The “alpha/beta” meme was invented by rightwing think tanks in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s to promote their ideology of rigid social-hierarchies where people at the top are allowed to impose and abuse people of lower social station with impunity, and to police and control the behavior of heterosexual men (it ain’t just the LGBTQ’s that get their gender-expression policed, ohhh no no no.)

Yup. I’ve had more than a few people claim I had to “give up my man card” because I love musicals, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Sex in the City.

Your man card wasn’t forfeited, it’s gilded. Only real men can appreciate art.

Have you seen Sondheim’s Into the Woods? It’s a masterpiece. It’s on Prime if you haven’t seen it. It stars Chip Zien, Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason, Tom Aldredge, and other big names. I’d like to see anyone say Zein, Aldredge, and Sondheim aren’t ‘real men’.