In my time spent in the manosphere I’ve been asked on more than one occasion what I thought about the concept of the Alpha Female. For a time I was resistant to the idea, not because I didn’t allow for the possibility that certain women were predisposed to being Type A personalities and given to the same desire for power and control that men predominantly have, but rather due to the way that Alpha Female came to develop that personality.
As the social impulse to feminize men took root, so too was the counterbalance of masculinizing women instituted. As I’ve stated in earlier post, the concept of power, real power, isn’t invested in controlling the action of others, but in how much control we can exercise in the course of, and over our own, live’s. Freud’s concept of penis envy not withstanding, up until the time of the sexual revolution it’s been men who’ve seemingly had the most control over the courses their lives will take. This of course is a classic fiction for the majority of men, but this is the perception even the most unassuming women have had with men – even the poorest of men have more power to decide what direction their lives will take than women.
In a natural state, women’s biological, emotional, provisioning and protection needs have always been sustained by men. Women evolved to be the more necessitous sex. This isn’t to say women were patently helpless, didn’t provide nurturing or couldn’t adapt to new environmental challenges, but it is to say their individual survivability, if not entirely dependent upon men, was greatly enhanced by cooperating sexually and socially with men. Due to this male-centric necessity women’s predisposition for a want of a survival-level security evolved – and so too did the subliminal anxiety to ensure themselves against survival insecurity.
As social progress advanced (and occasionally retreated) so too did the influence of the Feminine Imperative over men. I would argue that the Feminine Imperative, as a socio-sexual construct, was evolved from a desire not so much to control men, but as a means to relieve the anxiety of women’s earliest insecurities. This struggle for power necessitated the development of the Feminine Imperative, but only in the respect that it afforded women real power – a greater control over the course that their own lives would take.
Ensuring an enduring dominance of genetic material being passed on with the best male stock (i.e. Hypergamy) was of equal importance to ensuring the survivability of her offspring. This is nothing new to the manosphere, it’s simply the Alpha Fucks / Beta Bucks dynamic, but reduced to its evolutionary beginnings. As women were (and still are) afforded greater control over their own lives (true power) the application of this power is spent in easing women’s dependency upon men. A woman’s desire for power is rooted in easing the anxieties and insecurities her feral and tribal ancestors hard-coded into her contemporary psyche.
For every female CEO exercising her influence over today’s (male created) corporations, for every book about the End of Men, for every speech about Feminist Triumphalism, it’s important for men to understand that all of these overt declarations of power stem from women’s primal insecurity about their own survivability without the aid of attracting and sustaining an enduring relationship with a man.
Alpha Females
I drew this up to put into context the misnomer that is the Alpha Female. I find it ironic, but not unexpected, that a fem-centric society will adamantly resist the idea of Men being Alpha, yet enthusiastically embrace labeling strong independent women® as Alpha Females. Feminists and Mangina intellectuals alike will spend endless hours elaborating over how human males can’t possibly be compared with Alpha lions or wolves in the wilderness, and that it’s basement dwelling keyboard theorists who promote the idea; yet will giddily endorse women like Sheryl Sandberg as being Alpha Females.
At the risk of reopening the “what is Alpha?” can of worms, women cannot be Alpha in the same sense that Men are considered Alpha. The operative point being that Alpha in the male sense is a derivative of the male biology. By virtue of testosterone, male animals have (by order of degree) an inborn disposition towards an Alpha behavior set. On the most rudimentary scale, Alpha behaviors and physical traits are defined by their utility to that male and the breeding motivations they inspire in females.
Before I get run up the flagpole for asserting that testosterone is a key element for determining an Alpha status, allow me to direct your attention to today’s linked video. There is a species of mammal wherein the female of the species possesses more testosterone than the male, and consequently the role of sexual agressor and pack leading Alpha status is conferred to her.
They’re called Hyenas.
Watch the video (it’s short) and contrast the female hyena’s behaviors and,..physical characteristics with the fem-centric popularized notion of an Alpha Female.
