Is there really such a thing as alpha and beta males?
The most basic fact about human society is that men compete with each other to find out which men are the very best (best in some deep, fundamental sense), and then women select those winners for reproduction.
This process, occurring over vast expanses of time, is the very thing that separated us evolutionarily from the chimps! Female chimps typically just mate with whichever male can get to her first.[1] The human-chimpanzee split was in large part caused by the tendency of females to reject potential mates and to exert strong sexual selection pressure onto males, so that not all males would get to reproduce, even if they could make it to a female.[2] This led to us evolving a larger brain, the ability to use tools, language, etc., because the neurological structures associated with this intelligence made it more likely for a male to be chosen by one or more females to pass his genetics on (it gave him a courtship advantage, in other words).[3]
Female sexual selection of males is likely the explanation for why we humans differ significantly from our last common ancestor with the chimps, but modern-day chimps are still nearly identical to this ancestor.[4]
The hallmark of our species is competition among men, where the winners of the competition get selected by women to have their genetics passed on. This idea is embedded at the core of our perception. The devastating feeling of rejection by females, as a fundamental judgement from Nature against the suitability of our genetics for propagation. The crippling, crushing, confusing feeling of having been assigned to the “friendzone.”
“She is very sexually active, but just not with me, even though she knows me well. I guess I’m just not in the category of men she considers ‘sexual material.’”
And consider for instance the very familiar situation of seeing a beautiful woman in public. As we move our eyes away to avoid staring, experience heightened alertness, and become slightly extra cautious to not make a fool of ourselves, the image of what we just saw lingers in the imagination for a minute. It can be correctly said that the powerful, captivating, vibrant experience that any man feels from having been in her presence—a force which we call beauty—is greater than anything human. Quite ironically, this nurturing, benevolent, innocent beauty is exactly the cruel, unforgiving force of Nature that selects. Woman demands that man (through a process you could call “competition,” or also more accurately call “productive endeavor”) bring forth his best leaders, those men with top-tier genetics, those men who are respected, competent leaders. Women select their sexual partners from this pool of “winners.” And what about all the other men who didn’t fare as well in the competition? Woman encourages their genetic lineage to end.
Every time we witness feminine beauty, we are reminded of this stark duality to our existence. Woman is so beautiful, yet represents a reality that is so cruel. In the same way that nature is breathtakingly gorgeous, but displays no mercy when it comes to wreaking havoc, especially on the weakest among us. In fact, the first thing humanity seeks is shelter to protect us from nature!
So to answer the question posed in the title, it sure would be nice if all of us were judged equally by Woman. It sure would be nice if finding a sexual partner was just a simple matter of finding someone who has similar hobbies, matches your personality, etc. It sure would be nice if our nature was characterized by the principle of “standing up for the little guy,” so that every man is loved by Woman, regardless of his socioeconomic status, power, genetics, respect, influence, social status, intelligence, articulateness, competence, and regardless of whether he’s a “winner” or a “loser.”
But to pretend like nature is purely benevolent and all this is true is to live in delusion, and nothing good can possibly come from that. The only choice we have is to live in Truth. Woman, like Nature, is arbitrary, unpredictable, chaotic, selective, beautiful, and infinitely more powerful than you are. The alpha/beta dichotomy of men is a fundamental reality that is rooted deep in our biology and persistent beyond belief. It manifests itself in every place we interact with the world. It’s not fair. It’s cruel. But it’s the Truth, so we best look it in the eye and confront it forthrightly instead of hiding from it because it’s scary. We will always operate within the laws of nature whether we like it or not.
Matsumoto-Oda, A. Female choice in the opportunistic mating of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Mahale. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 46, 258–266 (1999).
Dixson, Alan F. Sexual selection and the origins of human mating systems. Oxford University Press, USA, 2009.
Ryan, Michael J. "Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118.8 (2021): e2008194118.
Ebersberger, Ingo, et al. “Genomewide comparison of DNA sequences between humans and chimpanzees.” The American Journal of Human Genetics 70.6 (2002): 1490-1497.