![]() ![]() 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". The term beta is also often used among manosphere communities to refer to men they consider easily taken advantage of or ignored by women. Misconceptions about "alpha males" are 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. In fact, it appears that the prestigious man who is high in both assertiveness and kindness is considered the most attractive to women for both short-term affairs and long-term relationships. In other words, a prestigious man, not a dominant man. Taken together, the research suggests that the ideal man (for a date or romantic partner) is one who is assertive, confident, easygoing, and sensitive, without being aggressive, demanding, dominant, quiet, shy, or submissive. ![]() As cognitive scientists Scott Barry Kaufman summarizes: Evolutionary psychologists who study human mating behaviour instead believe that humans use two distinct strategies –– dominance and prestige –– for climbing social hierarchies, and that prestige plays a significantly more important role in establishing men's attractiveness to women than does dominance. Claims about women being "hard-wired" to desire "alpha males" are seen by experts as misogynistic and stereotypical, and are not supported by research. The term alpha male is often applied to any dominating man, especially bullies, despite the fact that dominating behaviour is rarely seen as a positive trait for either an ideal date or a romantic partner. The view that there is a dominance hierarchy among humans consisting of "alpha males" and "beta males" is sometimes reported in the mainstream media. 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. In the early 1990s, some media outlets began to use the term alpha to refer to humans, specifically to "manly" men who excelled in business. Some commentary on the book, including in the Chicago Tribune, discussed its parallels to human power hierarchies. In the 1982 book of 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. ![]() In animal ethology, beta refers to an animal who is subordinate to a higher-ranking members in the social hierarchy, thus having to wait to eat and having negligible or no opportunities for copulation. 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. It is also used to negatively describe other men who are not deemed to be assertive, particularly with women. ![]() The term beta is used as a pejorative self-identifier among members of the manosphere, particularly incels, who do not believe they are assertive or traditionally masculine, and feel overlooked by women. īoth terms have been frequently used in internet memes. The popularization of these terms to describe humans has been widely criticized by scientists. They may also be used with other genders, such as women, or additionally use other letters of the Greek alphabet (such as sigma). For the ethological concept, see Dominance hierarchy.Īlpha male and beta male, or simply put alpha and beta, are pseudoscientific terms for men derived from the designation for alpha and beta animals in ethology. ![]()
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