To be sure, there are Alpha traits and behavioral learnings most Beta men can develop and internalize. I’m still a firm believer that to a greater degree, Alpha status for men can become who a Man is. In fact behavioral Alpha dominance is (was) passed on from one dominant male to his offspring, or close relation. So it does stand to reason that women too can learn these dominant behavior sets. The rapid masculinization of contemporary women is proof of this, and women may also internalize this dominance schema to become who they are; but does this make them Alpha?
Obviously women are not hyenas, but the physical dimorphism of hyena sexuality is an interesting illustration for the masculinization of females in humans. Primarily it changes the social dynamic of the group. Women can do what our female hyena does in this video through anabolic steroid use and a lot of heavy lifting, and with similar physical results, but does this alter a female security desire evolved for thousands of years? That answer might be yes, but for a woman to be Alpha she must physically and mentally transform into as close an approximation of a man as societal conditioning and physical mutation will allow.
This being the case, is she really female anymore?
I come here to self-smart and it never doesn’t work.
I also thought of the alpha female as she who is most able to attract the most attractive men. Basically, the most beautiful and feminine. Is there a separate term for this or is it basically HB10?
The Manosphere typically associates Alpha, Beta, Omega and such vernacular with descriptions of males. Avoiding the Alpha definition debate, I would put it simply, if it walks Alpha, and talks Alpha, its ALPHA……… Alpha is also contextual. Given that and the video its clear, Alpha is not gender specific. Alpha need not have the physical attributes of a man. The Alpha attitude is a usefully innate tool for a male to attract and reproduce with a high percentage of females. Though I know many couples here in SiliconValley in which the female is the Captain, and the males are second… Read more »
I’ve wrestled with this idea before, and a couple of questions must be answered before reaching a solution. Biomechanically, is it even possible for women to have an Alpha/Beta system like men do? And if so, would the most dominant woman be the alpha, or would the most attractive woman be the alpha? For men, the most dominant and most attractive go together, but for women they are far apart.
@ Stingray “I also thought of the alpha female as she who is most able to attract the most attractive men. Basically, the most beautiful and feminine. Is there a separate term for this or is it basically HB10?” Once again, the plethora of terms floating around confuses the issue. I think this is part of what Rollo is driving at. As for myself, I always associated the Alpha female as the dominant female within the group… of other women. Women form hierarchies just as men do (the pecking order), and the Alpha female is the erstwhile leader. Sometimes it… Read more »
Hyenas don’t matter. Lions don’t matter. All the matters is that if human males get their act together, feminism can be stopped in 5 minutes.
Men will gladly organize to form a corporation, sports team, or military unit to fight other men. Men must learn that the true enemy has always been, and will always be, women.
@J: This “enemy” has a vagina so I don’t think that would work. Most men live and die by the side of women. For example, at my college women’s bathrooms have locks on them to keep a “potential rapist” like me or any other guy from going in and taking advantage. Men’s bathrooms just happen to not have any locks. When I told a group of guys this stuff, they looked at me like I had 5 heads. One of them even said that’s the way things were supposed to be. Either both have it or none have it. Otherwise,… Read more »
“Men will gladly organize to form a corporation, sports team, or military unit to fight other men.”
And all this in some way or another is done to fulfill the imperatives of women.
Ace Haley is right.
Great post—but you don’t finish strong… From what I gather you are saying that men can be alpha in the truest sense because a man’s lust for dominance is prompted by an inborn disposition for it and by his biology, but a woman can never be alpha in the truest sense because her drive for dominance is based her need to eliminate the anxieties associated with the reliance on male provisioning. For women, the core motivation—the root—of alpha is fear and she can only change this motivation by altering her body/mind and sacrificing what makes her a woman to begin… Read more »
@Dragnet, you understand perfectly.
The “alpha” females are typically about 5′-2″ and 235lbs…and they never STFU!
Alpha female are Victoria’s Secret models and chicks like Kate Upton.
