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Alphas & Betas

Randy Weivoda
@RandyWeivoda
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It's not unusual for someone to write a post or comment that mentions alpha and beta males, so I'd like to explore this a bit. I probably don't have many interesting thoughts on this, but I'm curious to know what the rest of you think. You may help me come to some conclusions.

Question 1: Do you accept the classification of men into alpha and beta categories? If No, you don't have to answer the rest of the questions.

Question 2: What percentage of American men do you reckon are alphas and betas?

Question 3: If you are male, which do you consider yourself? Actually, I don't want to exclude the women. If you are female, do you consider your husband or lover to be an alpha or beta?

Question 4: Was/is your father an alpha or beta male?

Question 5: What criteria do you use to determine if a man is an alpha or a beta?

This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet's members.

Discussion (47)

  • Hoyacon@Hoyacon

    I'm inherently suspicious of these types of characterizations--especially when it's one or the other.

    My sense is that there's a little bit of both in many (most) men. So I'll pass.

  • Juliana@Juliana
    ReplyingtoHoyacon

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    I’m inherently suspicious of these types of characterizations–especially when it’s one or the other.

    My sense is that there’s a little bit of both in many (most) men. So I’ll pass.

    I agree. Trying to describe a man or woman and using only two categories is not helpful to that description. My sense is that often circumstances or situations can play a much larger role in how someone reacts. For example, you may have a woman who basically functions as a doormat, except when it comes to protecting/ defending her children, or spouse, or parents.

  • Gary McVey@GaryMcVey

    We've all known someone like a kindly old barber, now a thin-chested man with spindly arms, his arthritic hands clip-clip-clipping away, who seventy-three years ago charged into North Korean caves. That's a separate category--men who are too young or too old to be definitely categorized as flat out alpha or beta.

    I think that in the spectrum of manhood (not the same thing as the animalistic spectrum of maleness) there's a mixture of both, and that mixture's culture can be steered. I'd also guess that even within that wide spectrum of T-levels, there's a thick band at each end of the chart that is irrevocably Boy George and Cher, or on the other hand, Harry Callahan and Jack Reacher.

    To reiterate: some obvious leaders, some obvious followers, most somewhere in between.

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