Sigma male culture is a new wave that is popular among Gen Z and is extremely harmful to teens because of its misogynistic propaganda and people like Andrew Tate pushing the idea of hustle culture.
Characters like Patrick Bateman, protagonist of American Psycho (2002) have been taking over my TikTok feed, turning psychopathic serial killers into an idol for young men to look up to. American Psycho is a thriller based on a banker who gets everything he wants, hot girls and insane wealth, but slowly descends on a path of insanity. Bateman represents a new point of masculinity, a lone wolf kind of character that exists outside of the Alpha-Beta hierarchy. Alphas are strong powerful men who are in charge, and Betas, are submissive people who follow the rules, but Bateman is known as a Sigma, named with a seemingly random Greek letter. Not only does he attract good-looking women, but he doesn’t want them and treats them with contempt. Sigmas also portray outdated gender roles for both men and women, like seeing women as property. If this is the idol for young men, what will they become in the future?
Andrew Tate is another character in this Sigma fantasy that incels on the internet have created. Tate is a content creator in Romania who preaches the idea of masculinity but doesn’t practice what he preaches. On December 29, 2022, he was arrested in Romania along with his brother Tristan on suspicion of human trafficking, rape, and forming an organized crime group, prosecutors said. This is another terrible idol that teen boys see as the peak of masculinity. Tate has stated women are “the property of men” and that women “belong in the home.” These ideas are extremely harmful to lost boys on the internet because they see him with his Bugattis and cigars and think this is what it means to be cool. Tate founded an online course called “Hustlers University” charging $49.99 a month for money-making schemes like crypto and dropshipping. Tate told the people at Hustlers University to flood the media with videos of him to bring more attention to himself in an affiliate scheme that made him millions.
Although supporters of these Sigma characters would say that you can separate the good from the bad, only heeding the positive stuff about masculinity. There are themes of self-help seen in American Psycho and traditional masculine roles told by Andrew Tate, but bringing any attention to these people still allows them to spread misinformation that others may believe.
The best thing you can do is stop promoting these ideas. People like Andrew Tate are harmful people and should not be in positions of power. The last thing they should be doing is influencing the future of the world, filling their head with misogynistic beliefs.
