Alpha and beta male

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"Beta male" redirects here. For the ethological concept, see Dominance hierarchy.

Alpha male and beta male, or simply alpha and beta, are pseudoscientific slang terms for men derived from the designation for alpha and beta animals in ethology. Both terms have been frequently used in the manosphere.[1] The term beta is used as a pejorative self-identifier among members of manosphere communities, particularly incels, who do not believe they are assertive or traditionally masculine, and feel overlooked by women.[2][3] It is also used to negatively describe other men who are not assertive, particularly with women and generally in life as well.[1][4]

History[]

The terms were used almost solely in animal ethology prior to the 1990s, particularly in regard to mating privileges with females, ability to hold territory, and hierarchy in terms of food consumption within their herd or flock.[5] In animal ethology, beta refers to an animal who is subordinate to higher-ranking members in the social hierarchy, thus having to wait to eat and having negligible or no opportunities for copulation.[6]

In the 1982 book Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes, primatologist and ethologist Frans de Waal suggested that his observations of a chimpanzee colony could possibly be applied to human interactions. Some commentary on the book, including in the Chicago Tribune, discussed its parallels to human power hierarchies. In the early 1990s some media outlets began to use the term alpha to refer to humans; specifically "manly" men who excelled in business. Journalist Jesse Singal writing in New York magazine attributes the popular awareness of the terms to a 1999 Time magazine article, which described an opinion held by Naomi Wolf, who was at the time an advisor to then-presidential candidate Al Gore: "Wolf has argued internally that Gore is a 'Beta male' who needs to take on the 'Alpha male' in the Oval Office before the public will see him as the top dog." Singal also credits Neil Strauss's bestselling 2005 book on pickup artistry, titled The Game, for popularizing alpha male as an aspirational ideal.[7]

Usage[]

The term alpha male is often incorrectly applied to any dominating man, especially bullies.[8] However, dominating behavior alone is rarely seen as a positive trait for either an ideal date or a romantic partner.[9] The view that there is a dominance hierarchy among humans consisting of "alpha males" and "beta males" is sometimes reported in the mainstream media. Claims about women being "hard-wired" to desire "alpha males" are seen by experts as misogynistic and stereotypical, and are not supported by research.[10][11][12] Evolutionary psychologists who study human mating behavior instead believe humans use two distinct dominance and prestige strategies for climbing social hierarchies, with the dominance or prestige of a man playing a significant role in his attractiveness to women.[11][12][9]

This misconception about "alpha males" is common within the manosphere, a collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, strong opposition to feminism, and misogyny which includes movements such as the men's rights movement, incels (involuntary celibates), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), pick-up artists (PUA), and fathers' rights groups.[17] The term beta is also often used among manosphere communities. Its usage is inconsistent; media studies scholar Debbie Ging has described the communities' theories about "alpha, beta, omega, and zeta masculinity" as "confused and contradictory".[18] Beta is sometimes used as self-identifier among men who do not embody hegemonic masculinity.[2][3] It is also sometimes used by manospherians as a pejorative term for men who are or are perceived to be feminist, or who are thought to be acting as a "white knight".[19] Some manosphere groups refer to members of other groups in the manosphere as betas; for example, members of the Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) community sometimes use it to refer to men's rights activists or incels.[2] Members of the pickup artist (PUA) communities use it to refer to men who have no "game".[20] Generally, manosphere communities believe that men who they consider to be "alpha males" are preferred by women, and men they consider "beta males" are taken advantage of or ignored by women.[21][18][22] Similar terms as beta used by the manosphere communities include nice guy, cuck, simp, and soy boy.[21][23][24][25][26]

Related terms[]

Alpha fux beta bux[]

In the manosphere, the term alpha fux beta bux presupposes a sexual strategy of hypergamy or "marrying up" among women whereby they prefer and have sex with "alpha" males, but settle for less attractive "beta" males for financial reasons.[27][28] Sometimes it expresses a belief that women marry beta males to exploit them financially, while continuing to have extramarital sex with alpha males.[18][22] Ging explains these beliefs as an effort by young men in the Western world to cope with their limited economic prospects following the 2007–2008 financial crisis by appealing to gender-essentialist notions of gold-digging women popular in postfeminist culture.[27]

