Harriet Brewis
Jul 06, 2023
content.jwplatform.com
The thought of being likened to Andrew Tate would send shudders down the spines of many. But for YouTube personality Pearl Davis it’s all in a day’s work.
The proudly “anti-feminist” influencer has become a darling of the far-right right for her outspoken views on everything from why divorce should be banned to why women shouldn’t vote.
The 26-year-old’s inflammatory opinions have earned her 1.55 million followers on YouTube and almost 220,000 on Twitter.
She racked up around 930,000 on TikTok before she was banned from the platform entirely.
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Still, this hasn’t stopped her interviews and sound-bites from flooding the video-sharing site and, much like Tate before her, Davis’s expulsion from the platform seems to have fuelled interest in her content.
So who exactly is the controversial commentator who’s now known as “the female Andrew Tate”? And how did she become toxic masculinity’s new star?
Davis has said she 'takes it as a compliment' to be called the 'female Andrew Tate'@justpearlythings1/Instagram
Who is she?
Davis, who’s full name is Hannah Pearl Davis, was born in the suburbs of Chicago as one of ten children, including three adopted siblings – one of whom was a “homeless kid” on her brother’s football team.
In a lengthy interview for the ‘Anything Goes With James English’ podcast Davis, who is now based in London, said she’d had a happy upbringing and was very “family-oriented”.
She began making content for TikTok and YouTube around two years ago, starting off with reaction videos in which she repeatedly refers to herself as the “Whitest girl in the world”.
Whitest Girl in the World Reacts to Megan the Stallion "Big Ole Freak"youtu.be
Speaking to Insider back in March, she explained that she was inspired to pursue a media career thanks to the likes of famous right-wingers Ben Shapiro and Thomas Sowell.
Now, she hosts her own live YouTube show called ‘The Pregame’, covering topics such as what makes women “wifeable” and, inevitably, the so-called “Matrix”.
Davis has touted herself as a proponent of what’s been dubbed the “red pill” movement, which is essentially a Reddit-based group that believes that society and nature favour women over men.
How did she make a name for herself?
She had already amassed something of a cult following thanks to her promotion of ultra-conservative, anti-”woke” beliefs.
However, her popularity saw a sharp increase following Tate’s arrest on sex trafficking charges back in December.
Tate had been a guest on her ‘Pregame’ show shortly before he was taken into custody in Romania.
Since then her YouTube following has jumped from around 800,000 subscribers to 1.54 million, according to the analytics tool SocialBlade.
For anyone wondering how she feels about being branded “the female Andrew Tate”, she answered the question directly when it was put to her by none other than Piers Morgan.
In an interview for his Talk TV show on Monday, Morgan asked Davis how she felt about the moniker, to which she replied: “I take it as a compliment. I’m a fan of Andrew Tate.”
Admitting that she wasn’t a fan of “everything” Tate had ever said, however, she then added: “Overall, his message is good. Overall. I think he's been absolutely phenomenal for young men.”
What have been some of her most controversial comments?
Besides declaring that Tate has been “absolutely phenomenal for young men”, Davis has churned out countless contentious assessments and opinions.
According to Davis, her most viral clip centred on a discussion she had with a group of women in which she asked whether “most girls [...] think they’re hotter than they are”.
She then pointed to one of her guests, and branded her a two or three out of 10 on looks, saying “she could easily be a six if she lost weight”.
“I’m a 10” Modern Woman Humbledwww.youtube.com
This is just one example of Davis’s focus on women’s looks and how that informs their relationships with men.
In one clip, she suggested that women don’t deserve to be with successful men if they’re obese, and in another, she said that it’s a woman’s fault if her male partner cheats.
"A lot of you guys are s***ty wives," she said in a video last year, which has since been removed by TikTok.
In an attempt to define what makes a “s***ty wife”, she went on: “You don’t cook for your man, you belittle him, you nag on him all the time, you don’t treat him like a man.”
She then continued: “You don’t have sex with him, and when he goes looking outside of the relationship because, at the end of the day, he doesn’t want to get divorced, you put all the blame on him and don’t take any accountability for your part to play in it.”
In another video, seen by Insider, she said that when unmarried women get pregnant it is "99.9999 per cent the woman's fault."
Does Davis admit that she’s a misogynist?
No, amazingly, she insists that she "doesn’t hate women”. And, instead, says she is simply fighting men’s corner because there’s “not a lot of empathy” for them online.
"Men are discriminated against in society by the legal system and feminists at large," she told Insider.
"The women that follow me watch it because they too see the larger issue, men watch it because finally there is a form of media that advocates for men."
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