Misogynist male influencers need to be completely de-platformed — for your children’s sake. 

The influencers often target young boys and men from the ages of middle school to early adulthood, resulting in a community of self-proclaimed ‘alpha-male’ misogynists, both represented online and in person. 

These influencers encourage a brand of masculinity that is toxic to both these young men and the people in their lives, and we must turn them off before their influence gets any more widespread and damaging.

According to Psycom, symptoms of depression in boys have increased from 4.3 percent to 5.7 percent, and that six million men in the U.S. currently suffer from depression. Men are often taught to conceal their emotions in order not to look weak, but this behavior can lead to mental health problems like antisocial tendencies, depression and even suicide. 

The most prominent misogynist content creators is Andrew Tate, who fueled this community of self-loathing young men, and is quite controversial in every aspect of his life. He was recently freed from house arrest in Romania, and faces charges relating to sexual assault and human trafficking, which came to light after his organization was exposed for sexually exploiting women. 

Tate makes ‘self-help’ talks online which encourage violence against women and expresses his belief in male supremacy. In one interview, he talks about how if a woman goes out with a man, she belongs to him. In another video, he says he is not a rapist, but he likes the idea of being able to do what he wants. 

“I expect absolute loyalty from my women,” he stated in the video. 

His influence can be quantified with 4 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. His fans that outwardly display their indoctrination.

These ‘therapeutic’ videos includes him saying, “how can I feel depression when I’ve smashed and destroyed 68 people’s faces in front of me?” in regards to dealing with depression. He stated in an interview with Tucker Carlson that he doesn’t believe in the idea of depression, saying that it’s something you can “choose” not to have. Tate discourages seeking emotional therapy, but rather going to the gym and building a severe “God complex.” 

Another example of these influencers is Sneako, who makes content geared toward young men that is also quite misogynistic. He also pretended to sexually assault a female content creator he had a disagreement with. In a recent video, he was filmed meeting young fans, and the first things they said to him were that they hate transgender individuals, women, and gay people. Upon hearing this, he was shocked and embarrassed, saying “What have I done?”  

These beliefs are toxic and an extremely unhealthy thought process for young men to have, as they could end up hurting their mental health while navigating the transition from childhood to adulthood. We should start encouraging young boys to seek proper therapy and give them reassurance that talking about emotions doesn’t make you weak, but rather strong.  

The root of the issue is that we need to foster the role of masculinity to something that isn’t used as a tool to demean women and prohibits young men from expressing their emotional needs. Our society is at fault for this reoccurrence of misogyny and toxic masculinity. 

If we are going to teach young men a healthy form of masculinity, we should start by de-platforming toxic masculinity influencers.