Unglossed tries to understand the12% of women in the UK who say they support Andrew Tate.
Andrew Tate might be many things but ambiguous about his views, he is not. “I am a woman beating, racist, misogynistic, homophobe. Women can’t drive. They should just have babies and save the population decline, nobody wants to hear their opinions.”
The four-time world kickboxing champion had a Big Brother stint in 2016 which ended after a controversial video came to light, but we have his social media presence to thank for his rise to fame. He has since been embroiled in multiple legal issues, including ongoing investigations into rape and human trafficking allegations in Romania since 2022.
His fanbase is, unsurprisingly, largely male. If you’re a young woman living in 2025 who cares about women’s rights and equality, you might be hardwired to oppose him. A report from The Independent shows that actually, 12% of young women in the UK do support him, a surprising figure given his controversial views on women’s rights and equality.
So, who are the women who support Andrew Tate? Do they have a point, or have they been hoodwinked?
One X user, Sian Gissing, showed her support under a post Tate made about the possibility of becoming PM in the future. “Boys and young men need to grow up to know that they are MEN… So many women fear his masculinity because they are jezebel feminists afraid of what a true masculine leader looks, sounds and acts like.”
Some people might think she’s mad for supporting Tate.
Automatically she doesn’t fit the ‘stereotypical Andrew Tate supporter’. She’s warm, articulate and intelligent. The litigation officer, former model and mother of three made it clear she believes there is a nuance to his opinions. “I don’t agree with a hundred percent of what he says. Do I think he’s arrogant? Yes. Do I believe he peacocks? Yes. Do I believe he’s controversial on purpose? Yes. I’m mature enough to understand why he does it. When he’s on point, he really gets it right.” His controversial comments are just marketing, “I find that amusing, I appreciate sarcasm. I think you can’t deny his use of language is clever. Anyone that can’t differentiate when he’s having a joke and when he’s using sarcasm, that’s just their ignorance.”
Gender studies specialist, David Duriesmith, agrees there is nuance to why this 12% support Andrew Tate and says actually, let’s not assume all women are of the same beliefs. “It’s a really easy mistake to think that all women are pro feminist or anti patriarchal, just because the majority of women, or a much larger proportion of women, are in favor of more egalitarian gender views. That does not mean that all women are.If you do have women who subscribe to more hierarchical and patriarchal gender norms, then some of the things Tate is saying about how men have gone soft, men have failed to live up to personal responsibility, men need to rebuild themselves, might be appealing if that’s what you want in a partner as well. You might not like the bits Tate says around objectification.”
Sian doesn’t think Tate is really a misogynist despite his own claims. “Misogyny is a disdain and dislike for women. That’s half of the establishment in politics, that’s half the police force that rape and murder women or think it’s acceptable to have those whatsapp groups. That’s misogyny to me. Andrew tate loves women, he’s got I don’t know how many women around him, so he’s not hating women is he? Is he objectifying women at times? Yeah, him and every other red-blooded male.”
You can’t argue against the idea that misogyny is deep rooted in society. David suggests Tate and his supporters aren’t the main issue, there’s a bigger picture that we’re missing. “Society does a tremendous amount of double speaking demonization when it comes to people like Tate. Society will point to them and say, ‘Look at these horrible misogynists. Isn’t it terrible that we have these people in our midst, this small minority of people who hold sexist ideas men, women and otherwise.’ If we didn’t externalise these as if this is some incredibly fringe behaviour within our society, you wouldn’t have the persistent patterns of sexism, male domination and violence that we do in our current society.
The organisation Rape Crisis England and Wales reports that one in four women have been raped or sexually assaulted since the age of 16. Unfortunately, Dr Duriesmith says these figures show that Tate acts as a magnifying glass to issues that persist in our society. “The majority of women are going to experience some form of gendered violence during their lifetime. That tells me figures like Andrew Tate are potentially giving a more honest depiction of how gender politics works in really patriarchal ways in many elements of our society. There’s a danger for someone like Andrew Tate, whose business model is partly saying controversial stuff so the media pays attention to him. But, a lot of the things he’s saying are more frank, direct versions of very mainstream misogyny. It’s much easier to say these men are monsters. Why is Andrew Tate appealing to young boys? It’s because everyone else in culture is giving them messages that feed towards him. It’s mundane, low level misogyny, which is in the air we breathe, which constructs every part of normal conversation that makes Tate appealing. He’s extreme, I don’t want to downplay that, but his defenses of violence are direct as opposed to implicit.”
Sian doesn’t feel modern-day feminism is representative or supportive of her beliefs, “Feminism to me is about respect and carving out my place for me and my daughter. It’s more the traditional empowerment side which is if I choose to stay at home and support my husband and be a caregiver to the household a housekeeper and a mother that’s my choice… it comes to choice and I just feel that society is squeezing out this ‘traditional woman”
The Women’s Resource Centre is the leading umbrella organisation representing the women sector, supporting services like rape crisis centres. Kiran Dhami, head of policy and research, focuses on what Tate represents in society, rather than blaming women who support him. “He’s a symptom and symbol of late capitalism. These kinds of people are looking for meaning in this system that has crushed them, they don’t really feel they’ve got any kind of power and control. To a large extent that’s true. A lot of the democratic institutions aren’t representative, they’re not democratic. Tate comes in and gives people a very clear answer to these things.”
Sian’s disillusionment grew facing isolation and bullying from some feminists for supporting Tate. Kiran says it’s disappointing but not unexpected, “Feminism has definitely become more polarised, the gender debate has become really bitter. There’s a real lack of curiosity, and it doesn’t necessarily surprise me, but hopefully that will get better.”
Like most mothers Sian thinks towards the future she wants for her children. “What do I want my two boys to be? As much as I can guide them, I can’t control them. I would like my boys to have a physical skill so they can put a roof over their head and provide for themselves and their family. Andrew advocates for people to get off the sofa and do something with their life, don’t be a bum. I see Andrew standing for something really important, which is family values.”
Sian has an 11-year old daughter so, You might be thinking, well what about young girls, what does Andrew represent for them? She thinks Andrew opposes sexual exploitation of women despite his past involvement in a webcam business with his brother. “This was when they were in their twenties, I certainly wouldn’t like it if what I was doing in my early 20s was being weaponized against me today, because I genuinely have grown and truly believe the Tate brothers have as well. As fathers of young daughters they say it’s disgraceful to have things like Onlyfans and Pornhub, they’re completely advocating against it and rightly so.”
It seems Sian holds fairly mainstream core beliefs, it’s just her support for Tate that’s controversial. She accepts this, but it’s unimportant to her. “What I would hope to see is people being respectful and compassionate with each other. That’s power, listening then being respectful enough to go, that’s okay we don’t have to be 100% in alignment but that doesn’t make you a bad person, it doesn’t make me a bad person, it just makes us different, and difference is okay.”
You might still completely disagree with Sian’s views, she could have a point about listening to one another. Maybe, in our social media fuelled society we are too quick to judge and hate without really listening to what each other is saying. That’s not to say you should support Andrew Tate, there is a definite danger to allowing his ideals to spread, but we must recognise that there is a larger deep rooted issue at hand. Tate isn’t necessarily the main issue, the patriarchal structures that hold up our society are.
