Meet the Dorset teacher combatting misogyny in schools in wake of Tate

This article contains discussion around sexual violence. Reader discretion is advised.

Warren Doyle, head of anti-bullying at Glenmoor and Winton Academies, has been putting together educational talks, presentations and conversations to tackle misogynistic comments and violence. ‘In our school we have a good set of young boys. I haven’t heard much in the way of anyone seeing him as a hero, or particularly fascinated by him, which has been really pleasing to see.

I’m asking people to do some education around his influence and rhetoric, as it’s dangerous.’

Influencer Andrew Tate, who is currently under arrest and charged with organised crime, human trafficking and rape, is a hugely familiar and influential figure to many male school pupils according to teachers up and down the country. His influence has been described as grooming by Ben Karling, who advises teachers on Twitter how to tackle his influence on pupils. At the time of publishing, Tate has been viewed more than 11.6 billion times, which is the entire male human population watching him almost three times.

‘After the Sarah Everard case, I did an assembly for the year 11 boys. I said, you know lads, those of you who are listening, this is targeted to you. We can do little things, like crossing the street when we see a woman walking alone.’

Society continues to fight rampant misogyny and violence against women which is visible in schools, with boys reportedly as young as 10 being drawn into lucrative online videos. 

Tate has been recorded hitting women with belts, saying that ‘women can’t drive’ and that ‘men can cheat but women can’t. He also alarmingly said that women should ‘bear responsibility for being raped’. He has also been recorded telling a woman he is accused of raping that he ’loved raping her’.

Dr Nadal of Psychology Today notes that it’s ‘hard to be what you can’t see’, the sentiment echoed by Doyle, who expands on how he has educated himself and ‘had his eyes opened’ after listening to female companions share their experiences. Screenshots below show of some of the educational content given to boys, presents positive male role models, with values of kindness and honesty emphasised. It’s evident that representation matters, from LGBT+, religious, ethnic, nationality and physical differences, there needs to continue to be considered visibility and continued call-outs of intolerance.

Slides from educational resources provided by Doyle.

Elias Khoury from the London School of Economics notes in an award - winning essay that ‘feminism and capitalism are unable to coexist’, and in order to address women's exploitation the ‘mechanism’ of capitalism has to be challenged, a rhetoric that Tate’s loyal followers may resist following accusations that he runs a pyramid scheme.

‘When you’re that age and you see houses and cars, and they see that lifestyle it is appealing. But the reality is, we’re not all going to have it. They see how easy it seems.’ Doyle details.

Guiding impressionable boys when they are at their most malleable may well influence the next generation into being more harmonious and balanced - from refusing to participate in locker room banter to potentially shifting the economy, and most importantly protecting the women in their lives.

‘I can only speak for our school, but a good 95% of our kids are nice kids, they aren’t hateful, a lot of the issues we have is just general misbehaviour.’ Education and conversations appear to be the way to combat violence against women, and a successful case study in Glenmoor and Winton Academies.

Listen to the interview here...

In the late 1850s, a young Harry Keller played dangerous games on the streets and train tracks of Pennsylvania.

This was a boy unafraid of taking risks.

At only 10 years of age he took an apprenticeship with a druggist, where at times he had unsupervised access to a range of chemicals. On one such occasion he reportedly blew a hole in the floor of his employer's drugstore, and fearing the wrath of his parents, stowed away on a train and became a vagabond.

A British-born minister befriended the 10 year old homeless boy, adopted him and paid for his education on condition that Keller would study to also become a minister. The deal didn’t last. One evening Kellar saw the performance of a traveling magician, "The Fakir of Ava" and immediately got the urge to go on the stage. He bought books on magic and finally left the minister behind.

After working as a magician’s assistant for a year, at the age of sixteen he gave his first solo performance. It was a disaster, and Kellar went back to assisting and learning the craft with a number of travelling showmen.

In 1873, now 23 years old, Keller was confident enough in his skills to embark on a tour of Central and South America. He and his partner made the equivalent of $212,000 in Mexico and performed for the Emperor in Brazil. Flush with cash and a burgeoning reputation, they set sail for a tour of England.

The boat sank, along with a cargo of gold, silver and an entire cache of stage-magic equipment.

Keller was far from home with nothing to his name other than the wet clothes on his back and the ring on his finger. With the ring pawned he had enough to buy some simple props and earn his way into a boarding house before seeking a little entertainment.

That entertainment was the “Egyptian Hall”, a permanent playhouse in London to a troupe of magicians managed by John Nevil Maskelyne and George Alfred Cooke.

Keller became entranced by the Egyptian Hall and the idea that a magician could have a permanent home rather than have the need to continually tour. He also became fascinated with one of their acts. It involved the story of an Indian mystic somehow being able to float a young princess.

He could not discern the secret.

He returned.

He managed to obtain funds from a bank transfer delayed from his performances in South America.

He offered to purchase the secret of the floating princess from Maskelyne but was rejected.

So he saw the show again.

And again.

Having witnessed the performance from multiple vantage points and still clueless, during one performance he simply stormed on to the stage, saw what he needed to see, and left, boarding the next boat back to the US.

There, in Philadelphia in 1884 he opened a theatre. In a stroke of enlightenment, he named it “The Egyptian Hall”. With the assistance of the Otis Elevator Company, he produced the mechanisms required to perform a routine he named “The Levitation of Princess Karnac”.

His return and new show weren’t met with instant acclaim. While he had been in England, Heller had died and the press decried Kellar’s return to the US scene as a shamelessly profiteering from Heller's reputation and violating his personality rights, saying that "Heller is scarcely dead before we read of 'Kellar the Wizard'. Of course 'Kellar' aims to profit by the reputation that Heller left, by adopting a close imitation of Heller's name.” Kellar’s protestations that he had changed the spelling of his name so as to specifically NOT be confused with Heller fell on a deaf audience.

Within seven months Kellar closed the theatre and it soon after burned to the ground. He returned to touring Brazil.

One young attendee of Hermann’s shows in Columbus, Ohio, was Howard Thurston.

In the 1870s as a young teen with an unhappy childhood he ran away from home (are we all sensing a theme here?) to join the circus: somewhat ironically, the very circus in which Harry Kellar had earlier performed.

It was seeing Hermann’s show that drove Thurston to strive to one day be his equal. So he studied sleight of hand, particularly with playing cards, making cards disappear, one by one, at his fingertips.

Thurston arranged an impromptu audition with Leon Herrmann, Alexander’s nephew. His performance fooled Leon. From that point on he called himself "The man that fooled Herrmann" and used the publicity to get booked into top vaudeville houses in the U.S. and Europe, billing himself as the King of Cards.

Of course, “The man that fooled Hermann” was a title that caught the attention of Harry Kellar who perhaps was still looking for one last chance to take a dig at Alexander Hermann himself.

Kellar’s plan became to manage the career of a successor : someone to whom he could pass not just his knowledge, but also the substantial equipment he had been lugging around the world.

Thurston became that successor and eventually the most famous magician of his time, well surpassing the career heights of Hermann.

His traveling magic show was the biggest one of all; it was so large that it needed eight train cars to transport.

Among all that new and inherited equipment was a trunk containing “the levi” : a collection of weights, wires, counter balances and levers made in part by the Otis Elevator Company.

Despite being made famous by Kellar, it was said that in Thurston's hands, the Levitation of Princess Karnac became a masterpiece.