What Modern Women Want: a Beta Male - Language Analysis

Since the seventies, the number of women taking initiative, earning their own money and entering the workforce has had a dramatic increase. The result of this was the appearance of a new label, one that had never been used before. The alpha female. Kate Mulvey, an alpha female herself, contends in her opinion article What modern women want: a beta male published on the 7th of November 2007 in The Times that modern females have decided to take charge in domestic relationships which has lead to men 'surrender[ing] in the sex war', becoming a beta. While maintaining an authoritative, yet somewhat comedic tone, Mulvey aims to encourage women in their twenties and thirties to not dumb themselves down to appease the opposite sex, but to see that there is a way for women to step up and take charge of the relationship.

The title of this article reflects on that overall authoritative and slightly comedic tone. The pun used can cause the title to be misread by readers. The Greek alphabet letter ‘beta’ is used and means below the alpha and in the context of relationships, the alpha is the one who determines the final decisions carried out by the couple and basically controls the situation. On the other hand, the beta is the more submissive one in the relationship. The word beta can be misread as ‘better’ which still fits into context because ‘modern women’ do want a better male in relationships. The use of the pun intends readers to feel amused while also getting an idea of the comedic tone that is shown throughout the article.

On the second page of the article, there is a picture of a silhouette of a woman. The purpose of the image is to serve as a symbolic representation of a powerful female, an ‘alpha girl’. The colour black used for the silhouette is a commanding colour that represents authority. The woman stands tall and straight who looks as if she takes large strides with a confident gait. She wears a typical dress suit women tend to wear to work and carries a...