NOT Sheryl Sandberg lol.
“Hyenas”… you heard it here first folks.
Hat tip to you sir.
Pop pop indeed.
Rather than women becoming more Alpha, what I am seeing is that women are weeding out less dominant men. As they become more dominant themselves they are requiring men to concurrently match them (red queen analogy).
Their power resides in the power of the men they control (hence the Indonesian mother killing her child because of his small penis) and not their own power.
In the tribe structure social ostracism or banishment meant certain death, so what is happening now is that betas are being banished and sexually ostracized while they mate with the fewer dominant men (parento effect).
“For every female CEO exercising her influence over today’s (male created) corporations, for every book about the End of Men, for every speech about Feminist Triumphalism, it’s important for men to understand that all of these overt declarations of power stem from women’s primal insecurity about their own survivability without the aid of attracting and sustaining an enduring relationship with a man.”
so this is why feminist’s hate MGTOW and prostitution…
the video was interesting, i would like to see how that society survives and changes over time as it does not seem optimal, it is a very good analogy and view into some things that a human matriarchy may look like.
in the disney film the lion king, there were three hyenas, one retarded male and one beta, led by the alpha female. they did their research.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7MtQtSTTYQ
“a swift bite to the neck and the new matriarch is dead”
Hi Rollo, completely off topic but I thought you might find this interesting. It’s about voluntary/involuntary celibacy:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21739640
So if dinner is just laying about on the deck dead already, killed by the superior forces of nature or apex predators, and you don’t mind the smell, then matriarchy is a viable strategy? A bit like welfare or affirmative action then.
I’m with Stingray on this one .
Alpha female is the most feminine ,i.e. most successful in reproduction.
For men, dominance and successful reproduction go hand in hand , hence alpha is associated with dominance…
…but women are different , thus calling a woman who is most dominant ‘alpha female ‘ means measuring women by MALE STANDARDS.
haha , suck that , feminists
“it’s important for men to understand that all of these overt declarations of power stem from women’s primal insecurity about their own survivability without the aid of attracting and sustaining an enduring relationship with a man.”
Right. Women without men are out of the loop socially and economically. At a certain point, work is no longer a choice but a necessity. With the right direction, women would never choose this in the first place.
Most of the women CEOs, lawyers and politicians I’ve known lose a lot of their femininity to get where they are; they put on male alphaness as a professional cloak and their womanhood disappears. I knew one woman who didn’t, an absolutely stunning heiress from one of the dethroned European royal families who ran a humanitarian NGO. She was a formidable CEO, yet extremely feminine. I learned what “swooned” meant the first time she shook my hand and leaned in a little to speak to me. It was like a 6 tequila shot buzz. Remarkable woman. Of course she was… Read more »
Roosh asked me if I wished to write a guest post for Return of Kings. The post I submitted exactly details that testosterone is the “thing” that women seek. I make no bones about it. It is a long post. And I say that when you consider that study of women’s preferences while ovulating in both long and short term mates: the characteristic of muscles, arrogance, confrontational behavior, and unfaithfulness are signals of the presence of high testosterone in the male. They may fuck status or money, choose it as a mate, but make no mistake, they are attracted to… Read more »
Thanks for your very informative posts, Mark. Learning is fun. I’d read about Hyenas some years ago, but not seen (nor sought out) corroboration like this excellent video. Many thanks, Rollo! So, what do you do when you want to demonstrate Grrrl Power, and the shoulder pads keep slipping off? A lot of work, seemingly—and not a little distress and pain, including a maternal death rate not dissimilar to that of human females before the advent of Caesarian Section (the sudden, tremendous growth of the infant human brain some 50-100,000 years ago caused a lot of trouble, and cascading evolutionary… Read more »
Mark Minter on ROK? Finally!
More porno = More masturbation to it = Less testosterone = Virgin
Ace,
The totality of the interaction with Roosh was a mail on RooshV forum asking if I would like to write one. I replied it would be an honor and sent him the piece. I have heard nothing back yet. He’s a busy guy. He might think “This post is a piece of crap”. So I haven’t been “published” yet.
