I recently came across a recommended YouTube video showcasing an alpha male content review. I found it interesting since whenever the term “alpha male” came up, my mind would instantly picture the leader of an animal pack. And by running a quick search on the internet, I’d find numerous articles researching alpha males but around the animal kingdom. The term was often used in a variety of fields surrounding animal behavior, but hardly ever used within a human context.
The characteristics of what makes an alpha male, by what I could gather watching these alpha male-themed videos, is that they’re meant to be men at the top of the social hierarchy, and are pretty much the stereotypical male lead in a romance movie: strong, confident, charming and constantly desired by the opposite sex. The men presented in these videos are sadly, anything but. The amount of misogyny, sexism and stereotyping that oozes from these men is astronomically infuriating, but somehow also hilarious. The absurdity of it all makes you wonder if they’re trolling or if they actually believe what they’re saying.
I once again referred to the search engine, but this time customizing the dates to find the first article related to human alpha males. When did all of this begin? Who compared the human male to the alpha of an animal pack? Funnily enough, rather than finding the first article, I found videos on how to be an alpha male and how to determine if you are one that date back to 2018. But they basically stated the general rules of being a decent human being, such as helping others, not being selfish, believing in oneself and developing a reasonable amount of self-sufficiency. If these are the basic signs of an alpha male, I guess I’m a man now.
Suddenly, I noticed how this alpha male definition has morphed drastically throughout the years. Some more recent videos I found on the subject (think 2020 to present-day) display “alpha males” that look intimidating and aggressive, rather than kind and caring. They stereotype women as gold diggers who only want a man with power and want to be respected, but don’t reciprocate said respect. The videos continue basically trash-talking women. As I’m watching these videos, all I can wonder is “who hurt you?” The fact that they were giving other male viewers advice on how to seduce women and what women to steer clear from, made me think, “Tell me you have been turned down by too many women without telling me you have been turned down by too many women.” I actually pity the young viewers that watch these videos, and express their agreement in the comments section. They’ll grow up thinking that playing with a woman’s feelings and disrespecting them is what an alpha does. And even though it might seem funny, just wait a few years down the line when you’re old and divorced, with kids that hate your guts for how horribly you’ve treated their mother. When you think of it that way, it doesn’t sound like such an appealing lifestyle. It just seems so weird to me that I see countless youtubers that focus on self care and constantly emphasize that you have to work on yourself for you and not for anyone else, and then there are these self-proclaimed alpha males that can only feel better about themselves by degrading women. If anything these men scream incel, “omega” male energy.
After torturing my eardrums with their chatter, I was finally able to dig up the beginning of the alpha male archetype from a video uploaded on 2017. It was a Ted Talk by a man named Frans de Waal, a primatologist, and he was the one that popularized the term “alpha male”, way back in 1982, in his book Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes. I have to say, if I saw this book, I wouldn’t think I’d find anything there mentioning men as alphas; but surprisingly, one of his book’s main points was that observing these chimpanzees could offer insight into human life. Sadly, the public only focused on alpha male behaviors and compared it to those of humans. He says that the best leaders are kind and loving. Waal says something in his Ted Talk that made me want to quote for all of you: “You don’t need to be the biggest and strongest male. The smallest male, if he has the right friends and keeps them happy, or (he) has female support, he can be the alpha male.” If you think about it, who wants to be associated with an aggressive bully? One would rather work under an understanding and kind boss, rather than an aggressive and intimidating one that sees women as objects of consumption.
I would like to share with the readers some YouTube videos where the creators have managed to debunk and also make fun of the absurdity of the alpha male.
Kurtis Conner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePKugerH3Ls
Danny Gonzalezhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlT3zUrRT6c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlT3zUrRT6c
Chad Chad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKMG6wG9nkI&t=9s
Jarvis Johnson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcfSilKaIPs