Daniel Jackson -  Is Daniel an Alpha Male?

The following arose out of a thread on Our Stargate Forum titled 'Is Daniel An Alpha Male'?

The thread can be found here: http://forums.delphiforums.com/ourstargate/messages?msg=1536.1

To better illustrate my view of the difference between Alpha and Beta males here is a fairytale called “Survival of the Prettiest” (or “Why I Think Daniel is Way Too Smart To Be an Alpha Male”):

Two alpha males and a beta male walk through a forest and approach a bridge across a stream, on the other side of which is a big pavilion filled with beautiful scantily clad women. An alpha male from the pavilion side of the stream (Alpha Male #3) approaches and tells the three travellers they can’t cross the bridge as he is protecting his women. Alpha Male #1 challenges him to a fight. Alpha Male #2 goes in search of a big axe so he can cut down the mightiest tree in the forest and cross the stream and reach (and impress) the women that way. Beta Male goes off to find a non-confrontational way around the problem.

Knowing that women don’t like men to smell bad he decides to avoid getting sweaty, and from the neighbouring trees snaps off long fine branches that involve no real effort until he has enough to bind together with handy lianas making a perfectly competent bridge across the stream. While Alpha Male #1 fights with Alpha Male #3, and Alpha Male #2 still hunts for a mighty axe, Beta Male picks some flowers for the women, walks across the branch bridge and politely asks the waiting women if he could possibly have a drink of water and, oh here, these flowers are for them. The waiting women see at once that Beta Male is totally non-threatening and cute as a fluffy kitten so invite him into their pavilion where they give him not just water but wine and say he must be hot after making that bridge and would he like to remove his jacket? On removing his jacket they see that he has a much better body than they’d expected as he doesn’t go around flaunting it the way their Alpha Male does but it is really very toned and fit and attractive. They notice he has an infinitesimal tear in his pants and a tiny smudge on his shirt. They immediately suggest he gives them his clothes so they can mend/wash them. After a fitting display of ‘oh no, I don’t want to be any trouble and oh I’m so shy’ he gets out of his clothes in a way that makes the women feel they are entirely in charge of the situation, revealing even more of his very nice body, unmarked by any of the unsightly scar tissue of their Alpha Male who is always getting into fights. The women suggest he stays for dinner, and feed him very nice food, give him lots of wine, then suggest a game of spin the bottle. Within two hours he has shed his boxer shorts (at their insistence and with lots of blushing reluctance on his part), has kissed every woman there, and had sex with several of them (with fitting displays of ‘oh no, I couldn’t possibly…I respect you far too much to…oh but I’m only human and you are so irresistibly lovely…’). Meanwhile Alpha Male #2 is still hacking his way through the largest tree in the forest with much manly rippling of muscles which none of the women are noticing, being far too interested in their unthreatening new toy, sweet (naked) Beta Male. Alpha Male #1 and Alpha Male #3 are still punching each other’s heads in on the bridge, determined not to give way as the women are watching, despite the fact the women haven’t been watching them ever since Beta Male arrived.

After several hours of punching each other, Alpha Male #1 and #3 have reached the kind of comradeship that only Alpha Males understand and decide they are now bosom pals. They praise the skill with which Alpha Male #2 has cut down the largest tree in the forest and all cross the bridge together only to be scolded by the women for their nasty vicious brawling and told to go away and not come back until they’re sober. The three Alpha Males slope off dejectedly to get as drunk as they are already accused of being and to talk about how they will never understand women. As they drown their sorrows, Alpha Male #3 admits that the constant strain of having to defend his women against all comers is starting to affect his performance and he’s afraid they may be getting restless. Alpha Male #1 and #2 say women can be so cruel sometimes and never understand the pressures they are under. They share a bottle of whiskey and cry about the girl they really liked in High School who broke their hearts when she married some skinny little dweeb.

Meanwhile Beta Male has had a nice bath in the women’s sunken pool, been hand-fed fresh strawberries and slept with everyone else who fancies him (which is everyone), impregnating several thereby ensuring his genes will survive. He spends the night in perfume-scented sheets surrounded by beautiful women. The Alpha Males get to sleep in the pig pen.

In the morning, Beta Male wakes up first, puts on his pressed and mended clothes, kisses all the women goodbye, says he will miss them terribly and remember them always and skips away before the Alpha Males wake up. He then runs lightly back along his branch-bridge, pulls it after him and hides it in the undergrowth. When the Alpha Males stagger out of their pig pen with terrible hangovers to much shaking of feminine heads and disdainful looks, they find Beta Male sitting on the other side of the stream waiting for them, and feel guilty about leaving him there all night. He says it’s okay and do they need some aspirin? He gives them aspirin and utters not a word of reproach about them waltzing off with their new Alpha Male friend and abandoning him. They resolve to be much nicer to him in the future, only noticing in passing that people who have spent the night in pigpens don’t smell anything like as nice as people who have spent the night in the forest.

So, quite apart from the fact I have never any signs of alpha-ness on Daniel's part, I think he is just much too *smart* to be anything other than a Beta Male. And, of course, he smells much too nice as well. <g>

Lori

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