The summer before my senior year of high school Newsweek printed this article Meet The Gamma Girls Newsweek Culture Newsweek.com. It's about the three types of girls that exist within girl culture: the Alpha females, the Betas, and the Gammas. According to the article, the alpha female is best characterized by the various incarnations of high school girls Kirsten Dunst portrayed (this was around her Bring it On days). The alpha is able to find a balance between being "bitchy and nice". The beta is the wannabe alpha, doing whatever she can to get people to like her. Then we have the focus of this article, "The Gamma Girl". According to the author of the article the Gamma girl pretty much walks on water. She's pretty, funny, smart, involved in sports and her community, she has her own ideas. She's made of awesomeness.
I'll be honest, when read the article at 16 I was thrilled by the idea of the Gamma Girl because I identified with her. In the original article they had this chart of who each girl could be compared to Hollywood-wise, a list of her "interests", and a brief description of her. "She loves Shakespeare!" Check. "She thinks Gwen Stefani rocks!" Check. "Her Hollywood crush is Tobey Maguire!" ...errr Check?! My favorite part was the ideal Gamma Girl, Julia Stiles. Oh, how I adored Julia Stiles (and still do).
I found this article at work today, and I began thinking about the whole concept of Alphas vs Betas and Gammas (who avoids competing with alphas and betas). I've been thinking about these labels the past couple of months. Usually I applied them to men as I had been watching The Pickup Artist, which basically transforms beta males into alpha males (or so they say...more on that in another post). In the article, example of the "alpha female" is a blond narcissist, who will basically do anything to remain popular, and appears to have zero intellectual capabilities. This characterization contradicts the description on the handy little chart they provide us with, which tells us the alpha is aiming for a Ivy education (Princeton), and is heavily involved with student council. Hmm. Perhaps, the girls the article (not the chart, mind you) deemed as "alphas" are really "betas"?
I'm beginning to wonder if there are any real alpha females out there, or if we label the pretty betas "alphas" because they whip their claws out to keep others in their place. Let's think about it, would and actual alpha who can maintain a balance between being "bitchy and nice" (re:be assertive), resort to catty passive-aggressive ways? Would popularity matter to her? Honestly? What if the gamma girl, is really Miss Alpha in disguise? Maybe she got tired of some vapid eternal adolescent trying to compete with her, so she took herself out of the race by creating a new category.
2 comments:
So yay, go me posting on ya blog for the first time! How totally down with the kids am I?!!
Really, really interesting article and comments my dear. It's weird how things that you identified with as a teenager don't have the same affect now. I think if I had read that article at 16 I would have had the exact same reaction as you, just totally thrilled that something seemed to 'fit' who I was. Cos lets face it, when you're a teenage girl who isn't uber-popular in school things can be tough. When you're that age, you need things to define yourself with. But whilst the popular people define themselves solely on their popularity, I also don't think it's helpful to them because they carry that same mind-set around with them for way too long afterwards. I'm certain that this isn't the case for every girl who was Miss Popular at school, but in my experience every person I've ever met who had this going on for them tends to find being in the "real world" very difficult. Once you get out of school/high school no one really cares about how "cool" or "popular" you once were. A lot of girls carry around the belief that things still work in the same way and that its the quantity of friends, not the quality that matters (and I'm mentioning no names, here, lol!). So they go around trying to be all things to all people and still work from a 15 year old girl mentality of what is "cool". You know, if you like the right kinda music, if you wear the most fashonable clothes (regardless of whether they suit you or not!), etc, then people will love you. As if thats all that matters when it comes to being friends with someone. Its kinda sad in a way, people who behave like that have just basically been left behind. Whilst the rest of us are just going around being who we are and learning to be happy with that, you get these girls who just try waaayyy too hard and who aren't genuine.
But I think in terms of alpha, beta and gamma girls most women are probably made up of a mixture of all three, or maybe even none at all. I mean, sure, probably some characteristics show through more obviously than others but I think that is often reflected by the context of a situation. I know for myself that I wouldn't really say I fit one of them completely, if at all. I guess when I'm around people who are overly assertive and whatever then that tends to push me the other way (usually, anyway!). But that doesn't mean that I don't have my alpha moments. I think your comment about taking yourself out of the "race" is interesting. If I sense that someone is competing with me then it just makes me wanna go away and hide cos I hate all of that stuff and I can't be bothered with it.
So yeah, interesting stuff missy! But I should now go and do some proper work instead of being distracted by blog entry comments!Lol!
See I tend to think that a person will have one dominant type within them. It's just the way people react to one another, their social standing within a group. I mean if chimps and other animals have alphas and betas, why can't we? I do think with certain people these characteristics come out more. Like despite what I am (alpha, gamma,etc) I do not react well with betas. I find them to be incredibly false (mostly because they're essentially faux alphas)and I have no time for them.
My main problem with the article is while they sing the praises of the Gamma, they don't go into the potential problems of being one.They also don't look at the possibility that whole mean girls scenario may exist predominantly in one social group (the betas). The alpha has power, why is she wasting her time getting others approval? The Gamma displays leadership qualties, her power comes from within, an not through her mistreatment of others. I think that makes her more of an alpha than any of the other girls combined.
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