Rise of the phenomena
The ‘alpha male’ phenomenon arose online after Andrew Tate gained popularity for his prejudiced views towards women, uploading videos in which he makes toxic masculine and sexist comments. This elitist attitude attracted younger generations, mainly young boys and men. The ‘alpha male’ concept aims to normalise harmful gender stereotypes and has a large social media presence, in which the younger generations on the internet have decided that their other influencers are the likes of Andrew’s brother Tristan, Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk. The concept has changed young people’s perspectives on life from politics to societal and domestic roles, and success.
Social media accounts, on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter), are created under the guise of ‘how to be successful’, which includes impossible every day routine standards and motivational quotes in the form of pictures and videos of male celebrities, like Andrew Tate, and male fictional characters, like Tommy Shelby, from the BBC’s Peaky Blinders. ‘Alpha male’ podcasts are also being streamed by young men globally. The podcast episodes are often of ‘successful’ men sharing their stories and tips on how to be successful – more often than not, fostering sexist ideals and how to implement them. This platform for ‘alpha men’ has been satirised online, mainly by female podcast hosts on TikTok, to combat the trend. Andrew Tate had created an online ‘education’ system called Hustler’s University, which was shut after his ban from social media and now revived as ‘The Real World’. It’s slogan: “Join us. Amass wealth. Escape slavery” ironically disguises their aims of class division and to enslave others by becoming the next Jeff Bezos.
The education of young men and women is threatened by political trends online. Young men who have not yet developed their own opinions often due to lack of education surrounding gender rights are easily lured into the stereotype trap, including the teachings of self-proclaimed ‘alpha males’ to encourage disrespectful behaviour towards minorities, predominantly women. These young men often become aggressive as it goes against the ‘alpha male’ rulebook to be ‘weak’ and ‘insecure’ and this can make them more likely to become abusive to their future partners. Young women who are not brought up with education about their rights create their belief that they are less than men. This includes believing their main role in society is to carry and look after children, cook, clean and leave all the ‘hard work’ to their husband, when exposed to draconian sexist politics. Should they have a future partner who has the same ideologies and they become abusive, the young woman has been conditioned to tolerate their partner’s behaviour and not reach out for help because they will learn to blame themselves.
Impact on politics
Draconian sexist politics of the ‘alpha male’ trend has had a vast negative impact on who young people in the UK voted into parliament in the 2024 general election. YouGov states “more men voted Reform than women (17% to 12%)”, “twice as many young women voted Green than young men (23% to 12%)” and “young men were more likely to vote Reform UK (12% to 6%) and Conservative (10% to 6%) than young women”. It has now become commonplace for supporters of online ‘alpha male’ personalities to support far-right political parties because they share the same ideologies – capitalist economy, anti-immigration by the means of “patriotism”, higher quality education equates to higher status, anti-LGBTQIA+ and stereotypical societal roles.
