Examining the overall impact and value of Vox’s Socio-Sexual Hierarchy.
Readership: All; Christian Men
Theme: Community / Metacognitions
Length: 1,250 words
Reading Time: 7 minutes
Introduction
In the last theme, there were 4 posts that examined Vox’s SSH.
- Σ Frame (Lexet): Revisiting Vox’s Socio-Sexual Hierarchy (2024/4/5)
- Σ Frame: Is Vox’s Socio-Sexual Hierarchy Bad for The Manosphere? (2024/6/21)
- Σ Frame: Gammas – The Manosphere’s Untouchables (2024/7/26)
- Σ Frame: Weaponizing (2024/7/29)
The first above listed post reviews several problematic issues with Vox’s SSH.
The second post hones in on whether these issues constitute a necessary boundary or a destructive division, thereby providing a framework of analysis for ascertaining the overall impact and value of the SSH.
The third post addresses the question raised in the second, “Is Vox’s Socio-Sexual Hierarchy Bad for The Manosphere?” This post concluded that the answer is No. It is immature men, i.e. Gammas in this case, who are ‘bad’ for the Manosphere.
However, the fourth post explained how the misuse of the SSH is bad for Gammas.
Putting all this together, the SSH poses a potential stumbling block for men in general, as I will explain below.
Separating One’s Self from the Archetypes
The first post listed 14 issues of confusion surrounding Vox’s SSH. A comprehensive understanding of these 14 issues reveals that there is one main benefit, but if this benefit cannot be apprehended, then it degenerates into 4 big roadblocks.
The benefit of the SSH is that it is quite insightful for understanding behavioral and social traits common to men. Vox’s SSH sets up a structure of archetypes that describe men according to observable socialization habits. Every man has some of the traits of each type, and some men have some traits more than others, which makes them a stereotype of that type.
The problem with this begins when Manosphere gurus present men with the goal of becoming an Alpha or a Sigma with the implied promise that this will ‘fix’ all their sociosexual frustrations. However, this idea doesn’t even need to be taught. The SSH itself inspires a lot of men to falsely hope that they are (or can be) an Alpha or Sigma. The reality is that not every man can be an Alpha or Sigma. The SSH is descriptive, NOT prescriptive.
Instead of entertaining these vain fantasies and trying to be something they are not, what men need to do is to take an honest look at themselves and humbly accept themselves for who they are, farts, warts, quirks and all.
The ‘goal’ is not to become a stereotypical Alpha or Sigma, which is unrealistic, but to face up to who you are in reality, be aware of your positive and negative traits, and if possible, control or reduce the negative and build up the positive ones. At some point, a man should come to face his human shortcomings and weaknesses and learn to trust God in this arena of his life.
You see, fitting a certain stereotype is not what makes a man ‘better’, but rather being authentic in one’s self-estimation. (Determined Omega appears to be doing just this.) By doing so, a man becomes genuine and thereby escapes being a manikin of the SSH paradigm altogether.
But if a man hides his identity behind the parapet of a SSH identity and never ‘escapes’ this paradigmatic mental framework, then he inevitably becomes encumbered with 3 more snafus.
The Fallout
1. Delusion of Self — As said, the first stumbling block is getting caught up in the fantasy of being / becoming or overvaluing an Alpha / Sigma, and thus losing sight of reality.
2. Delusion of Others — Another consequence of dwelling on Vox’s SSH without self-awareness is that it tends to create very rigid thinking about men in general. Men are trained to think of other men as ‘Alphas’, ‘Bravos’, ‘Gammas’, etc., and look no further to see other nuances of character that are more defining of one’s identity.
As Tomb Refugee wrote,
“As long as we think of things from the SSH, we cannot approach the issue with faith and see miracles. If we serve Christ, the only people we exclude are those who refuse to repent, regardless of what the problems are. As I said before, every man in the Kingdom of God is a shepherd at some level or another. You are responsible for bringing His redemption to bear on everyone who comes into your flock. Shepherds don’t fit anywhere on the SSH.”
3. Delusion of Purpose — The third problem is that Vox’s SSH reinforces and gives language to the Worldly paradigm that draws an implicit correlation between the value of a man and his sexual prowess, or lack thereof.
“Alphas are real men. Alphas get laid.”
“Gammas are weak men. Gammas are incels.”
Etc.
Again, these perspectives might be helpful for newbies to get a general handle on things, but if a man gets stuck in this mindset and doesn’t move on to recognize more meaningful characteristics of his own and other men’s identities, then it becomes a crippling distraction.
4. Hypocrisy — The fourth big problem with Vox’s SSH is that it is often weaponized to pigeonhole some men as losers, labeled ‘Gamma’ or sometimes ‘Omega’. This, even though the SSH cannot be accurately applied to identify men in this way. This is not constructive in the slightest.
The Impact
In summary of these 4 detours to truth, there are two big snares with Vox’s SSH.
- While it does provide men with a framework for examining themselves, at the same time, it also gives men the mental software needed to escape real introspection and remain ignorant of who they truly are.
- It gives men a rhetorical device that can be used to shame and ostracize other men. Taken to an extreme, the SSH becomes an idol when it serves to take the focus off one’s own shortcomings and place a speculum onto others’.
Double whammy.
Case Study — A Comparison of Responses
Here’s a comparison of viewpoints to illustrate how subscribing to Vox’s SSH stonewalls the mind.
After reading the third post, “Be British”, which explains my motivations for critiquing Vox’s SSH, one reader who is a Voxite saw a constellation of qualities that matched the Gamma archetype, and came to the conclusion that it was ‘Gammatude’. But he backed away from calling me a Gamma because that is precisely the reaction I predicted in the post and he didn’t want to look like a tool.
On 2024/7/31, another reader wrote to me privately to say,
“I remember trying to read Vox years ago but he did not do it for me for whatever reason. Following your link, I followed several more trying to get the context, and then I read the recent post on Gammas, and of course, had to read all the comments (I love how you addressed Dead Bedroom Dating’s comment on Lexet’s article), and so that led me to a question:
Are you purposely triggering Vox’s disciples as a kind of prophetic act to have them respond to you like they do to Gammas and thus prove your point? If so, then I find that very admirable and humorous. I don’t know if you are playing some kind of 4D chess like that or if I am reading into things.”
I’m glad someone has been paying attention. Those who have been following along will see that this is true.
Here we see a pronounced difference in awareness. The first reader was critical of my writings, but could not bring himself to recognize the points I was making. The second reader read the same post and saw it more clearly for what it is — a provocation intended to expose this kind of rigid thinking and reactionary behavior.
Related
- Σ Frame (Jack): Avoiding the Broken Window Effect (2021/7/21)
- Radix Fidem: His Sacrificial Love (2024/8/9)
