Were Einstein and/ or Ghandi "Alpha Males"?

[mrlonelyone]

For those who buy into the whole Alpha VS Beta male concept I have a simple question.

Was Albert Einstein an Alpha or Beta male?

Was Mohandas Ghandi an Alpha or Beta male?

Consider Einstein's life story link

Consider Ghandi's life story

link

I ask because wherever I see this concept mentioned the focus is overwhelmingly on physical attributes not intelligence or political ability are ignored.

These men were both clearly leaders and did good with women...but their kind of personality traits: High intelligence, political sensibility etc

Just to add one more twist how about Alexander the Great who was bisexual yet conquered most of the known world? In most discussions it is discounted that a gay/bi man can be alpha.

Yes

No

The alpha Vs beta male idea is a load of BS.

Updates

+1 y

I meant to say their kind of personality traits.. high inteligence and political ability are often discounted in most writing about Alpha vs Beta males .

Updates

+1 y

I found a video where the scientist who coined the term Alpha male, in the context of most wolf packs, the term Alpha male is total BS as it is often used. link

[funkadelic5]

The alpha/beta concept is stupid. It does not literally exist in humans. You cannot stereotype any one person completely alpha or beta; there are always shades of grey. What it really boils down to, and the main message alpha/beta ideology tries to get across is: confidence and leadership. If you have those two things in spades, women tend to take much more notice of you.

[mrlonelyone]

" confidence and leadership. If you have those two things in spades"

Exactly. Albert Einstein and Mohandas Ghandi would have had both of those traits. Those traits made them leaders in their fields and they did attract women. All without having to be a big strong bully...which seems to be the way the term is understood by far too many people.

[Anonymous]

No, and they must be turning in their graves right now.

[mrlonelyone]

Interesting. How was Ghandi a man respected and followed by 600 million East Indians not Alpha? How about Einstein...of all his classmates he got the one other woman studying physics to marry him and have his children (his first wife)...and he cheated on her to boot.

[saphirasilverwings]

I don't know a lot about Einstein, but Ghandi couldn't really be an alpha male in the traditional sense because that implies dominance and competition. He was an absolutely incredible person though, and not being an "alpha male" doesn't discredit that.

[mrlonelyone]

Perhaps not in the sense that most people use the term...to imply someone like the leader of a biker gang.

However Ghandi did have hundreds of millions of loyal followers, confronted and competed with the British Empire...and won. etc.

What I really want to tease out is just how nuanced the understanding of this concept is in general. Surely being alpha can't just be about being a big brute? Otherwise we would be a species of brutes, like gorilla's, instead of a species of inventors.

[saphirasilverwings]

I would say that the concept of being "alpha" is more animal (think dogs) than human, and is different from being a leader in the broader sense. I really don't think Ghandi was an "alpha male", even though he was an amazing leader, because I do believe that the term alpha male describes a specific type of personality and leadership. It's not so cooperative, more competitive and dominant.

[mrlonelyone]

At least that's the way that people have been using the term. As you correctly pointed out human societies don't work that way. As I pointed out after I asked the question, apparently dog/wolf society doesn't really work that way either. link

[saphirasilverwings]

Well no matter how dog societies work, the term "alpha male" isn't necessarily interchangeable with other leader type roles. As far as I'm aware, the word does have specific, set connotations.