The Gamma, Redefined

Midwit summarizing in action

The reason summaries and explanations are worse than useless can be seen in this woman’s attempt to redefine concept of the Gamma Male. Notice, in particular, the way that her redefinition completely eliminates any predictive utility from the identification:

My friend has been dating a man who I seriously believed may have been put together Frankenstein-style from two types of men.

He’s part alpha male and part beta male, but also nothing like the two at all. One minute he’s romantic, the next he gets clingy, and then he’s oddly at peace with the world, only to lose all self-confidence when the pressure is on.

This got me thinking that maybe I was seeing signs of an actual gamma male in action.

That’s right, you’ve heard about the male personality types, and while we all know a guy can be an alpha male, a sigma male, or any of the other male types, the gamma male is chalked up to shyness and very poorly understood.

So let’s discover a little more about this conflicting male personality type – the gamma male.

What Is a Gamma Male?

We all know that male personalities are grouped into categories that include alpha males (the big boss of the male world), beta males (the second in charge), and a few more unique classifications for male habits and quirks.

However, nobody is a carbon copy of someone else, nor do we fit into boxes.

While there are different male personality types, men don’t always fall only into one personality type. You can be an alpha male with some omega male characteristics too. We are never just one type of personality in all different situations.

If you are more of a gamma male, you are a man who tends to be reserved, intelligent, and empathetic, but also afraid of commitment. You prefer to be led by others, but you’re not a push-over either. Unlike the beta male, you don’t live in awe of the alpha male, constantly his wingman or second in command.

Gamma males prefer to lead a life that’s free of excess risk, and they don’t like taking a chance on anything.

They calculate, recalculate, and check everything out again to decide whether they should do something. Because they don’t like risks, a gamma male will rather let the alpha take the lead (and responsibility).

However, a gamma male is no coward. Instead, his bravery extends inward, and he engages in a lot of introspection.

He backs down from a fight because it’s not worth it for him to fight over things that he doesn’t really value, yet he’s also clingy, and he won’t let go of things that he feels attached to.

Because the gamma man looks inward, he is self-aware, successful, and knows what he wants – and it’s not leadership or power. Instead, the gamma male dances to his own tune, setting his own measure of success.

Now, what are you supposed to take from that? How can you predict the future behavior of one of these redefined “gamma men”?

This is why I refuse to cater to those who ask me to confirm their attempts to misunderstand the core concepts that perfectly normal people are able to identify automatically.

It is also why you should always try to resist that weird compulsion that some of you have to demonstrate what passes for your knowledge by “explaining” things to people. Nobody asked you, so stop providing the answers to questions no one asked. If you ever find yourself beginning an explanation with “just in case” then stop right there.

In short, stop helping.

Because you’re not helping anyone by providing them with erroneous information.