Male-ing Letters

There are a lot of really stupid things bubbling around in today's bizarre world, but one of the stupidest has to be the current plague of self-designated "alpha males."

In biological/zoological terms, an "alpha male" is the highest-ranking male in a mammalian social group, a position he earns and retains by being the oldest, largest, strongest, loudest, or most aggressive male in the group. In groups with "alpha males," the benefits of the position include priority access to food, desirable lodging, and ... perhaps most importantly ... the right to mate with all the available and desirable females.

Because we humans* usually mate in pairs and generally do not live in social (as opposed to political) groups dominated by a single male, we tend to see our equivalent of nature's alpha male in terms of wealth, business success, skill in sports, or rank in a military or business hierarchy. This is true even though that, nowadays, our business and military hierarchies produce powerful women  ... "alpha females," if you will.

This ability of women to dominate the traditionally-dominant men in various fields has led to a social backlash in which insecure men try to overcompensate for their perceived lack of status in various ways ... hence the rise of the self-designated "alpha male." One of the best current examples of this phenomenon is the proliferation of ludicrously clownish images of Der Furor, the least alpha of men, as a musclebound, heroic figure worshiped by his cultish followers ... 

Another example is the omnipresent online figure of "Nick Adams, Alpha Male"**, whose descriptions of appropriate "alpha male" behavior and recommendations for treatment of women are the epitome of cartoonish toxic masculinity. 

Similar to the "alpha male" is the "incel," or "involuntarily celibate" man, identifiable by his noisy complaining about the unfairness of his inability to attract and have sex with desirable women. You may recall that I wrote about this four years ago; sadly, such losers are still with us, and form part of the cacophony of whiny, insecure men that drowns out reasonable discussion of important topics.

In my opinion, for what it's worth***, a man who needs to loudly self-identify as an "alpha male" is probably actually a "sub-omega male" ... so far down on the psychological totem pole that he has to make up in volume what he lacks in actual manhood.

Leave the Greek letters to their original purpose: creating impenetrable mathematical expressions.

Have a good day, and avoid toxicity in your relationships. You'll be happier.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* "Naked apes," in the wonderful expression made famous by Desmond Morris.

** That's exactly what his Twitter handle is. There is some question as to whether this is a parody account, but it seems to be real.

*** Not all that much, I realize.