The Alpha to Omega Ranks in The Sims 4 Werewolves Have Sexist Baggage
In yesterday's stream we got a little demonstration of The Sims 4 Werewolves. It looks like a very interesting, fun, and solid game pack.
I just have one single problem with it: The rank system for werewolves.
So, we were shown that the rank system for werewolves goes from omega to delta to beta to alpha. Alpha being the leader.
There are two issues with this:
1. Many people think these are actual ranks in wolf packs, but that's a myth that simply just don't want to die.
2. This ranking system is also used to rank the human sexes, both in fiction and in real life.
Let's talk about the ranks in wolf packs first.
Wolves in the wild don't have a rank system that has anything to do with trying to be aggressive towards other wolves. Wolves in the wild are just families, and exactly like human families the parents have authority over the children. That's it. Wild wolves live in families that we just happen to call packs. The biologists (Rudolf Schenkel and L. David Mech) who originally did the studies on wolves where they got this idea about a rank system actually went out and said that their own studies were flawed and they misinterpreted things in wolves' behaviour.
Wolves in captivity is another thing. They don't have a family-hierarchy, because they're often not from the same original pack to begin with. They're put in a stressful environment, often an enclosure that's way too small for that number of wolves, where they don't know the other wolves. They might fight each other, not necessarily to raise in rank, but to not get picked on etc. After a few generations they will simply have the same family dynamics as wild wolves have.
Some people also apply these flawed studies on human-dog relationships, and use it as an excuse to be aggressive towards their dogs.
Then, let's talk about the heavier subject. The sexism that stems from this myth.
We live in a patriarchy. Men are in general seen as worth more than women. Of course there's some intersectionality so that not all men are seen as worth more than all women, but in general men are seen as worth more than women. That's the general status quo.
The alpha to omega system has been adopted from the flawed study on wolves into the lives of humans. People use it both in fiction and in real life, and they use it to uphold the patriarchal status quo.
When this rank system is used in real life it's almost exclusively used by people who think they're worth more than other people because they think they're alphas when they're actually just aggressive douchebags.
In fiction, on the other hand, this rank system is often used in a way where the human sexes have different physical and biological characteristics depending on their rank. For example Alpha males are often depicted to doing questionable things to other people against those people's will, because it's "in his biology". Omega males are usually portrayed as having partly female anatomy that causes them to act a bit "hysterical" at times. Omega males are also more often depicted as gay than the other ranks. In some fiction omega males are depicted as that fictional universe's equivalent to trans men.
(I'm not trying to say that it's not okay to enjoy this kind of fiction, to each their own y'know. I'm just explaining the sexist and sometimes homophobic and transphobic themes of this type of fiction.)
The ranks in an alpha to omega system are usually as follows (highest to lowest rank):
1. Alpha male (Manly Man TM, the Chad, a douchebag, you get the point)
2. Alpha female
3. Beta male
4. Beta female
5. Omega FEMALE
6. Omega MALE (a man so "feminine" that he's worth the least)
(There are sometimes other Greek letters shoved in there, between beta and omega, for example delta or sigma.)
Notice how alpha male stands above alpha female, and how beta male stands above beta female. The status quo of our patriarchal society.
And then we have the omega male, he has the lowest rank because he's a "feminine" man, also often depicted as a gay man and/or a trans man in some literature, and we all know that feminine, gay, and trans men are looked down on, also because of the patriarchy.
So, all in all this system stems from a sexist, and sometimes homophobic and transphobic, viewpoint, and I don't think something with that baggage should be in a game like The Sims, even though it's not used in that way at all in this game specifically.
Edit: Just to clarify, I’m not saying that I don’t think there should be a hierarchy for the werewolves, that’s absolutely fine, I’m just saying that the words used for the different ranks come with a sexist, homophobic, and transphobic baggage when used for humans and werewolves.
In biology the terms are used for species where there’s actual hierarchical fights between individuals. Since wolves and humans aren’t species like that the biological aspect is lost, and since it’s used in sexist, homophobic, and transphobic ways, in both real life and in fiction, for humans, werewolves, and other dog-like humanoid creatures, the baggage is there even if the words aren’t used in the same way in The Sims as in real life and in literature.
Compare to the word “hermaphrodite”, when used in biology for actual species where it applies, for example snails, it’s an absolutely fine word to use. Since humans isn’t a species where this applies, the biological aspect is lost and it comes with a baggage of being a slur.
