Is Beta the new Alpha?

I think the ideal is to have elements of both if thats possible. I suppose an 'Alpheta' maybe.

Hmm. Tricky.  I love Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre - so tough and emotionally inaccessible most of the time but with a molten core.  When they reunite at the end and he can't believe she's come back to him, I get a lip wobble every time.

Also John Thornton in North and South... letting himself be saved by Margaret from the stoning of the angry mob and then falling for her hook, line and sinker, losing most of his pride in the process.  Soooo sexy.

By contrast, I've never managed to take to Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.  He's one cruel individual, and no amount of sympathy for his situation makes that forgivable. (I think.)

I got to thinking yesterday as I had to walk down to the village just after reading Flo's post.

Hermoine Granger is definitely an alpha female but Ron works as her hero.  He mostly plays a beta role in the HP. He is Harry's bf. Why does he work as a hero for Hermoine? Because I think when it counts, he plays a hero's role in rescuing her. He also respects her intelligence but you can see that she leans on him. He also provides the key to her learning about the magical world. He has innate knowledge that she can't acquire just through book learning...They do become a team. In her eyes, Ron Weasley is an alpha male.

I do think it comes down to the heroine and making sure she is swept off her feet. Because she is the eyes of the reader and everything is basically filtered through her perceptions, it is all about finding the right sort of hero/mate for her. The man who will be the leader/co-leader of her pack and who will protect and nuture their offspring. Why does she think he will be a good mate? What does she get from the equation so she isn't always having to provide?

And I have to wonder if it is not so much that the alpha male has changed but the heroine and her expectations. Because there is a greater range of heroines, a greater range of alpha males is needed...to meet their needs.

Equally there are a number of ways of protraying strength and leadership, not just the traditional way. But it does need to be there so the reader can understand the why behind it.

MIchelle S, trying to puzzle things out

I guess I prefer my heroes to have some Beta qualities - I like a little geekiness or social stumbling sometimes.  To me, strong doesn't have to mean overpowering and brutish.  The shy man who has strong principles, strong inner strength and will stand up for what is right despite his shyness can be quite appealing. 

How alpha is alpha, particularly when you are writing a series with a group of men?

I did my Viking trilogy, I ran into this problem because within a group, you can literally have only one alpha. Iti s the whole wolf pack theory.

My solution was to make sure the situations were shown such that the hero of each story was shown to be the proactive leader in that story.

The key I think is to make the man be the alpha hero for the heroine. He needs to be proactive and protective and strong enough to cope with the heroine.

Personally I thought that Neville Longbottom at the end of HP and the Deathly Hallows came across as very alpha and completely right for Luna. He possessed his own type of courage which was very different from Harry's. But he always had that underlying sense of utter determination.

Then there was Snape who turned to be an utterly sexy hero. Or maybe it was just because he was played by Alan Rickman. Who could not love a man who loved a woman so deeply that he sacrificed everything to protect her child? It was awful that he could never have his HEA.

There are loads of different leadership styles, thankfully. Tenderness, consideration, respect for others, an ability to feel empathy should not be considered negative traits. It all comes down to what makes a proactive hero that the heroine can love and respect, someone she can turn to when the chips are down.

Michelle S