Men cannot be compared to lions and wolves in the wilderness. Men hunted both to near extinction. We are far superior and much more dangerous
The basis I used came from Signalling Theory from Evo Biology. Most of the work has been done in BIrds and very little in humans. @Mark, I’m about to make you dangerous. On my side bar I have linked the research or Dr. Martie Hasselton, dig in: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/comm/haselton/papers/ Though she’s unaware of it, she and her colleagues are perhaps the greatest evo psych contributors and allies the manosphere has ever had. More to the point though, read this particular study: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/comm/haselton/papers/downloads/Frederick_Haselton_2007_Muscularity_sexy.pdf Maybe you’re familiar with this already, but she details why muscularity is sexy for women from an evo-bio psych… Read more »
Ton, I agree and I disagree that men cannot be compared to those two animals. The commonality of those two animals is the female doesn’t really get to select mates. The dominance hierarchy established through competition among the males makes that selection for her. Q: Who does the alpha lion fuck? A: Anyone he wants. He kicks all the other lions asses and then he’s alpha. Somewhat the same can be said of wolves. But I also watched a youtube video where 4 other male lions ganged up on the alpha and killed his ass. Apparently within the last few… Read more »
Sapolsky?
Mark, what I meant by that statement is men are much more dangerous then the king of beasts, those who are not should butch the fuck up, be proud, be purposeful, and powerful.
Those who dismiss men should pay heed. If it’s wise to be cautious around lions etc, it would be wise to be cautious around men.
I’ve come to believe women shit on men, and White men are dumped on by all, because far to few of us are dangerous and violent.
Rollo thanks. I think I might have had this link once before. I got it off an MGTOW site. Then they revamped at took this link away.
I like this one.
“Sex differences in detecting sexual infidelity: Results of a maximum likelihood method for analyzing the sensitivity of sex differences to underreporting”.
Looks like fun. But can you imagine that women would ever “underreport” in some sort of sex study? Especially something to do with infidelity? Gosh. Women never lie and they never cheat.
“those who are not should butch the fuck up, be proud, be purposeful, and powerful. ”
Best advice for men ever. You said in that one sentence, the point I am trying to get across with all those words up above.
My first comment to one of the premier manosphere sites: I am surprised that no one made this observation very clearly, although it is implied by some others: For men, alpha traits result in reproduction and sexual access. In the animal world, alpha concerns the ability to reproduce…even for the female hyenas. (Although, I would be curious as to what traits the female hyenas prefer when choosing mates…) For women, alpha traits result in the availability of economic resources without a male, and … then what? If anything, it would reduce sexual access to suitable males in relative terms, as… Read more »
It is wrong from the start for the feminists to model the “alpha female” on the “alpha male”, abandoning what they are (or at least should be) good at and trying to do what they are bad at. The definition of “alpha female” should be derived from what women are naturally inclined to be and to do.
If we must SERIOUSLY nominate one woman to be a genuine example of an “alpha female”, I would nominate Aung San Suu Kyi. Others, particularly those in the post-modern world, don’t even come close.
Sheryl Sandberg is completely off-base in trying to explain what an alpha female is. The alpha female, even if she can be called that, is the “biological celebrity:” the one that walks into the room and has the guys drooling. Usually, such a woman doesn’t want a “corner office,” and if she does it’s a temporary thing until she gets swept off her feet by the inevitable Alpha male. What Sandberg is trying to do (unwittingly) is redefine the slut and the spinster and attempt to say it’s these women who should be celebrated, not the ones with the perfect… Read more »
Additionally, someone needs to study the effect playing sports has on women. People talking about how competition causes testosterone increases in women should take this into account. If this is the case, Title IX is the ultimate libido killer for men. There are few things less attractive that women clomping around after a few hours on the lacrosse field. Anyone who went to a sports-oriented college knows this. There may have been female athletes who were hotter and in better shape that other girls, but they were so damn butch it was impossible to feel any guttural attraction to them.… Read more »
Thanks Mark. High praise considering your gift with words
The whole concept of Alpha among human is so fraught with ambiguity it’s almost worthless, because no one knows what it means.
