I work in a large global conglomerate and see lots of what might be defined as “Alpha men” (according to 2013 parlance).
Most of them are upper management men who dress and groom themselves impeccably, and as such, have access to, and unabashedly flaunt their ability, to procure the highest rung of females.
Most of these guys are young (20s, seeping into the early 30s) and they do their hair up just as trends dictate, and they wear all the right clothes which are also dictated by popular perceptions, which ultimately, for men, is dictated by women. Didn’t you hear the news….? What women want is what men manifest as “Alpha.”
I don’t care what “makes” an Alpha an Alpha any more. There are so many opinions batted about now that arguing your opinion of what makes a man “Alpha” is akin to throwing your piss into the wind of the din of popular opinion. It gets drowned out and swallowed by the morass of scrambled public opinion. I have my strong opinion of what makes a man Alpha, but for the sake of this thought, I will defer to the popular conception of Alpha.
Firstly, men tend to define Alpha as that which they personally identify with. I think many young men who discuss such matters tend to think of themselves as the epitome of Alpha and thus transcribe their motives and ambitions within the framework of an Alpha context. Generally, Alphas are presumed to be, in a direct definition: leaders, masculine, virile, and thus, indirectly, popular with women, wealthy, physically and socially powerful, and vain. I call these traits “indirect” because many times, while not being explicitly stated in the aforementioned definitions but nevertheless understood to portray an Alpha male by behavioral, everyday traits. So it is with this dimwitted concept of Alpha in mind that I will proudly and confidently proclaim that today’s Alpha man is weak, helpless, pathetic and stupid.
The problem is not Men, it is this technologically advanced culture of environmental insulation and the masculine lethargy it spawns. Men no longer need to kill or defend to earn mating privileges; 21st Century man is measured by his hair product and over-priced shoes. He is judged by the material comforts he ultimately can provide to his mate, and as technology advances, the conspicuous creature comforts which slowly become blatantly inhuman.
Our demands become refined and primal and disconnected.
We live our days inside climate-controlled hovels. At night, we escape to be in other high-energy hovels, but always, we escape discomfort in noise and dehumanizing distraction. For women, this syncs with their nature. The female seeks comfort above all, and Man is trained to provide this at the risk of garnishment of pussy, or even, life. Today, there is little risk. In fact, there is no Man to be found who can provide what women can’t get on their own, so their demands have become skewed and male nature has also distorted in response.
Remember that the strongest and most persistent complementary union in the history of this planet is the male/female dichotomy.
One does not change in the absence of the other. If the female becomes stronger, the male must become weaker. Once upon a time, the male was stronger. Physical strength and agility perpetuated survival. Now, politics and social manipulation rule human ascendancy. We end up with an effeminate black President, the penultimate expression of a female society that wants expresses the quivery desire for the best of both worlds.
We are witnessing a gradual devolution of man. As he is incrementally weakened behind his desk and computer, the remaining gladiators are athletes and military. The military masculinity weakly remains, but now male athleticism has been dealt a strong blow.
Manti Te’o, the hottest Samoan news item in recent years, is the latest failure of he-man masculinity to take a tumble.
Personally, I believe Manti was fooled by a female impostor. I’ve known of women, very unattractive but image-conscious, who fell eagerly to online men for long periods of time because they foisted their entire faith on an illusion. This is what Manti did. The stud athlete who could have any chick he wanted but who succumbed to a weak illusion.
Because men today have become a weak illusion of Man. If football players are falling to fiction, what can be said of the so-called everyday “man” of our generation beyond his computer screen and number-crunching careerism?
But if they call themselves Alpha, who am I to argue?
I’ve said many times there are no Alphas. Alphas are parent wolves. These things have been discussed for several hundred if not thousands of years.
The real name for these guys is “cad,” and underneath all the bluster they are insecure and think they are wimps. Unfortunately, all the naive guys in the Manosphere think they really exist.
I know several of these guys. They ruin their lives by middle age unless they grow up.
Nah I want me a midwestern farm boy with a heavy drawl, preferably Germanic ancestry and will . He shouldn’t pretend to be into the boho scene (I’m not) and I won’t pretend to like football or NASCAR.
You must be tired of so much thinking since this has been the last post since, in a week ;-)!
Spot on. Why not dress as you please, and if it impresses the womenfolk, that just is a bonus?
I agree that a hero or heroine can be made more palatable by an equal partner. However, even a strong partner doesn’t negate caveman behavior. I think the partner is a parallel discussion of equality in romance as opposed to how the character in question, Alpha male in the case of this post, is perceived. To take your earlier exmple, if a dude has the temerity to throw a woman over his shoulder and carry her somewhere for her greater good/because he knows best/for her protection/etc (as opposed to because she has a broken leg and needs a hand to get out of a burning building), it is disrespectful. If he kisses her when she tells him no, it is disrespectful (and assault). If he keeps things from her because he doesn’t want her to worry, it is disrespectful. If he flies into jealous rages/r makes his claim to her known so other men won’t look at her, it is disrespectful. No amount of a woman standing up for herself changes the fact that the man, the character in question, is behaving badly. I have a really low tolerance for poorly done men who display their alpha status by dominating, or attempting to dominate, the woman. Especially because it seems that a lot of the time, the strong heroine calls him on it, but he doesn’t really change. It’s just like oh *chuckle* there goes X being all possessive, good thing Y is going to give him a firm talking too. . . again. The woman may call him on it, but he doesn’t change his behavior. (Which is another sign of lack of respect, in my opinion. There’s a character being possessive by nature but realizing that it’s ultimately his problem, and then there’s flaring up with a jalousy time and again because she, presumably, can not be trusted to be faithful and/or take care of herself.) I don’t know, I love strong characters, but the trope is tired and rarely done well. No amount of a strong counter-weight as a partner negates boorish behavior.
I can’t remember the specific scene, I believe it was from Season 5, but there was a great instance where Donald Draper simply persisted through his wife’s protestations. In 21st Century PC parlance, it was “rape” but she caved. Sometimes women just want to be taken…the difficult thing is for men to attain that level of perception.