Alpha Male - Hero or Villian?

There seems to be quite an ongoing conversation these days, some might say debate, surrounding the issue of the role of so called Alpha males in our society. The camps seem to be pretty clearly divided. There are those who see the Alpha male as a natural and vital part of a stable society and consider societal trends which seek to minimize or vilify these traits to be the main, if not sole, cause of societal decline.

On the other side are people who see the Alpha male as an egocentric patriarchal relic whose adorers excuse his negative, even criminal behaviors as being normal “maleness”. They see his conduct as bullying, selfish and would say it supports sexism and normalizes domestic abuse. This camp looks at the alpha male as an obstacle to gender equality and a modern, less violent world.

As I’ve listened to these arguments and read articles (most of which attempt to define the alpha male and explain how to determine if you are one) there is often a reference to the “natural” origin of the Alpha.

The idea being that whether we like it or not, the strong, aggressive and sometimes violent tendencies are what allowed humans to survive in ancient times. So the narrative continues that we owe this type of man our respect and to lose the traits he brings to society is surely a recipe for destruction. This idea is a tremendous assertion, at least in my mind, and one that deserves some serious consideration.

On the one hand, I do tend to believe that most of our modern-day traits, physical emotional and psychological have some origin in our evolutionary history. But if that were the case one would think that everyone surviving today would appreciate the alpha male and that we would all come together in a sort of instinctual understanding of his necessity. But given the clear bright-line that seems to divide these two camps, the absolutely polarizing effect of the Alpha male, I started to consider another option.

Evolution of the human species as we understand it, of course began in a very brutal world, surrounded by apex predators who looked at us as a meal. Combine that with the ever present threat of starvation itself and it is amazing that we survived at all.

Some advocates of the Alpha male are quick to remind us that the original hunter-gatherer tribes appreciated and respected the role of the alpha male he was essential to the survival of the species.

But this theory also causes me to wonder where the virulent opposition to the Alpha male comes from. Could it also be rooted in evolution or is it the natural reaction of a modern day society? Wouldn’t the rejection of the Alpha male make sense in a world now far removed from those ancient times? Why is a great percentage of our modern society made so uncomfortable by the idea of the dominating if not superior Alpha male?

Well, this caused me to develop a theory. Evolution is a process whereby desirable traits passed on based on their benefit to the species. If we look at the Alpha male in this context we can see the traits he exhibits may have been beneficial in primitive times. However, as we evolved from hunter-gatherers into agricultural communities how did this affect the role of the Alpha male?

We envision Neanderthals as tribes with males going out to hunt large game
to sustain the tribe as a whole. Without a doubt as males ventured out on hunting excursions and returned, the men who were the strongest and best hunters would have been elevated to a higher position in the society as they were the ones who literally were keeping everyone alive by providing the food.

Women would have been left with the young and would have been responsible for nurturing and protecting them from predators, an equally vital role so be sure. However, the women would have benefitted from working together as a collective unit, making the evolution of an Alpha female not beneficial.

Also, regardless of whether ancient Alpha males won over their female counterparts through admiration of their hunting skills or whether they physically subdued the female of their choice after conquering other lesser males the outcome would have been the same. We would still see the Alpha male traits passed on simply by virtue of their ability to overpower others.

Later on as human beings developed agricultural communities we would have seen that the Alpha male would have been somewhat displaced. Whereas in hunting communities the Alpha male would have been put on somewhat of a pedestal and made a hero, in the agricultural community there's more sense of everyone working towards the common goal of producing a crop.

Again if we look at animals who hunt prey to survive, it is often true that the strongest and most dominant eat first and get their fill before the next strongest gets to eat and so on down the line until the weakest would be sometimes deprived of food. This survival of the fittest mentality among hunting communities would make sense and again would ensure the strongest most dominant of the species would survive.

In agricultural communities however there is an idea that everyone collectively works together and everyone collectively shares in the harvest. The Chinese have a saying that "Many hands make light work" and in farming communities this is eminently true. The more hands you have as opposed to the best hands would be the rule. The survival of all members is equally important.

So if we discuss the evolutionary base of the Alpha male we should also acknowledge that as agricultural communities developed this persona may have, in those communities, become a detriment. The egocentric Alpha male would be considered a liability in a farming community where the group takes precedence over the individual.

And so, it would seem that as most of the developed world now does its hunting and gathering at Walmart, are the traits of the Alpha male still as desirable to society? If you look at the family structure today, many women are equal providers and don't accept the deference to the male as “king of the castle”. She expects full equality. And given that many women have to work full time, they may find a man who can equally love and nurture her children as more desirable.

And if that is true, and men have evolved with one of two types of genes, Alpha male hunter gatherer or the collectivist farmer, and women choose the collectivist, then will the Alpha be bred out of existence? Are men today taught to suppressing these ancient tendencies or have the males become less Alpha through evolution?

Is the rise of right wing populism around the globe a sign of Alpha male frustration? A fear that they are being eliminated? Is Donald Trump's blatant egoism and the audio of him saying he loves being rich because he can grab women by the pussy an appeal to this more primitive archetype? Is the Me Too movement a response by women to let men know that they have chosen a path that will not tolerate certain male behaviors as they once did?

These are all questions which I leave to the reader and I invite thoughts comments and criticisms. Also if there ia research into this and you have links, please share. I am very curious about this topic.

Credit for photo: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13152289-alpha-s-prize&ved=2ahUKEwjcuuWO6JDdAhUFvVkKHXvvB1w4ChAWMAJ6BAgHEAE&usg=AOvVaw2kT39PJuhfH9ySwjnv_gzF