Let me first preface this post by saying that I do NOT normally buy Details magazine, but the heading on the cover grabbed my attention.
On the cover of this months (October 2005) Details magazine, there is a heading that says: ?Death of the Alpha Male: How the American Man Went Limp (and why we?re better off for it).?
I was enraged and intrigued, so I broke down and bought the magazine and looked for the story. Inside it says, ?The chest-thumping Alpha Male has given way to a softer, gentler, and better-groomed beta boy.? Now, that?s not the worst part, the one that really pisses me off is they think ?America should be grateful.? They go on to say that they modern man has gotten soft; that they watch Oprah, read with interest about celebrity weddings and have ?developed a heightened sensitivity to the feathery kiss that 1,000 thread-count sheets could bestow upon and expertly moisturized epidermis.? Men have apparently gotten so soft, home and garden sections of newspapers have started to cater to them, in fact, there is an article about home decorating within this issue of Details.
Now, if the above isn?t enough to suck the Testosterone from your body, some pusillanimous person by the name of Kyle Smith says that ?The one and only time you see men acting like men is in the gym, otherwise they are reading Vogue while eating fat-free yogurt. Women are in charge. They lead us around like dogs. And we?re not even mastiffs. We?re the poodles on the leash.? From what I?ve seen in most gyms, and from what my brothers and sisters have shared about real training here on T-Nation, I?ll guarantee that what Mr. Smith sees going on in the gym is not ?men acting like men.? If fact, these ?men? that Mr. Smith observes would probably be accepted at the local Curves without too much hesitation. If we have learned anything from T-Nation (and I know we all have), is that when T-Men and T-Vixen?s train, it is something different then anybody else is doing in the gym: it?s bigger, better, stronger and faster. It scares bystanders and makes the local personal trainers shake their heads and go back to their stability balls and Smith machines. I have recently had an epiphany when it comes to training, and I?m sure it doesn?t fit with the beta boy (also known as Soy Boy) mentality: I figure if, at then end of your workout, you don?t feel like puking, fighting, or fucking; YOU?RE NOT DOING IT RIGHT!
I object to the notion that we are better off with the ?pussification of the American man;? I think that we are worse off for it. Without the Alpha Male and an abundance of Testosterone, we wouldn?t have our great civilization and all of our modern marvel?s, we would still be at the mercy of nature, limited by geography and controlled by dogma. Testosterone landed man on the moon, discovered the new world and defeated Adolf Hitler. Without Testosterone and the Alpha Male, we would sit idly by as our supplement freedom is threatened; we would shake our heads to the fact that American kids are becoming obese, while stuffing our face with Krispy Kremes and watching reality TV; we would allow elected officials to vote away property rights and to take our beloved pets away because they ?resemble? something dangerous, and we would accept to the notion that the Y chromosome ?is a mere shadow of what it was 50 years ago.? Sure, the days of clubbing your next date on the head and dragging them back to the cave are over, but to paraphrase Homer Simpson ?Testosterone is the cause, and cure, to everything that is wrong in the world.? If we completely suppress our T, then mediocrity will reign and our past greatness will count for nothing.
I hope the ?beta boy? mentality angers my fellow citizens of T-Nation, and we don?t let it happen. Keep being the Alpha Male or the Alpha Female, don?t give in to outside pressure to conform to ?All Show and No Go? training, keep learning about everything you can, and fight the urge to use moisturizers for anything except masturbation. Become a voice for your fellow citizens of T-Nations, share your ideas about training, nutrition and the human condition, tell others what you do, why you do it, and where you come for more knowledge and inspiration, and maybe we can put the concept of the Alpha Male back where it belongs: on top.
I have one request for T-Nation: please offer the Alpha Male t-shirts that came with the supplement a while ago for sale, so we can protest the ?pussification of the American man? and show that Testosterone is a good thing. I only have one, and I want to purchase more so when I wear out the one I have, I?ll have another (or two or three) that I can replace it with.
Thank you,
Long Live the Alpha Male!
Kent Lorenz
