“Sigma Male” Is Not a Person

Absolute nonsense from the insel world seeps into mainstream culture, so it’s time to explain. I’m talking about the idea of ​​a “sigma male” that supposedly exists in relation to “alpha” and “beta” males.

These Greek letters should describe the place in the hierarchy as well as the type of person. This should already indicate that they don’t make any sense. Hierarchy positions are work, not innate biological traits. Nobody is born a general, quarterback, or CEO (except, of course, Boss Baby).

We often like to believe that a person’s character determines his greatness. This is a cute idea, but it has nothing to do with psychology or even reality; it’s a fantasy. Cinderella marries a prince because she is simply kind, sweet and beautiful. The image is attractive because we can present ourselves as the chosen one. So if all of this doesn’t make sense, where did it come from?

“Alpha Male” is a refuted concept based on animal behavior studies.

Before we talk about sigma males, we need to talk about alphas. In 1947, Rudolf Schenkel wrote an article on the behavior of wolves based on observations at the Swiss zoo. He wrote that there seems to be a hierarchy with an “alpha pair” at the top. Another wildlife biologist, David Mech, popularized the term alpha in his book, but changed his mind after studying wild wolves. Real wolf packs do not have such a multilevel hierarchy at all.

This post on Gizmodo talks about the history of the “alpha wolf” idea and why it is wrong. In short: wolf packs are families, with parents and children. Parents hunt, feed the puppies. They are the masters of the pack in the same way that human parents take responsibility for their families – for example , making sure the little ones get enough food . Some packs are more complex, but they are all familial and not the result of fierce competition.

The idea of ​​hierarchical structure was also reflected in dog training, where for decades there was a craze for trainers who tried to punish dogs, believing that they (the trainer or owner) “dominated” the hierarchy of the pack. This, too, has not proven to be a useful metaphor for dog training.

Animal behavior specialist Patricia McConnell explains that owners have been trained to flip their puppy over to show they are dominant, but wolves usually don’t. Instead, in packs of wolves, younger or “docile” animals rolls themselves over. Wolves and dogs have a sense of hierarchy in their relationship, but it’s not based on the guys at the top teasing everyone around.

Alpha makes even less sense to humans

Now let’s talk about how it all turned into toxic masculinity. Initially, “alpha” wolves were thought to be male-female pairs, but this quickly faded into the background when humans tried to describe human society in terms of this supposedly natural law.

If you think that human society is necessarily organized in a hierarchy with alphas at the top, you want to be alpha, right? And by misunderstanding a bunch of outdated wolf research, you’ll come to the conclusion that this means you need to be the dominant asshole for everyone around you.

Like wolves, humans have a sense of status, but like wolves, it’s difficult. For example, you can take one place in the social fabric of your workplace, and at the same time, you will have a completely different status in a group of friends or in a community organization of which you are a part. You also do not need to be clearly aware of every gradation of social status. If you want to date someone who is much higher or lower than you in some hierarchy (for example, they make a lot more money than you), this can be difficult. But you can also live a normal and happy life without getting stuck in the exact place of everyone in the hierarchy, which not everyone will be able to agree with anyway.

Where does sigma appear?

The idea of ​​sigma males is newer than the alpha trope. Basically, a bunch of guys convinced themselves that all men are in a hierarchy with alphas at the top (which was wrong anyway), and then they realized that constantly provoking conflicts with other people in order for you to win those conflicts is exhausting. and prove that you are alpha.

It’s not even what chimpanzees, our closest wild relatives, do. Primatologist Frans de Waal spoke about “alpha” chimpanzees, highlighting how they care for others and, in turn, are cared for. He said:

I think the term “alpha male”, if you search for it on the internet, you will find all these business books that teach how to be an alpha male and what they mean, how to beat others and punch them in the head. and let them know that you are the boss, and do not mess with me, and so on. In fact, the alpha male is a bully for them. I really don’t like this description … It is used very superficially, not related to what a real alpha male [chimpanzee] is.

But the idea of ​​alpha males was so ingrained in circles defined by toxic masculinity that people who clung to it couldn’t give it up. In other words, they looked at alphas, but they also defined alphas in a way that made them terrible people; You would not want to be that alpha and would not want to be friends with them. So it’s time to drop the trail, right?

Well, you might think. If you have already adhered to the idea of ​​the hierarchy of men as the absolute natural order of things, it would be difficult to just stop doing this and live like a normal person. But these guys have already defined their subculture with their weird beliefs about masculinity (of which alphas were just one part – we’re now in Pickup Artist / Redpill / incel / MGTOW territory). Time for an alternative to alpha: the guy who is outside the hierarchy, but still the best in it.

This is what a sigma male should be, and it’s even more nonsense than an alpha / beta / omega business, because instead of being based on an outdated theory of animal behavior, it’s just made up. (Beta is simply second in the hierarchy; omega, which is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, is the lowest level. Sigma is another Greek letter.)

You can read a brief history of the rise in popularity of the term in various explanatory articles, such as this one published in Mel . The author, Miles Klee, backs up the call with this quote:

Essentially, [identifying as a sigma male] is no different from trying to understand yourself through the organizing filters of the zodiac signs, Myers-Briggs types, Enneagram numbers, or Hogwarts houses. We want to know ourselves better, and, guided by our prejudices, we seek this knowledge through the chosen structure of appropriation (and in this case, assessment) of a person. Of course, this process tends to lead to joining the archetype that you think is most appropriate, which explains why there are many strange gatekeepers around the sigma name: it must be unusual if it is supposed to wield any kind of power, but every moron will want to argue. that he belongs to this group.

At least with horoscopes, people who read charts and share astrological memes know it’s bullshit (well, most of them are). This makes it easier to pick out personality types when they don’t serve you, or if you just don’t. I don’t want to think about them anymore. You may have really thought of yourself as Ravenclaw before, but now that you know a little more about J.K. Rowling , you would rather move on and share the memes that you are Enneagram 7.

This shift is more difficult to make when the personality type you choose is associated with strong beliefs about gender and social status and their perceived biological roots. Or, in a nutshell: if you think of yourself as sigma (or want to be), then you’ve already done the bullshit. Do yourself a favor and completely remove yourself.