The women who advocate against their own rights
As we watch manosphere influencer Andrew Tate’s latest court battle unfold in the public space, there are many who remain steadfastly in his corner, despite his callous disregard for law and human agency. And while some of them we expect to see – incels, pick-up artists and misogynists – there are many women who remain strangely firm in their support for Tate and his brother, Tristan.
The Red Pill Women’s subreddit, a corner of the internet that exists within the manosphere, seeks to uphold traditionalised ideas of gender but leaves enough space to still engage in methods in pursuit of what scholars call “femininity premiums”. The idea is extremely reminiscent of Tate’s philosophy for men and describes women who strive for social status, financial security and “high-value” partners, adapting the core values of the red pill community – male dominance and traditional gender roles – so as to retain some version of agency. But instead of this, red pill women can fall further into the possession of red pill men.
One reason women may be drawn to the Red Pill Women’s community is due to benevolent sexism, an attitude towards women that isn’t openly hostile in nature, but can slowly erode agency from women over time. On the surface, it can be as simple as men wanting to open car doors for women or believing they should be consistently protected. Underneath, it is a belief that women should remain concealed from the horrors of the world, that they should maintain purity, virtuousness and remain untouched by others, mainly other men. For women who submit to this attitude, research suggests they can become more dependent on men, less confident in their own competence and more inclined towards dependency-oriented relationships.
It is interestingly complex to watch women standing steadily in their beliefs that the Tate brothers are new-age pioneers of what it is to be a man. They claim Tate has a “confident, positive mindset”, but fail to recognise that such a “mindset” works in direct competition with their very existence. Over his many years on the internet, Tate has claimed that women are their husband’s property, that they shouldn’t be allowed to drive and, more recently, that women shouldn’t vote. He has also described women as sex workers whose primary role is to find a boyfriend to financially support them.
Tate’s messaging has devolved into pushing not only a mindset change, but also acts of physical violence: “It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face, and grip her by the neck”. He said this in an online video, describing what he would do to a woman if she accused him of cheating.
There can be no positive outcome for women who stand behind the Tate brothers. The rollback of abortion rights in the US is far from an isolated incident, and women are the first to suffer. It will take a significant change in mindset – from dependent to independent – to ensure men like the Tates no longer have a platform to insist on their dangerous philosophies.
