Media Releases and Opportunities

When Andrew Tate rose to prominence in 2022, the masculinity influencer became a polarizing fixture on social media platforms that featured what critics condemned as a unique brand of misogyny and male supremacism.

His popularity, largely among young men, raised questions about how his rhetoric might influence followers and how they might express that.

Researchers at Dalhousie University examined the issue in a new study that asked teachers if they were being affected in the classroom by the changing discourses of gender and power perpetuated by Tate.

Dr. Luc Cousineau, a Dal instructor and co-director of research at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies (CIFRS), studied data collected from the /r/Teachers subreddit community of Reddit.com from June 2022 to February 2023.

The researchers analyzed users' discussions of the influences of misogyny on the work of teachers, finding that students were parroting male supremacist rhetoric at school and making female teachers feel devalued.

Dr. Cousineau is available to discuss the findings and how threatening behaviour experienced by some teachers has affected their interest in continuing as educators, the atmosphere in their classrooms and the safety of the school environment.

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Author contact:

Luc Cousineau
Recreation Management Instructor & Internship Supervisor
School of Health and Human Performance
Luc.cousineau@dal.ca

Media contact:

Alison Auld
Senior Research Reporter
Dalhousie University
Cell: 1-902-220-0491
Email: alison.auld@dal.ca