The MRA ideological axis seems to twirl around the idea that because MRA’s act like anti-social butt-pustules with severe Neural Fecal Disability, they never get laid, and this sad state of affairs is women’s fault! If women were just less picky and more submissive things would be great(?).
In cautiously interacting (read derisively poking holes in their fatuous bullcookery) with MRA’s one rotten plank in their prolapsed rectum of a platform seems to be based on an erroneous study of wolf psychology(See what actually happens in wolf families here).
Using flawed wolf psychology as a ideological basis for your movement is just one among the myriad of ways that MRA’s fail.
But let’s focus on this small polished facet of their earth shattering stupidity: the reliance on the idea that there are classes of men, known as Alpha’s and Beta’s. Woe be it unto you if you are Beta, as because you are weak and show emotion and do not act like a complete bag of dicks toward women. The Gold Standard or the alpha is the converse of the Beta, and thus realizes his full potential by embracing full sack-of-dicks status. It’s okay though because both Alpha’s and Beta’s blame women for their lack of proper socialization and inability to use key social lubricants such as empathy, respect, and altruistic behaviour.
But we should leave the other unsavoury trappings of MRA ideology at the wayside and delve deeply into the magical basis of the Alpha and Beta Male phenomena. As mentioned earlier, the alpha/beta classification hierarchy is based on studies of wolves that were desperately flawed. The wolves being studied were in captivity and being in captivity deforms the traditional family structure of the wolf pack into the perverted form(alpha/beta dominance based structure) recorded by the biologists studying them at the time(1948 to be exact).
Read how flawed this alpha BS male is:
“The alpha myth is everywhere. Google “alpha dog” on the Internet and you get more than 85 million hits. Really. While not all the sites are about dominating your dog, there are literally millions of resources out there – websites, books, blogs, television shows, veterinarians, trainers and behavior professionals – instructing you to use force and intimidation to overpower your dog into submission. They say that you, the human, must be the alpha. They’re all wrong. Every single one of them.
The erroneous approach to canine social behavior known as dominance theory (two million-plus Google hits) is based on a study of captive zoo wolves conducted in the 1930s and 1940s by Swiss animal behaviorist Rudolph Schenkel, in which the scientist concluded that wolves in a pack fight to gain dominance, and the winner is the alpha wolf.
Bad Extrapolation
Schenkel’s observations of captive wolf behavior were erroneously extrapolated to wild wolf behavior, and then to domestic dogs. It was postulated that wolves were in constant competition for higher rank in the hierarchy, and only the aggressive actions of the alpha male and female held the contenders in check. Other behaviorists following Schenkel’s lead also studied captive wolves and confirmed his findings: groups of unrelated wolves brought together in artificial captive environments do, indeed, engage in often-violent and bloody social struggles.
The problem is, that’s not normal wolf behavior. As David Mech stated in the introduction to his study of wild wolves (Mech, 2000), “Attempting to apply information about the behavior of assemblages of unrelated captive wolves to the familial structure of natural packs has resulted in considerable confusion. Such an approach is analogous to trying to draw inferences about human family dynamics by studying humans in refugee camps. The concept of the alpha wolf as a ‘top dog’ ruling a group of similar-aged compatriots (Schenkel 1947; Rabb et al. 1967; Fox 1971a; Zimen 1975, 1982; Lockwood 1979; van Hooff et al. 1987) is particularly misleading.”
What we know now, thanks to Mech and others, is that in the wild, a wolf pack is a family, consisting of a mated pair and their offspring of the past one to three years. Occasionally two or three families may group together. As the offspring mature they disperse from the pack; the only long-term members of the group are the breeding pair. By contrast, in captivity unrelated wolves are forced to live together for many years, creating tension between mature adults that doesn’t happen in a natural, wild pack.”
So this bit about Alpha Males and Beta Males has roots in bad science and thus the argument has a faulty premise which leads, of course to a faulty conclusion. This untidy little fact won’t faze the Red Pill types though, they’ve left reason far behind, now only a distant memory (like leaving your child at the last rest stop *whoops!*). Thus we are left with the baseless lack-wit MRA dogma that is swimming in confirmation bias with nebulous goal of trying to justify treating women poorly because MRA’s fail at being good human beings and thus their willies are sad.
Who knew that the Manosphere was so entertaining?
4 comments
April 6, 2013 at 9:51 am
john zande
I love your mind, you magnificent thing, you!
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April 25, 2013 at 9:12 pm
jim
I’m confused – by that logic the dominance behavior observed in unrelated wolves would also then be seen in *unrelated dogs*, (and possibly) in *unrelated humans*.
Sounds to me like you’re actually making the case *for* the MRA community (fyi – I’m not part of that community – I’ve worked in dog-training circles for 20+ years now where this theory and its application have held forth pretty well for a looong time).
Any thoughts as to why this conclusion would be incorrect? (Perhaps I misread something)?
Thanks!
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April 27, 2013 at 8:16 am
The Arbourist
@Jim
Hiya Jim. Welcome to the blog. :)
I see that in your comment you picked up on the similarity on how people apply this idea.
[Jim:] unrelated wolves would also then be seen in *unrelated dogs*, (and possibly) in *unrelated humans*.
But here is the the important part which may bring light to your question.
“Other behaviorists following Schenkel’s lead also studied captive wolves and confirmed his findings: groups of unrelated wolves brought together in artificial captive environments do, indeed, engage in often-violent and bloody social struggles.”
The studies are based on a particular situation that is *far* from the norm, one could even say an exception to the rule. Yet, given popular internet mythology, it seems that this flawed idea has somehow become the norm because it dovetails nicely with the toxic ideology that many MRA espouse.
Dominance in dog training is far afield from what the MRA camp sets up. I would also suggest that much of dog training relies on classical conditioning and reinforcement rather than the flawed assumptions of this particular theory.
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April 29, 2013 at 2:58 pm
jim
Thanks for the clarification – I *did* overlook that bit, and I can see how easily it can be twisted to support certain…ideologies.
Extrapolating anything from animals to humans is a huge pitfall – and I agree that nearly all of what you see in dog training really is just classical conditioning.
Unfortunately too many people either lack critical thinking or (worse) simply don’t apply it and accept so many assumptions as givens.
Thanks for the insight
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