The Beta Males of Daytime

[DeeeDee]

Thorne Forrester.

[juniorz1]

I don't think I agree with this, if only because he's walked all over her and even left her more than once. It may seem that way right now but it's really not the case.

[P.J.]

Except of course with Diane, when he manned up and had hate sex with.

I'd actually argue Y&R's Nick, but it's a fine line between beta and simply moving on to worship his next "lucky lady" with dick.

GL---definitely Josh and Frank.

ATWT---Tom, HOLDEN (holy christ, Lily practically wore his gonads around her neck), Henry, and Paul when he wasn't in a psychotic tailspin. Jack definitely had beta tendencies, but only when he felt guilty knowing he didn't love Female Z like he loved Carly. Otherwise, he could really steamroll his other women. He's the only man who ever really dictated to Katie, if I remember correctly.

[ReddFoxx]

I think the majority of male soap characters fit that description. Male soap characters are written without much effort, I think and it makes for very weak characters. You almost always see matriarchs on soaps, but never patriarchs.

[DRW50]

Ryan's Hope - Pat Ryan

[Days22]

Its been that way since the mid 90s.

[ellabelle]

I don't necessarily see a beta male as being a bad thing on a soap opera. Not everyone has to be an alpha male. When a "beta" male is paired with the right strong female, you can get really wonderful results.

For AMC, Jack is the most obvious beta, but I'd also add Jamie Martin (with Babe) and Jake Martin (with Amanda, Greenlee, Gillian) to the list. Stuart Chandler has always been a beta as well. We didn't get to see much of a love life for Griffin Castillo, but I think he has beta written all over him.

[BingCherry]

I agree. I'd rather have every man be a so-called beta than whatever GH considers an alpha.

[P.J.]

Eh...I went and checked the official definition of a beta, and there's a difference between that and !@#$%^&*]-whipped. I think most guys on soaps are betas, since true alphas are egomanicial and consumed with getting and keeping power.

[quartermainefan]

I always found Jackson Montgomery pathetic and if I were Erica I would spit on him too. On DOOL Rafe is completely subservient to Sami, even allowing her to move her ex into his his own house. Rafe should have packed up her clothes, her army of children, and told them all to get the hell out and take the boyfriend too.

[Skin]

How was Jaime a beta? He constantly pursued women that he wanted (Babe, Amanda and Julia) and most of the time lead the course of action in the relationships he was involved in. Most of the stupid idiotic plans Babe did during the tail end of 04'/ beginning of 05' were because of Jaime's insistence of running away and kidnapping Ace and doing things his way to try and save Babe from JR's treachery. That's alpha male hero to the letter. Jaime wasn't a very physically or sexually aggressive character but he led all of his relationships and had control overall his relationships. He was the one who closed the door on his relationships with Amanda and Babe even though they loved and wanted him and I think he also put an end to his relationship with Julia. Jaime in almost all situations was either very proactive or he stepped up to control situations as he saw fit. Babe and Amanda while they had leading storylines and more airtime then JB's Jaime always followed his lead most of the time. I also wouldn't describe either Babe or Amanda as strong leading heroines.

I don't think Nick would ever chose a woman over himself, that strikes me as alpha orientated. He wants what he wants and to hell with any consequences that might occur. Hence the havoc he has caused emotionally toward Sharon and Phylis over the past six years with his 'i love her', 'i love her not' game. A beta would stay with a woman because he is invested in her and cares/caters more to her well being then his own. Ethan from Passions with Gwen reminds me of this. He was never able to leave Gwen but at the same time could never fully commit to her. He was shackled to her because ultimately he was too much of a nice guy to leave Gwen and not give up on his marriage. Beta.

This always happens with all of Sami's leading men. She shreds their masculinity to pieces. The only one who has managed to stay somewhat with their penises intact is EJ and that's why their dynamic is more interesting then most of her pairings. Because she minces all of the men she is paired with into shredded meat till they don't resemble the character they were before they were introduced to her.

[ellabelle]

They have a weird dynamic. When Jack is happy with Erica, they're good together, even when she is falling apart, and that's the part of their relationship I think fans like. Heck, I like them when Jack's happy. He's supported her through nearly every really bad crisis she's been in during the last 20 years. When Jack is not happy with Erica, he finds a way to hurt her and/or walk out on her yet again. He eventually wants her back, usually when she's moved on with someone else, but he's too dumb to see that every time he walks out on her he makes a future relationship with her harder because she has abandonment issues. And she's too dumb to see that if she'd communicate with him better and involve him more both in how she feels and what's happening in their lives, it would diffuse most of their problems before they blow up.

[DeeeDee]

Nick's an alpha with Sharon & a beta with St. Giggly.

[Saving ATWT]

Yep! Add Jack Snyder to the list. He was Carly's bitch, whipped regardless of what she did. At the end, he grew a spine but the Janet romance was ugly.

[Max]

I wholeheartedly agree that a beta male is not necessarily a bad thing on a soap; indeed, it would be unrealistic if all men were alphas. (My only complaints are when men--or women--are purposely written as weak in order to prop up other characters.)

The more I think about it, Bob Hughes also seems to be a beta male to a certain extent. While his authority is respected, he was constantly pushed around by Lisa, and is even submissive to Kim. I think that part of his "betaness" was used to show a large contrast with his nemesis, John Dixon (a man who always took charge).