If Sex is purely biological, and not performative in anyway, what is meant by Alpha, Sigma and Beta Males?
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Two very different concepts you’re asking about.
The “alpha/beta/sigma” male thing comes from a retracted and debunked zoological study (animal research) where a researched claimed to observe that Gray Wolf packs have a dominant male, called the Alpha, and submissive males called Betas. While this research was ultimately disproved and retracted an analogy has been made into human society that some men are more “dominant” than others, and the individuals who usually use these terms will generally accept that being dominant is better, that this is a good trait to have. This isn’t some scientific or ‘accepted’ thing, this is more “Locker Room Talk” of people describing their own personality, so similar to ideas of being ‘macho’ or ‘manly’ or ‘butch’. It’s one of those ironic circles where people who use the terms are typically using them to boost their own ego and insult others, where the reality is everyone else is looking at people who use these terms as insecure morons.
To understand Aligender/agender, first understand that some people separate “sex” from “gender”. “sex” in this case referring to either genetic or physical attributes – i.e. if you have a penis or XY chromosomes you are ‘male’. “Gender” is viewed as a psychological or social construct, it idea of “womanhood” or “manhood” being detached from your chromosomes or physical dangly bits. I’m not an expect in “Aligender/agender” terms but they generally refer to people who feel “whatever they are” is not properly described with the traditional social constructs of “male” or “female” gender.
Alpha, Beta, Sigma males aren’t a real thing. It’s a term used by people that ONE GUY invented and then he later came out and said he was wrong about everything.
They’re more social constructs, the same way that gender is. I can’t really prove to you that someone is Agender, cause they just kinda have to tell you. I can’t prove that a certain person is an “alpha” or “sigma” cause that’s not a real, measurable thing – they just kinda have to tell you (or you assume, but don’t do that).
Basically, they’re all social constructs, so their difference is their definitions.
First of all, off the bat, there’s no alpha male, sigma male, beta male, etc. It’s a mechanism that’s been redacted by the gentleman who came up with it in the first place, it’s basically a social media fallacy at this point.
But “alpha males” are you jock types, I guess you’d say. “Chads”. Guys that supposedly have a lot of confidence, leadership traits, effortlessly project themselves, and often associated with having a natural sexual prowess with women.
“Beta Males” are naturally submissive, quiet, non assertive. Followers, etc.
“Sigma males” are supposedly the big brain, outside the system, outside looking in, roguish intelligent men that are so observant and self aware that they don’t fall into, or see themselves as above, the prior two categories.
Again, this is fucking stupid, and social dynamics don’t work this way. Every dickhead on the internet thinks they’re a Sigma male or whatever. If you go through life thinking things are this simple or black and white, it’s likely going to limit you.
Aligender is a term for people who feel like they are weird/in the wrong about feeling like they belong to a gender. So it’s more of a negative feeling. I’m going to be honest, I have no idea why we need a label for that, but… Whatever makes people comfortable.
Being agender means that you don’t feel like you have a gender at all. That you’re just you and you don’t want to be identified by your gender.
More examples:
Genderneutral – feeling specially that you don’t belong to the main genders (male/female).
Genderfluid: Sometimes you feel like you’re a guy, sometimes a girl. I am technically genderfluied but I don’t care much about it when it comes to pronouns. Everyone see me as a woman and I’m fine with that. It’s just that I wouldn’t be Mad per se if someone called me he or they.
Alpha males ETC don’t mean anything, they are purely fiction.
The people who came up with the terms used them to refer to personality types, and nothing to do with sex or gender.
Other answers have explained the gender parts, so I’ll just chime in on the other bit.
“Alpha” and “beta” males are made up concepts that have their origin in a debunked study about wolf pack dynamics. But “alpha male” in particular really entered the mainstream vernacular after Aldous Huxley’s *Brave New World*, a dystopian novel in which humans are specifically genetically engineered to be in preset classes or castes – Alpha being the best and most powerful, beta submitting to the authority of Alphas, and so on. It was a social commentary, not a scientific or even sociological finding.
Alpha/beta/sigma/whatever male is purely performative. It’s a way to try to identify yourself as superior to others. If you hear someone talk about themselves or others using this terminology, you should extract yourself from the situation as quickly as possible.
The gender terms are a little complicated for ELI5, but everyone has a gender assigned at birth which corresponds to their genitalia. Not everyone is the same gender as assigned at birth. Agender means the person has no gender at all, while aligender considers something abnormal about their gender expression. There are many other variations.
It’s REALLY important that you understand what I’m about to say here. Alpha, Sigma and Beta Males are not terms from science, these are terms that internet people (like youtubers or podcasters) took from an old book (from the 30s I think) and just started using. There is no settled definition of these because they are just things that some dude made up. They are not in any proven by science. No one ran these ideas through a proper scientific reviewed paper and come out with any kind of proof that these terms or ideas mean anything at all. And in fact, when people have tried to prove these ideas, they have come up short 100% of the time. Most people would call that disproved, but lets just say they have failed to be proven.
It’s based on an idea observed in Wolf packs, but in modern science that idea has been discredited (shown to be an incorrect conclusion). Wolf and dogs kind of appear to behave that way, but don’t actually behave that way in reality. So even wolf packs are no longer seen to have an alpha male and so on.
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