Welmer

To start with, I’d like to go back to the origin of the term “alpha male.” It is a biological designation given to the members of mammalian social communities with the highest reproductive success. It is perhaps most relevant when applied to canines and apes, highly social animals that have hierarchical social rankings that determine reproductive success. The alpha designation reaches its zenith of relevance in wolf packs, which are dominated by an alpha pair. In animals such as gorillas where one male has a harem, it is not as important because other males do not take on beta status so much as they go solo for a while. The most important characteristic of the alpha male is that other males are subservient to him. It is, in fact, his dominance over other males that ensures his reproductive success.

However, here in our American human society, the term “alpha male” has come to refer not so much to men with high status among other men as it has to refer to men with high status among women. I like to call it the “boy band phenomenon”. It is probably no coincidence that the rise of the boy band emerged around the same time as the feminist movement.

The Beatles, foppish adolescents when they first emerged on the scene in America, owed their massive celebrity status to their mainly adolescent female fans. There is no more accurate depiction of hysteria than the screams and expressions of teenage girls as they expressed their utter adulation of the Beatles. The power of that concentrated mass of female emotion is truly awesome, and I imagine even tough cops on the sidelines of the concert were intimidated by it.

Prior to the emergence of pop culture as we know it today, high status males as portrayed in art were more stern, mature and often jaded. Their status derived from the grim struggles between men or charisma that won other men to their side. The same held true for politics, where the perfectly coiffed hair and boyish photo-ops of today were entirely unknown. This changed, of course, with JFK, again at precisely the same time pop culture and feminism emerged.

So it seems that we have entered a new era, where men compete with each other indirectly, through winning the support of females. It is no longer so important that the men support another man — it is the women who count. This is not unprecedented in the world. In fact, as recently as the 19th century the African kingdom of Dahomey was ruled by a chief who was supported by a corps of female warriors. They acted as his bodyguards and at times even as soldiers. Their job was to intimidate men and women alike. It is worth noting that the principle source of profit for the Dahomey was the capture and sale of slaves. Perhaps this is the penultimate expression of the “big man” phenomenon.

Naturally, the Dahomey kingdom eventually failed. In societies where the majority of men are subservient to a few males with high status amongst females, the men with high status amongst males can typically oust the loverboys through direct, man-to-man challenges. The Iliad itself chronicles the fiery destruction of Troy over the peccadillos of Paris, Helen’s handsome lover. The death of steadfast, loyal Hector, who is killed by a raging Achilles while defending his wayward brother, stands out as perhaps the most moving, tragic episode of the Iliad. It is even implied in Achillies’ desecration of the dead warrior, despite his eventual contrition and the respect he pays to Priam, that Achilles’ own, ignoble death from a sneaky bowshot by the cowardly Paris, was earned through his pride and lack of respect for manly virtue. It is the men who command the respect of men who prevail, while the young Paris, despite being an object of female adoration, brings about the destruction of his father’s kingdom.

Similar stories are told in Chinese accounts of emperors who were great lovers, yet were ultimately overthrown by fierce warlords. In fact, excessive sensuality is held to be an ennervating trait by most civilized cultures. It is curious to see America, once a nation brimming with masculine vigor, genuflecting at the altar of feminine opinion.

Could there have been a fundamental change in history due to technological progress and the increasing irrelevance of masculine traits? I doubt it. The mass of men, from ancient to modern times, have gone through cycles of freedom and slavery, and I suspect that it is the same process as ever that afflicts men today. When the burden grows too heavy, they turn then to the men who promise freedom, the ascetic warrior ideal once again grows mighty in the popular consciousness, and the sensuous lovers are thrown from their cushioned divans while their harems are divvied up amongst grim, hungry and loyal followers. A new set of “alpha males” takes over, and in time the cycle begins anew.