The concept was originally applied to canines, and it always meant Alpha couple, meaning the couple that bred (so it means “parent canines”) so there would not be be an oversupply of puppies that died.
The closest to Alpha among humans is a man who is a patriarch of his family, not some shame-based narcissist who tries to cover up his insecurity with grandiose fantasies about all the chicks he screwed with “Game.”
I hate the way the females of our society turns more and more masculine. Masculine girls are fucked up. They try to be dominant and take charge, when all they really should is be feminine, let the man lead and do what they’re told (to a certain point).
This reminds me of girls that take steroids.. Disgusting 😀
In Russia, such a woman is called “blatnaya”, similarly, as a leading man in the prison system is called “blatniy”. It is a person to whom everyone defers and who favors are sought from. Type A personality who is able to exert social dominance over others. Women can be that way, sure. But the main alpha quality of a female is of course visual / biological. when mainstream media talk about alpha females, they mean these type A personalities, not models or hot stars.
One of the most attractive girls in college is what I’d consider an alpha female. An easy 9/10. During college she started to decrease in look a little bit from her partying ways. Her friends essentially do whatever she wants to do. She rules many men, given her throng of admirers, and she sees men as disposably as men see women – they are just notches on the belt for her. Not only that she’s rich and will be very successful in whatever business career she chooses given her strong type A personality and high intelligence. When I finally caught… Read more »
The video was captivatingly terrifying. What we are asking is: If and how fast can human women evolve into a testosterone laden matriarchy of broad-wielded violence. I don’t understand why a key element of the alpha male vs. alpha female archetypes as culture and dogma has not been mentioned. BIG GOVERNMENT IS ALPHA FOR MOST WESTERN WOMEN. The behavior of Western women to be ‘afraid’ of needing male partnership I think is misinterpreted unless evolution has gotten incredibly far along. Women are simply buying into the frame of their the One, the alpha, BIg Gov. With the parasitic ‘civil rights’… Read more »
I just read this from the Haselton paperon muscularity, thanks Rollo: “Women also reported they dated their short-term partners for less time than their other recent sex partners before having sex (1 week vs. 12 weeks), thus validating the temporal distinction between short-term partners and “other” partners. Relative to reports for other partners, women also trusted their short-term partners less, felt less emotionally close to them, and reported they were less romantic.” 1 week to put out vs.12 weeks depending on your build! The Heartiste clause on self-reporting is in effect, but it is worth consideration. My guess is the… Read more »
From page 1177: “One limitation of these studies was that all of the participants were young college students who may have preferences and mating patterns that differ from those of other populations. Nonetheless, in examining mate preferences, a college-aged population is an appropriate place to begin because members of this population are actively seeking and evaluating mates.”
Translation: College, with Affirmative whore Action, is a fuckfest.* Thanks for tuition Mom and Dad. I love UCLA (or wherever).
* – Dr. Baumeister, etc. as in:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/wellness/story/2011/08/More-gender-equality-leads-to-more-sex-global-study-shows/49854176/1
Yah, I’m pissed I was a chivalrous sucker throughout my youth.
What is alpha is debatable. I think alpha is a man with power and the willingness to use it to achieve his goals. That power could be physical, fiscal, the ability to use words etc but with out the will to use his power, the man cannot be an alpha
However, in this part of the interwebs alpha has to do with men who are good with women. Not much point bitching about the way words are used
Alpha: the ability to get what you want
Ability is only half the equation, the will to exercise that ability is what counts the most.
