Ging (2019) — Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere
Ging, D. (2019). Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere. Men and Masculinities (SAGE). https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184x17706401
What this source contributes
One of the first systematic academic attempts to characterise the manosphere as an online masculinities ecosystem, with the alpha/beta hierarchy as its organising principle. Ging shows how the typology works as a pseudo-scientific ranking system for masculinity, framed in evolutionary-psychological language, and how that ranking habit becomes the ground for later memetic variants.
Analytical function in Sigma Male
Supplies the critical frame within which “sigma” has to be understood. Not a standalone phenomenon, but a mutation of the alpha/beta hierarchy Ging describes, which is why the sigma claim to stand outside the hierarchy still depends on the hierarchy existing.
Alpha male, incel and red pill are part of that frame in the article, but each needs its own source reference if it cites this article inline.
About the author
Debbie Ging is Professor of Digital Media and Gender at the School of Communications, Dublin City University, and director of the DCU Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities. Her research covers gender, sexuality and digital media, with particular attention to online hate, anti-feminist men’s rights politics, incel subculture, and the radicalisation of boys and men toward male-supremacist ideologies. She co-edited Gender Hate Online: Understanding the New Antifeminism (Routledge, 2019) and is Ireland Corresponding Editor of Men and Masculinities.
Access note
The official SAGE version is paywalled. An author-archived copy circulates via Semantic Scholar, but this is not formal open access: it may go offline without notice and is not always downloadable without an account.
Related entries
- Sigma Male — the alpha/beta hierarchy that sigma positions itself against