![]() ![]() ![]() But all of that was an empty promise for the young men who watch his videos, telling them they can stop being a loser too if they do this or that. He transformed from a self-described “loser” into what I called him in my piece, a hypermasculine gym bro whose fanboys believed he got hot chicks left and right. Pakter encouraged guys to embrace their masculinity, but he was also openly vulnerable on TikTok. I asked him questions like, “Do you think there’s any validity to the term ‘alpha male’? ” He told me he personally could tell if someone was an alpha within seconds of meeting them-it’s not about looks, he told me, it’s about the energy a person puts out. He was happy to talk about himself, and he was perfectly nice. He described himself as a “ loser” when he was a kid, and said that he had no friends. I just thought this is someone who would be an interesting person to talk to, someone who’s relevant to campus life, and it’ll probably make a good story. I didn’t even know what I wanted the story to be about until I interviewed him. ![]() When I interviewed him in late August last year, I told him I wanted this to be conversation about his platform and his life. He presented himself as someone who is provocative and bold-in one video, he said he had very little respect for people who were “morbidly obese.” But what was really so controversial about a fraternity kid being cocky? His content seemed like a big joke, to be honest. He also had Q&A videos where he answered anonymous messages from people asking him questions about how to deal with social anxiety, breakups, and even substance abuse. ![]() His videos ranged from fitness content to digestible motivational tidbits to just flexing in front of his phone. He was a senior at the University of Arizona and a former fraternity president with more than 100,000 followers. I decided to profile Lukas Pakter in my sophomore year, because my friends and I would constantly see his videos on TikTok. I’m a really opinionated person and I have a lot of ideas and stories I want to write. At the time, I thought this would be easy. In my freshman year, when I joined the student newspaper, I was just trying to get a feel for it. A University of Arizona representative said school officials were not available to respond to a request for comment.) (Pakter did not respond to a request for comment from Mother Jones, but told a local news station that he did not condone harassment or threats of violence and had made a video condemning the attacks. But she never expected the torrent of harassing and threatening messages she received in response to the piece-so many that she drew media coverage from major outlets like the Washington Post. Krupp was prepared for some pushback on the story, which criticized Pakter for espousing a brand of toxic masculinity his own followers compared to that of the infamously misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate. Last fall, Olivia Krupp, a student journalist at the University of Arizona’s newspaper, The Daily Wildcat, wrote a profile of campus TikTok influencer Lukas Pakter, whose videos give advice on topics like fitness and relationships to his largely young male audience. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. ![]()
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