Beta orbiter[]

A beta orbiter is a beta male who invests time and effort into mingling with women in the hope of eventually getting into a romantic relationship or having sex with them. The term earned some media attention in 2019 with the murder of Bianca Devins. A man killed the 17-year-old Devins and posted photographs of her body online, one of which bore the caption, "sorry fuckers, you're going to have to find somebody else to orbit."[29][30]

Beta uprising[]

The term beta uprising or incel rebellion has been used largely among incels to refer to revenge by members of their community who have been overlooked by women.[31] It is also sometimes used to describe a movement to overthrow what they view as an oppressive, feminist society.[32] A 2018 vehicle-ramming attack in Toronto, Canada, was allegedly perpetrated by a man who had posted on his Facebook page just prior to the attack, "the Incel Rebellion has already begun".[32] Media outlets have used the terms beta uprising and incel rebellion to refer to acts of violence perpetrated by members of manosphere communities, particularly incels.[32][18]

Sigma male[]

Sigma male is used to denote a male who is equally dominant to an alpha male, but exists outside the alpha-beta male hierarchy as a "lone wolf". In the manosphere, it is regarded as the "rarest" kind of male.[33]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Friedland, Roger (2018). "Donald's Dick: A Man Against the Institutions". In Mast, Jason L.; Alexander, Jeffrey C. (eds.). Politics of Meaning/Meaning of Politics: Cultural Sociology of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 126–127. doi:10.1111/soin.12328. ISBN 978-3-319-95944-3. S2CID 210440082. Archived from the original on 2020-07-28. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
  2. ^ a b c d Jones, Callum; Trott, Verity; Wright, Scott (2019). "Sluts and soyboys: MGTOW and the production of misogynistic online harassment". New Media & Society. 22 (10): 1903–1921. doi:10.1177/1461444819887141. ISSN 1461-4448. S2CID 210530415. The Manosphere is now home to several different groups, including pickup artists, the more radical 'Incels', father’s groups, Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) and the Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) group and each has important differences that need to be unpacked.
  3. ^ a b Nicholas, Lucy; Agius, Christine (2018). The Persistence of Global Masculinism: Discourse, Gender and Neo-Colonial Re-Articulations of Violence. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-68360-7. ISBN 978-3-319-68359-1. LCCN 2017954971. Archived from the original on 2020-08-11. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
  4. ^ Clark-Flory, Tracy (July 1, 2014). "In praise of the 'beta male'". Salon. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020.
  5. ^ Gese, Eric M.; Ruff, Robert L.; Crabtree, Robert L. (1996). "Foraging ecology of coyotes (Canis latrans): the influence of extrinsic factors and a dominance hierarchy". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 74 (5): 769–783. doi:10.1139/z96-089. ISSN 0008-4301.
  6. ^ Davies, N. B. (1984). "Cooperation and conflict among dunnocks, Prunella modularis, in a variable mating system". Animal Behaviour. 33 (2): 628–648. doi:10.1016/S0003-3472(85)80087-7. S2CID 53180333.
  7. ^ Singal, Jesse (May 18, 2016). "How America Became Infatuated With a Cartoonish Idea of 'Alpha Males'". New York. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020.
  8. ^ de Waal, Frans (2017). "The Surprising Science of Alpha Males". MedPage Today. Archived from the original on May 5, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Kaufman, Scott Barry (December 10, 2015). "The Myth of the Alpha Male". Greater Good Magazine. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021.
  10. ^ Steadman, Ian (June 4, 2014). "The sexist pseudoscience of pick-up artists: the dangers of 'alpha male' thinking". New Statesman. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  11. ^ a b Burnett, Dean (October 10, 2016). "Do alpha males even exist?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Hosie, Rachel (May 9, 2017). "The Myth of the Alpha Male". The Independent. Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  13. ^ Hodapp, Christa (2017). Men's Rights, Gender, and Social Media. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books. p. xv. ISBN 978-1-49-852617-3. The manosphere is a group of loosely associated websites, blogs, and forums all concerned with masculinity and men's issues, and includes input from the MRM, pick-up artists, anti-feminists, and fathers' rights activists.
