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Edmonton Journal

Boys are adopting Andrew Tate's misogynistic views — and bringing them to class, study finds

Article content 'Sometimes it's a little more overt than that,' Cousineau said. 'There are some illusions to folks saying, 'I think my administrator actually agrees with them.'' Article content 'We really wanted to demonstrate this is happening in real time, and it's having some significant impacts,' he said. 'There are real and tangible dangers to continuing to do nothing. Not recognizing this as a real issue allows it to proliferate and continue.' Article content This isn't just the immature actions of some boys. 'While it is tempting to be reductionist about a problem like this, we have zero social tolerance for overt racism, especially in the classroom. Why should we tolerate identity-focused hate based on gender,' Cousineau said. Article content Violent misogyny is never fine. 'It only takes one violent misogynist to carry out a Toronto Van Attack or another Ecole Polytechnique.' Article content In 2018, Alex Minassian drove a rented van into pedestrians on a busy sidewalk on Toronto's Yonge Street, killing 10. Minassian once told a psychiatrist after the attack that he realized his victims were random pedestrians and was 'wishing for more females.' Article content Article content In December 1989, 14 women in a mechanical engineering classroom were killed by gunman Marc Lépine at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique. Article content How to monitor what kids are exposed to gets into thorny territory, he said. 'Do parents know what their kids consume online? Are lots of parents having in-depth, connected conversations with their kids about what they're consuming and what the implications of that are? Generally, no.' Article content 'These are really hard things to do. But if we don't know what kids are exposing themselves to, and we're not engaging with them, that stuff might not come out at home,' Cousineau said. 'It might come out at school.' Article content 'We have evidence in this country, and many other places around the world, of the most extreme form of these kinds of violent misogyny, and nihilistic violent misogyny, where young men go out and kill people because of these ideas,' said Cousineau. Article content Article content Those acts of violence don't come out of nowhere, Cousineau said. People grow into them. 'All of the data we have about radicalized violence show us they develop over time,' he said. Article content 'We need to be addressing it young and at source.' Article content