‘Toxic ‘alpha male’ podcast culture is ripe and damaging for women and girls globally and we need to fight against it.
What is ‘toxic alpha male’ podcast culture you ask? Read on…
What is an alpha male?
According to social media, an alpha male is a man who is super manly, often described as a ‘real man’ or a ‘man’s man.’ These are men who supposedly have greater access to power, money, and mates, which they gain through physical prowess, intimidation, and domination.
Historically, these distinctions have been made based on scientific experiments/studies of animals, in particular chimpanzees, lions though these studies extended to humans via the patriachal lens.
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Toxic alpha male culture in podcasting
Podcasts are quite easily one of the most revolutionary mediums that champions freedom of speech for creators globally but unlike radio, podcasts give a platform to ANY individual with a voice which as you can imagine, has its pros and cons.
Lately, there has been a surge of podcasts hosted by so called ‘alpha males’ using their shows to objectify women, spew dangerous patriachal rhetoric, championing the likes of Andrew Tate.
Female Tiktok creators have responded to this growing trend by parodying this culture in a trend that went viral last month. Created by Elsa Lakew, the trend saw women posting a video with the ‘bearded cutie’ filter which gives the user masculine features including a beard.
Lakew’s decision to make the video came from frustration with countless podcasts that push the so-called “alpha male” lifestyle, which encourages men try to establish social dominance through aggression based on now-debunked theories about wolfpack hierarchies.
“It feels like a new video clip was going viral every other week of some guy spewing some garbage take on women,” Lakew told NBC News. “I got pretty sick of it. And so when I saw that filter on TikTok and used it, I immediately thought of these podcasts guys. … Since we couldn’t fight logic with illogical takes, parodying them was the next best thing.”
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While these parody videos are hilarious, they mirror actual statements made by some misogynistic male podcasters which is a worrying reality that these creators have audiences that agree with them. Even more worrying is that these men have platforms and the power to influence younger listeners into these toxic ideologies where some men spread hold regressive messages about relationships, expectations women and gender roles.
It is great to see women uniting, responding to and disrupting these misogynistic hosts with comedy. Go girls!