  14. ^ Lumsden, Karen (2019). "'I Want to Kill You in Front of Your Children' Is Not a Threat. It's an Expression of a Desire': Discourses of Online Abuse, Trolling, and Violence on r/MensRights". In Lumsden, Karen; Harmer, Emily (eds.). Online Othering: Exploring Digital Violence and Discrimination on the Web. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 91–115. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-12633-9_4. ISBN 978-3-03-012632-2. S2CID 182589139. Archived from the original on 2021-04-10. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  15. ^ Jane, Emma A. (2017). "Systemic misogyny exposed: Translating Rapeglish from the Manosphere with a Random Rape Threat Generator". International Journal of Cultural Studies. 21 (6): 661–680. doi:10.1177/1367877917734042. ISSN 1367-8779. S2CID 149078033. Despite some conflicting agendas and tribalism, [manosphere] groups are united by an antagonism towards women, a vehement opposition to feminism, and the production of hyperbolic misogynist discourse ...
  16. ^ Marwick, Alice; Lewis, Rebecca (May 15, 2017). Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online (Report). New York: Data & Society Research Institute. Archived from the original on March 25, 2021. Retrieved June 13, 2020. The 'manosphere' is a loose collection of blogs and forums devoted to men’s rights, sexual strategy, and misogyny.
  17. ^ [13][2][14][15][16]
  18. ^ a b c d Ging, Debbie (2019). "Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere". Men and Masculinities. 22 (4): 638–657. doi:10.1177/1097184x17706401. ISSN 1097-184X. S2CID 149239953.
  19. ^ Mendes, Kaitlynn; Ringrose, Jessica; Keller, Jessalynn (2019). Digital Feminist Activism: Girls and Women Fight Back Against Rape Culture. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-069785-3. OCLC 1050133589.
  20. ^ Zuckerberg, Donna (2018). Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-97555-2. OCLC 1020311558.
  21. ^ a b Nagle, Angela (2017). Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan And Tumblr To Trump And The Alt-Right. Alresford, UK: Zero Books. ISBN 978-1-78535-543-1.
  22. ^ a b Van Valkenburgh, Shawn P. (December 4, 2018). "Digesting the Red Pill: Masculinity and Neoliberalism in the Manosphere". Men and Masculinities. 24: 84–103. doi:10.1177/1097184X18816118. ISSN 1097-184X.
  23. ^ Ward, Anna Maria (April 1, 2020). "Here's why people are calling each other 'simps' online". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  24. ^ Hosie, Rachel (October 30, 2017). "This is the far right's new favourite insult". The Independent. Archived from the original on July 16, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  25. ^ Gambert, Iselin; Linné, Tobias (2018). "From Rice Eaters to Soy Boys: Race, Gender, and Tropes of 'Plant Food Masculinity'". Animal Studies Journal. 7 (2): 120–179. Archived from the original on 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  26. ^ Henderson, Alex (November 15, 2018). "Inside the "soy boy" conspiracy theory: It combines misogyny and the warped world of pseudosciece". Salon. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  27. ^ a b Ging, Debbie (2019). "Bros v. Hos: Postfeminism, Anti-feminism and the Toxic Turn in Digital Gender Politics". In Ging, Debbie; Siapera, Eugenia (eds.). Gender Hate Online: Understanding the New Anti-Feminism. Springer International Publishing. p. 57. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96226-9_3. ISBN 978-3-319-96226-9. S2CID 199179106.
  28. ^ Clark-Flory, Tracy (July 2, 2014). "'Feminism is a sexual strategy': Inside the angry online men's rights group 'Red Pill'". Salon. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  29. ^ Minutaglio, Rose (July 15, 2019). "A Teen Instagrammer Was Brutally Murdered. Then, the Killer Shared Photos of Her Body Online". Elle. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  30. ^ Dickson, E. J. (December 17, 2019). "The Short Life and Viral Death of Bianca Devins". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  31. ^ Dewey, Caitlin (October 7, 2015). "Incels, 4chan and the Beta Uprising: making sense of one of the Internet's most-reviled subcultures". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 10, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  32. ^ a b c Chokshi, Niraj (April 24, 2018). "What Is an Incel? A Term Used by the Toronto Van Attack Suspect, Explained". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  33. ^ Bharti, article:Bianca (February 3, 2021). "What is a sigma male — the so-called rarest man?". National Post. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
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