Alpha Males: A Symptom of the Culture

Eliot Bicknell

July 27, 2024

If you’ve been on the internet in the last three years, you’re likely familiar with the “Alpha Male'' influencer archetype. A fit guy sitting on a podcast, telling his predominantly young male viewers that “women are the root of all their problems” and that the solution is: money, suppressed emotions, and buying their 10-day program. These influencers have been present on the internet for an unfortunately long time but were only thrust into the mainstream with the arrival of Andrew Tate in 2020, who propagated all these same ideas. Tate, who now faces trial for rape and human trafficking charges, accelerated this movement. Despite being out of the spotlight now, Tate left behind quite the legacy: An internet cesspool of toxic masculinity and blatant bigotry that appears to be here to stay. Of course, misogyny and toxic masculinity are not anything new. These issues have been around for an incredibly long time, and it is only recently that we’ve started to really make progress against them. But is this online movement indicative of our regression as a society, or simply a sign that we have not progressed nearly as much as we think we have? 

What I think it comes down to, as many of our issues do in the modern political climate, is the overall polarization in our society. The internet has pushed us closer and closer towards extremism. This is most readily obvious in the current political climate in America. In the last few decades, extremism on both sides has expanded, as has animosity towards the other side. 

This unwillingness to stray away from one perspective is also present in toxic masculinity.

 But many young men see discourse and take it as a deeply personal attack, and they are not completely delusional in this interpretation. The frame by which some feminists have attacked the issue of toxic masculinity and misogyny has often strayed antagonistic towards all men in a way that is decidedly unproductive. Calls to “Kill All Men,” although blown out of proportion by the right, have possibly done much more to derail the feminist movement than they have done to help it. 60 percent of young men would not call themselves feminists, possibly due to them seeing feminism as an anti-male movement, as opposed to one that calls for equality. It is also important to remember that young men are harmed by toxic masculinity as well. For instance, some men can end up feeling like they can’t open up or show emotion. Men's mental health is a real issue. For men, suicide rates are worse than ever. 15% of men say they have no close friends, up from 3% in 1990. Depression and social isolation are not at all uncommon for young men, especially those deemed undesirable by society.

As a result of these factors, young men are more vulnerable than ever, and therefore easy to exploit. This is where men like Andrew Tate come in, looking to profit off of vulnerable teenagers. During the pandemic and the years after, Alpha Male influencers flooded the internet, preying on their impressionable audience by telling them exactly what they wanted to hear: “that there is absolutely nothing wrong with traditional masculinity and that the problem is women.” Many young men latched onto this ideology, making posts and flooding comment sections. Why were they so easily swayed? It was the easiest choice. It is much easier to lash out at women then it is to take the time to truly improve yourself and come to terms with your own masculinity. In fact, it is completely understandable how so many boys were indoctrinated so easily. As a young man myself, I’ve seen friends and classmates utterly convinced by these influencers, offloading sexist remarks and dropping everything in favor of trying to make money and acquire a materialistic lifestyle.

Online Masculinity is a real problem, one that threatens to disrupt the ideas of equality and acceptance that we strive to achieve as a society. It directly hurts women and adds to the already large amount of anti-woman rhetoric that exists online. The truth is, online masculinity is not the root of the problem in and of itself, it is a symptom. It is a call for help from young men.

So what’s the solution? How do we disconnect a pipeline that thrives on social media? It has to be cut off at the source. Boys need to be taught a real definition of masculinity, at home and in school. One that is not centered on money, sex, or dominance, but instead on strength, kindness, and self-acceptance. There is nothing inherently wrong with traditionally masculine activities; boys can still play sports and be competitive if they want to, but they need to know that is not the only way to be a man.