Alpha chimps generally have the best access to foods, and Martina knows that she can have whatever she wants. Martina’s day often begins with a patient wait for her piece of fruit. What does a typical day look like for our alpha female?Įvery morning, each chimp receives a whole piece of fruit to allow the caregivers to give them a good visual check and shift them out of their indoor playroom for cleaning. Martina’s close bond with Donald, the alpha male, and her ability to quietly boss around the younger chimps, made her the likely candidate for the role of alpha (You can read more of her story in her bio here). She is older than the other female LEMSIP chimps but much younger than Zulu and Vicky. Her position in our troop has always been unique. Our alpha female, Martina, certainly fits this description. In chimpanzee groups, however, the alpha female does not gain status through aggression or violence, but through relationships and personality. Common consensus among advice books and articles, for better or worse, seems to pair alpha females with beta men who will not get in their way.When one attaches the word “alpha” to a male or female, often the first thought is that the individual must be strong, loud, or aggressive to achieve their rank. Dating advice focuses on what alpha females look for in relationships, how they expect to be treated, and where they can find men with whom they will be compatible. Articles and books describe the power struggle between alpha females and alpha or beta men-that is, submissive, subordinate men, which has supplied its counterpart, beta female. The term alpha female is often used in the context of dating. Alpha females are typically described as career-driven, physically attractive, and sexually empowered. They know what they want and are unafraid to advocate for themselves to achieve it. On the other hand, many women increasingly and proudly identify as alpha females. In fact, much conversation around the alpha female is about men being intimidated by her and women hating her-or being scared that she hates them. It carries with it the overtones of animalistic hierarchy from which the term originated, which is traditionally not flattering to women described as alpha females. Today, use of the term alpha female is complex and often comes with a double standard. Google searches for alpha female spiked in February, 2014 and April, 2015, coinciding with important moments in the career of German professional wrestler Marie Kristin Gabert, who took the stage name Alpha Female during those years. ![]() During the early 2000s, it was this negative connotation of the alpha female as spiteful, intimidating, overbearing, and bossy that caught on and defined the stereotype. The stereotypical image of an alpha female from this time puts her in a power-suit and sky-high heels, hair and makeup done, with perfect hair, confidence, and an executive-level job. In this sense, the term was a positive one, but at the same time, alpha females could also deride the catty, most popular girl in the middle-school lunchroom, say, or the bullish executive in the boardroom. As early as 2001, female trailblazers in their respective fields were called a lpha females. ![]() ![]() In the early 2000s, the phrase alpha female began to take on more cultural significance. People writing about the way humans interact in communities would use alpha female as shorthand for the de facto leader in a female social hierarchy. In the 1990s, alpha female was mostly used with regard to women in sociological or scientific contexts. The term has been metaphorically applied to socially dominant men since the 1970s and similar women since at least the 1990s. ![]() It was as early as the late 1870s when scientists began using the terms alpha male and alpha female to refer to the leaders of a group of animals. The term began to refer to the first in a series or a group, both literally and metaphorically, since the 1300s. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet.
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