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esonetwork · 3 years

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The Alpha Male Isn't

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The Alpha Male Isn't

You may have run into one of these guys.

Alpha Male Aquaman

They’re big, maybe bearded, scowling. “I am a dominant Alpha male by nature,” they say. “I’m a Bull… a primal hunter. I have no time for any liberal/democrat rhetoric or narrative. I don’t support BS movements and I bow to no one. I am a man’s man.”

They may have the suits, the Ray Bans, the Harley Davidsons, or the Hummers, but they’re not Alpha Males.

Why? Because there is no such thing as an Alpha Male.

And if you haven’t run into one in real life (or you aren’t under the delusion that you are one of those guys) you see them all over popular entertainment, and in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Comic Book movies in particular.

Captain Alpha Male

SF & Fantasy movies are littered with straight-up badasses that all the guys picture themselves as wanting to be (or, in their dreams, actually are). Conan the Barbarian. Captain Kirk. Batman. Tarzan. Aquaman. Wolverine. James Bond (not Fantasy? Think again, my friend!)

The list goes on. Surely these examples, as fantastic as they are, are pure and simple Alpha males?

The answer, my friend, is still; No.

So, how is it that I can say this with such certainty? It’s because the whole concept of the “Alpha Male” originally came about from research on wolves. Research that, it turns out, was flawed.

Rudolf Schenkel wrote about social structure and body language among wolves in 1947. Schenkel studied wolves at the Basel Zoo in Switzerland, where up to ten wolves were kept together in an area of 10 by 20 metres. He saw that the highest ranked female and male formed a pair, and that the hierarchy could change.

“By continuously controlling and suppressing all types of competition within the same sex, both ‘alpha animals’ defend their social position,” Schenkel wrote.

According to another well-known wolf researcher, David Mech, it was Schenkel’s work that gave rise to the idea of the alpha wolf, according to The International Wolf Center website.

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman

In 1970, the book The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species was published, written by David Mech. It was a success. The book helped to popularize the alpha concept, which was soon adopted to human interaction.

The idea of an Alpha Wolf feeds naturally into human interaction. Among any group of men there is always a leader. The expression “Top Dog” is an idiom for the boss. In a competition, it is also the favorite or the one expected to win, and the opposite of the underdog. It may be a shorthand reference for a dominance hierarchy.

And it’s natural that male leaders would lionize themselves as “Alphas” and assume that this means that they represent some sort of superiority either in physical power, emotional dominance or, in a disturbingly high number of cases, genetic supremacy.

But it’s all nonsense.

You see, the research done on the wolf pack structure in the 60s and 70s was mainly done on wolves in captivity. These wolves were not necessarily related and were kept in an unnaturally small area.

Since that time, Mech had studied wild wolf packs on Ellesmere Island in Canada for 13 summers. He discovered that what was commonly called the alpha pair was simply the parents of the rest of the pack. As parents, they consequently led the pack’s activities.

Peggy Carter as Captain Britain

“Dominance fights with other wolves are rare, if they exist at all. During my 13 summers where I observed the pack, I saw none,” Mech wrote in an article entitled “Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs”.

The male will hunt on his own only when the female is nesting with the young cubs. And the male needs to hunt a lot because he ends up having to bring the majority of what he catches home to the family. When the cubs are older the male and the female share hunting duties equally. The cubs begin to hunt as well but they are not yet skilled at it so will hunt in packs until they get better, then will hunt on their own. But a young male hunting on his own does not catch much. It’s tricky for the lone wolf to survive and often times he only does because wolves are physiologically designed to survive on very little.

So what does all this do to the idea of the human “Alpha Male”? Well, it pretty much lets the air out of it.

You see, according to current research, humans look for some dominance in a potential partner, but only to assure that the potential mates are good providers. What turns out to be more of an attraction is kindness

T’Chala as a kinder, gentler Star Lord

The conclusions of a study by Jerry Burger and Mica Cosby suggest that woman do not want a demanding male, and only 12 percent wanted an aggressive person for a date and romantic partner.

Dominance is attractive, but beyond that, the big winners were easygoing and sensitive.

So, what does this mean for our SF, Fantasy and Comic Book heroes?

Well, what it means is just what we see happening. Less emphasis on the unattainable ideal of the “Alpha” hero, and more situations where men and women work together, and where sometimes the women take on the dominant role. More stories where consideration and kindness towards others wins the day over brute force.

More heroes like Captain America, Wonder Woman, Black Widow, Michael Burnham, or Frodo Baggins, who is no one’s conventional idea of an Alpha Male, but is a hero nonetheless. Peggy Carter as Captain America and Steve Rodgers as her devoted sidekick. T’Challa as Star Lord, who’s compassion, and sensitivity, paired with his action hero skills, helps make the galaxy a better place (and who even talks… TALKS… Thanos out of his idea to cull half the population of the galaxy).

The world is changing, slowly but surely and the whole idea of the “Alpha” male is slowly fading into irrelevance. Now and again we hear the plaintive cries of outraged fanboys who are desperate to hold on to the status quo, but it’s all for nought. Things are proceeding apace and those who cling to the past will get pulled further and further away from the “Now”.

There are no “Alpha” males. Might does not make right. One does not become dominant by being aggressive, demanding, or intimidating. These traits are, by and large, disagreeable.

Just like that other Rogers; Fred… Mister Rogers… said: When things get scary, don’t look for the “Man’s Man”… “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

#Alpha Wolf #Black Panther #Black Widow #Captain Carter #ESO Network #Feed Rogers #Marvel&039;s WHAT IF?#michael burnham #Science #Sociology #Star Trek #Steve Rogers #T&039;Challa Star Lord

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