In books, that is… I’m reading the second book in Maya Banks’ Breathless trilogy. The first book, Rush, got me thinking about just how alpha some males have gotten since I started reading.
Linda Howard was the first whose book’s had what I consider an “alpha” male. Kell Sabin, Dane Hollister, and Gray Roulliard just to name a few. Then came Judith McNaught’s Matt Farrell and Royce Westmoreland. These men, these characters were the embodiment of alpha males at the time. When they wanted something or someone, they went after it and damn the consequences. They rarely gave a thought to what stood between them and their “goal”, which is always a woman. And these women the men ended up with were damn strong women. They didn’t take any crap, but they didn’t run away either.
When paranormal hit the scene hard (however many years ago), things changed. It was subtle at first then, well, less subtle. It started with the werewolves who can’t control their base desires when it comes to their mates. Or lifemates as Christine Feehan is famous for. Not so suddenly, it didn’t seem like the women’s decision. Aside from generally not liking Christine Feehan’s Dark series, Holly and I have talked many times about lifemates. She doesn’t like the series because the women literally do not have a choice once they kiss the Carpathian men. That can be alluring and sexy…for the first six or ten books. Then you start to wonder, do these new alpha heroes care more about what they want? That is something that is always up for interpretation.
Sexual submission is a whole other ball game. It was Rush and subsequently Fever by Maya Banks that got this whole train of thought started. While there were a few problems I had with Rush, it was immediately apparent that the hero loved the heroine. Of course he didn’t know it. I had a harder time with Fever. I had to put it down and come back to it more times than I expected. In Fever, it wasn’t about sexual submission, it was about complete submission. I’m not a feminist by any means. I’ve read my fair share of BDSM.
It just raised the question…what do we expect an alpha male to be today?
I like an alpha with an off switch, a man who knows when to be a take-charge caveman and when to be a 21st-century gentleman.