So what is Alpha? It is contextual, as truth must be. We humans (and mammals) have a biological-evolutionary-genetic context that defines our function and purpose, so I think we have a reasonably universal and profound context if we are to look at a man’s life generally speaking and not narrowed into professional or other aspects which arguably can NOT be separated as orthogonal social qualities. Sociality has a tangled interplay with culture, politics, economics, etc. Along those lines of what is fixed axiomatically and what is derived and dynamic with the race condition of life, I had a thought. Hillel… Read more »
Rollo,
I would really appreciate your thoughts on “the quality woman”.You have touched on the phenomena in many of your previous posts but i really feel my self subconsciously slipping into that binary circle jerk of madonna/whore .A dedicated post would be nice.
I gotta agree with boxterpaul on this. I’ve worked with several different alpha females and Alpha is Alpha. I woman who is CEO of a company is going to wield the same alpha jedi mind tricks as her male counterpart. Its confidence in what you are doing and staying on top of the situation. Caesar Millan could easily write a dog whisperer book that would 100% apply to executive management. I’ve also seen my share of week executives ( both male and female) and you can see their beta traits shining through. Too willing to concede, too easy to manipulate… Read more »
[…] Hyenas […]
To my mind, being ‘alpha’ means having the power to access all resources at will, not just mates, but also food, shelter, etc. Guys here seem to still be far too hung up on the sexual aspect of power and control. I would agree that the initiating force behind much of male behavior is to win females, including art, science, money, games of physical prowess, what have you. A few of the primary examples bandied about in these comments have been hyenas, lions, wolves, etc. I read a lot of misinformation about these species and their social habits. One blatant… Read more »
Lets say women are attracted by testosterone. Then why do the majority find bodybuillders repulsive, whereas they are attracted to skinny/short guys like the ones in one direction, johnny depp, etc?
I’m 100% certain a woman would choose a guy like Johnny depp/Beckham in their primes over Arnold.
@John, read:
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/comm/haselton/papers/downloads/Frederick_Haselton_2007_Muscularity_sexy.pdf
[…] masculinity to be anything other than negative when coming from a human being born with a penis. Masculinity paired with a vagina however is the only legitimate form of masculinity […]
[…] Hyenas […]
[…] What made them notable was the gender dynamic between them I picked up on immediately. Within the first 3 minutes of coming up behind them in line the guy had made every Beta tell I think Roissy has a term for. When I got in line he was hugging up on her from behind, leaning in and she stood there like a tree. His posture and body language, as well as his attitude instantly told me this couple’s relational dynamic – he was the qualifying Beta and she was the mouthy, hard-to-please Hyena. […]
[…] For women unable or unwilling to settle, compromise or otherwise consolidate on a long term monogamy, her security phase becomes a personal effort in generating that security for herself. This security may come with some help from a generous, fem-centric state, or with the help of child support and / or alimony from a marriage or pregnancy prior to this phase, and of course she may entirely ignore the dictates of her biological clock (fertility window) and double down on her own feminine-masculinized conditioning by providing (what she believes is) exclusively for herself. These are the origins of the Hyenas.… Read more »
http://lijing.tumblr.com/post/370930572/confessions-of-an-alpha-wife
[…] Female is really an comment thread attention whore who’s need for catharsis over her sadly Hyena-like marriage motivates her to write stream-of-consciousness diatribes to support truths she needs to […]
Reblogged this on entrecienciasypoesias.
there are two alpha females: one has high social status (popularity) based on her looks etc. the other is very feminine… attracting men with ease.
both of these women are not “try hards.” it all just happens for them without much work.
when it’s the same woman, she is a true 10.
Great post. Moving over the psychical aspects, a Sandberg-like certainly retains female physique. Furthermore, I would venture to say her testosterone will be within range for her age. But she/others are worth over $1Bn. Where are we with the hyena narrative, then ? Since power is derived from money and influence, such females will exert undue influence and power moves in the boardrooms and beyond. You’ll get scheming 10X over what a man would do, shenanigans and backstabbing galore, machinations and backstabbery at an exponential rate. Hate fueled by wealth, only multiplied many times over. To be clear, we’re not… Read more »