TikTok users turn ‘alpha male’ podcasters into a viral joke

TikTok creators are responding to sexist podcast hosts, who describe themselves as “alpha males,” by parodying their content material in a brand new viral pattern.

Elsa Lakew was one of many first within the pattern to publish a video with the “Bearded Cutie” filter. The filter offers the consumer darkish, outlined eyebrows, a septum piercing and manicured stubble.

“Somebody mentioned when you don’t just like the male model of your self, it’s best to humble your self,” Lakew mentioned in a video, which now has over 14 million views. “However [expletive], if I appeared like this I’d begin a podcast … You understand what ladies don’t be doing?”

Lakew’s determination to make the video stemmed from her frustration with numerous podcasts that push the so-called “alpha male” way of life, which inspires males attempt to set up social dominance via aggression based mostly on now-debunked theories of wolf pack hierarchies.

Frequent themes in these podcasts embody aggressively pursuing ladies no matter consent, treating relationships as transactional and basing a lady’s worth on how conventionally enticing she is — solely to discard her as soon as she ages or features weight. Many self-described “excessive worth males” or “alpha males” seek advice from ladies as “females.”

“It looks like a brand new video clip was going viral each different week of some man spewing some rubbish tackle ladies,” Lakew advised NBC Information. “I acquired fairly sick of it. And so after I noticed that filter on TikTok and used it, I instantly considered these podcasts guys … Since we couldn’t battle logic with illogical takes, parodying them was the subsequent smartest thing.”

Different creators shortly started stitching Lakew’s video utilizing the bearded filter and riffed on the preposterous statements frequent in “alpha male” podcasts. TikTok tags like #alphamale, which has 619.6 million views, and #highvalueman, which has 119.3 million views, had been as soon as populated by males boasting about devaluing ladies. Now, they’re overtaken by parody movies.

Poisonous male podcasters are often met with some backlash from ladies on-line, however the collective frustration bubbled over to a TikTok-wide pattern this yr. Comedy grew to become an outlet for responding to unfounded sexist claims.

In a video earlier this month, Australian singer Peach PRC mocked the poisonous mentality that many “alpha male” podcast hosts embody.

“In case you’re going to be a disobedient feminine, I’ll have a tanty,” she mentioned, utilizing Australian slang for infantile tantrums. “I’ve a podcast. Comparatively profitable, 37 listeners every week. And what I’m bringing to the desk is that. What are you bringing to the desk? Stretch marks.”

The video appeared absurd, however they mirrored precise statements by male podcasters. In response to a commenter insisting that “no person has ever mentioned something remotely shut” to her video, Peach PRC posted a follow-up TikTok juxtaposing her parody quotes with jokes from precise podcasters.

Lakew mentioned she hasn’t been “retaining an in depth eye” on any hate from males in response to the pattern she helped begin. As an alternative, she’s inspired by the response from ladies who really feel equally fed up.

“General the duets to my video and all of the movies which have sprung up on my FYP [For You Page] of different ladies making related movies have been the most effective a part of all this,” Lakew mentioned. “And that’s the one response that basically issues to me.”

The pattern displays the ridiculous statements that misogynistic podcasters endorse. TikTok customers turned the hosts’ outdated values in opposition to them by making use of the identical unreasonable expectations to males.

“This ‘alpha male’ kind is really easy to parody as a result of they get away with saying so many ridiculous and dangerous issues,” TikTok creator Hayley Hirsch advised NBC Information. “We wish to present how totally ridiculous they sound.”

Hirsch posts one-person skits on TikTok, appearing out completely different characters. Her video parodying male podcast hosts obsessive about cryptocurrency has over six million views. She added that as a feminine comic, she’s been the goal of hateful assaults from males. It’s “nearly like a reflex to a few of these guys,” she mentioned.

“The folks on-line who’ve made enjoyable of them don’t even must twist these males’s phrases that a lot to make it humorous,” Hirsch mentioned. “I believe collectively we’re simply bored with this “alpha male” kind with big platforms.”

Many “alpha male” podcasters, creators say, maintain ladies to an unattainable customary of magnificence, similar to believing that ladies “lose worth” in the event that they acquire weight throughout a relationship or after being pregnant.

TikTok creators Kimber Springs and Lilly Brown publish movies satirizing the “alpha male” mentality with a podcast for “excessive worth ladies.” In a latest video, they insisted that males ought to “make extra of an effort to maintain their hair,” despite the fact that, like weight adjustments, it’s a pure a part of getting older.

“With each hair that falls off, I get much less and fewer interested in you,” Springs mentioned within the skit, mimicking what poisonous male podcasters have mentioned about weight. “In case you begin balding after we get married, which occurs all too usually, when you’re going to let that occur, I don’t know if I can keep round.”

Springs described making enjoyable of the “alpha male” values as “empowering.” It’s shedding a light-weight on simply how ridiculous these values are, and gives a platform to “reply to outdated concepts that get perpetuated via podcasts all too usually.”

“As an alternative of airing out their grievances and half baked concepts to a therapist, they use podcasts to unfold hateful, regressive messages about ladies and gender roles,” Springs advised NBC Information. “It’s open season on misogyny in 2022!”

Reasoning with males who maintain these values is basically unsuccessful, so these creators mentioned they turned to mocking them as a substitute.

TikTok creator Drew Afualo constructed an viewers of 5.6 million followers by responding to movies of misogynistic rants by brutally dragging their hairlines, outfits and appears.

The creators using this pattern to reply to misogyny additionally battle fireplace with fireplace. Convincing “alpha male” zealots to alter their methods utilizing productive dialog could also be futile, however publicly shaming them as on-line laughingstocks is at the least uniting ladies on TikTok.

“I believe comedy is a superb device to reflect again the ridiculousness of society, particularly when these ‘alpha male’ sorts declare to be talking with such objectivity,” Hirsch mentioned. “We’re principally telling them, ‘No, you really don’t have that energy. Your opinions are usually not scientific reality. On prime of that, you sound absurd.’”