The categorisation of people as alphas and betas is a pseudoscience stemming from the ethological consideration of animals and their social hierarchy. With about as much validity as astrology when it comes to accuracy describing people’s personality types and tendencies, the alpha/beta categories play a big role in both internet meme culture and, more concerningly, in misogynistic online circles.
Whilst interest in one’s star sign is typically found in women, the hierarchy of alphas, betas etc is almost exclusively used by men to describe themselves. Its emphasis is particularly on measuring how masculine a man is, which relates to how much women are attracted to them. The alphas are leaders, they are strong, confident and charismatic. Betas are the inferior, they are submissive and loyal, often characterised as ‘nice guys’. Below the betas in this hierarchy are delta men, who are essentially the ‘everyman’, with no desire to lead and just a general averageness. Even lower is the gamma male, who is unsatisfied with his absence of alpha qualities, resenting the world for his deficiencies. At the bottom of the pyramid are the omega males, who are fun-loving, often quite nerdy with little interest in other people’s opinions of him. The anomaly in this hierarchy is the sigma male, a category which has grown in relevance recently, who is essentially an alpha male but introverted. Sigmas are lone wolves, they do not want to fit into societal expectations and yet they still possess a charisma, intelligence and masculinity expected from the alphas.
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Upon researching these personality types, it became apparent how lines between these groups are very blurred. Since none of this is founded in real science and it is all a fabricated hierarchy loosely based on animal behaviour, it is no wonder there is such a confused understanding of what distinguishes omegas from sigmas. Simply the fact that this whole system is founded upon ideas of animal nature is indicative of the beliefs of those who subscribe to the theory. This mode of categorisation is particularly popular amongst the ‘manosphere’, the online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny and far-right ideology. There has been a lot of backlash to increasing social justice by these communities who justify anti-feminism as a need to retain a natural hierarchy where men are the hunter-gatherers and women are the child-bearing foragers. This form of toxic masculinity is rife and encouraged by men categorising themselves into these groups that are founded upon ideology, not science.
The ridiculousness of the supposed sigma male has been, as of late, been very popular amongst meme culture. The term itself originates from Vox Day, a far-right white supremacist, in 2010 but has since been satirised due to its associations with the other buzz-terms in the manosphere, such as grindset and hustle culture. In a way, it encourages self-improvement and motivation through a balanced diet, working out and pursuing one’s dreams. However, the supposed sigma male grindset is so extreme, it’s difficult to take seriously. The irony is that as much as the sigma is meant to be an outsider, who does not follow the rules society sets out for him, he also is very much a slave to capitalism. This intense focus on making money by any means possible, particularly through crypto-currency nowadays, is merely encouraging this capitalist ideology that regardless of your background, if you work hard enough you can achieve anything.
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The figures of pop culture that have often been labelled in these memes or edits as sigmas include Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, the Joker, specifically Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal, Thomas Shelby from Peaky Blinders and Tyler Durden from Fight Club. All of these men have mental health issues that make them disturbed and violent, figures that are harmful to not only themselves but others around them. The idea of men identifying with these disillusioned characters is concerning as they never seek help for their feelings and they instead continue to pity themselves and how they are misunderstood, then release their unresolved issues in dangerous ways. To put it bluntly, antisocial incel boys who struggle with their own self-worth label themselves as sigmas to romanticise their lives, making them think that deep down, they are just as badass as those characters who choose not to socialise, when in reality, these incels were not invited to socialise in the first place.
A real life example of a sigma male is Elon Musk. He is the richest man in the world, the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter and more. He has garnered a cult of personality through his supposed relatableness (basically he likes memes and tweets a lot) and now his fans have named him a sigma to praise him. As one who has been successful in business, he fits the expectations of hustle culture and the grindset to gain as much money as possible (this conveniently forgets his parents’ wealth). He brags about his work ethic and how divisive he is and it seems the more controversial he is, the more his followers like him. This adversity that Elon faces is what makes him the misunderstood hero that defines a sigma.
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The power Musk gains from his legion of devoted fans is most explicitly shown through his recent buying of Twitter and the terrible fallout that has come from that. It is hard not to blame the collapse of Twitter on Musk’s egomaniacal qualities that are encouraged by his supporters who consider him a badass. He claims to believe in hard-work, hence his own taxing daily routine, and then distorts this to demand illegal working hours from his employees. The fallout from this type of behaviour is becoming apparent now with Twitter, but whether or not this will be a wake up call for all the sigma-worshipping incels out there is uncertain.
It is fun to mock and satirise the notion of alphas, betas, sigmas etc but it is hard not to recognise how seriously many boys take this hierarchy that just enforces misogyny and far-right ideology. It is truly concerning how sincere many people are in their distorted understandings of what it is to be masculine and how easy it is to form echo chambers reinforcing the idea that the Joker is so relatable and Elon Musk is the ultimate Chad W. As much as it is a joke, it also very much is not and this can see and has seen real life repercussions.
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