Ya, I had expected that comment to raise hackles, although I wasn't trolling.
It's a counter intuitive idea, so I'd hoped that it would at least generate a little thought.
I agree that some aspects of sports are masculine. But is masculine equal to alpha? I think not. Many aspects of masculinity are nurturing, protecting, and provider oriented. My idea is that alpha traits are defined by selfishness.
Sometimes there is no profit in pidgeon holing what characteristics are "alpha", or "beta". However the broad concepts have some use to men, obviously. Being alpha, as the term is used on manosphere blogs, means being attractive to women. It's useful to know what aspects of personality are charming.
Women are attracted to selfishness and a personality that has the power to get away with being selfish.
Testosterone causes an increase in selfish behaviors, and many of the behaviors that we categorize as alpha have a definining charactaristic of being individual oriented.
I think we can all imagine a group of teenagers railing off their sports teams stats and drooling in homo-erotic fandom as they share their group fascination with their heros, and quickly see those sports fans as lacking in individuation, and leaning heavily into the group oriented follower side of personality. Trying to fit in and using a group oriented concern to fit in.
The idea to ponder is individuation versus following the group.
Humans have a contingent hive mind - without which our groups would never be able to survive group crisis. However this hive mind aspect could be categorized as being a drone and a follower. That aspect should be contingent on crisis, not a default mode of being. Spectator sports exemplify a follower mindset.
It's a counter intuitive idea, so I'd hoped that it would at least generate a little thought.
I agree that some aspects of sports are masculine. But is masculine equal to alpha? I think not. Many aspects of masculinity are nurturing, protecting, and provider oriented. My idea is that alpha traits are defined by selfishness.
Sometimes there is no profit in pidgeon holing what characteristics are "alpha", or "beta". However the broad concepts have some use to men, obviously. Being alpha, as the term is used on manosphere blogs, means being attractive to women. It's useful to know what aspects of personality are charming.
Women are attracted to selfishness and a personality that has the power to get away with being selfish.
Testosterone causes an increase in selfish behaviors, and many of the behaviors that we categorize as alpha have a definining charactaristic of being individual oriented.
I think we can all imagine a group of teenagers railing off their sports teams stats and drooling in homo-erotic fandom as they share their group fascination with their heros, and quickly see those sports fans as lacking in individuation, and leaning heavily into the group oriented follower side of personality. Trying to fit in and using a group oriented concern to fit in.
The idea to ponder is individuation versus following the group.
Humans have a contingent hive mind - without which our groups would never be able to survive group crisis. However this hive mind aspect could be categorized as being a drone and a follower. That aspect should be contingent on crisis, not a default mode of being. Spectator sports exemplify a follower mindset.