financial security is vitally important.
“But other things that he said are just done … for just deliberately disturbed basic headlines.”
Mr Tate rose to fame on British reality TV show Big Brother in 2016. He was removed after a video surfaced of him beating a woman.
He and his brother Tristan currently face charges for rape, assault and trafficking in the UK, although both have proclaimed their innocence.
Charles Sturt University psychology lecturer Rachel Hogg, who previously warned of the exclusionary and denigrative rhetoric promoted in the manosphere, said people should not be defending Mr Tate.
“I find it incredibly problematic that there’s a level of defence around the fact that someone like Andrew Tate having some content that is not necessarily openly problematic,” she said.
“The point that Richard makes, that people can contain multitudes, is true.
“Andrew Tate and many other content creators do present some content that is not explicitly harmful, but I would say that does not make them less dangerous.
“I would say it makes them more dangerous and it allows their messages to spread and it allows parents to think, ‘okay, it doesn’t look too bad. It’s just an exercise video’.
“But where this is leading is an incredibly dark place and particularly in the case of Andrew Tate.”
Region previously reported on Mr Tate’s beliefs, which included a hierarchy where “Alpha male” sat above “soy boys” or “simps”.
“I think he’s basically trying to say that if you exhibit vulnerability and sensitivity, you’re a wimp,” Cr Foley said.
“But by the same token, I think there’s a lot to be said for men being assertive and not being aggressive.
“Being assertive and expressing how they feel … sometimes it’s gonna upset people, if you’re brutally honest sometimes.”
Cr Foley describes being “aggressive” as “being dismissive, abusive, threatening”.
“The research seeks to understand human behaviour and it helps to identify unhealthy trends,” he said.
“But I also believe that ideological diversity shouldn’t be pathologised.
“That’s painting a political or personality trait with a broad brush and when that is attached to sort of gendered hostility, I think that risks alienating more than those that we need to reach.
“I think that if they conducted a wider study over different cultural backgrounds, you’d see vastly different answers all over the place.”
