I read something on Kathryn Anne Dubois’ website that made my jaw drop and the great big light bulb go on over my head; that erotic romances appear to exclusively feature dominant heroes. Wow. What an insight! Is that the reason so many people love them and so many people hate them? And is that why I’ve ended up in Romantica, both as a reader and a writer?
I know I love those old-fashioned barely-housebroken alpha heroes, and I know they aren’t everybody’s cup of tea. They’re not politically correct. They’re not particularly up to the feminist line. They have flaws and those flaws are right up in plain sight from the first time they come on the scene.
That’s why I like them. They’re strong enough to go by their own values instead of what Nice People think they should do. They’re honest enough to be who they are, flaws and all, instead of hiding the dark side so it can come as a nasty shock later. And most importantly, they’re not mean bullies. The alpha hero uses his strength and his leadership abilities to protect and care for others, not to push them around and abuse them.
(Yes, we’ve all seen the Bad Wanna-be Alpha who’s really a misogynistic SOB the heroine should drop-kick straight to the curb, but I’m talking about the Good Alphas.)
The alpha hero can be guaranteed to make the heroine furious, which makes for a fun story. If two perfect people meet and are in perfect agreement all the time, what kind of story is that? I want to see the clash of the Titans! I want to see Mr. Unmovable Object meet Ms. Irresistible Force!
Alphas are strong characters who create instant drama and I find them infinitely appealing to read and write about. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, I don’t think anybody’s indifferent to the alpha hero. I can’t bring to mind any example of a romance that featured an alpha that was too boring to read. There were some who I could never forgive and didn’t think the heroine should have, either, but they didn’t bore me.
What do you think? Are alphas boring? Out-dated? Or the stuff of molten-lava hot romantic fantasy?
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>>And most importantly, they’re not mean bullies. The alpha hero uses his strength and his leadership abilities to protect and care for others, not to push them around and abuse them.
Oh yes! As a writer who loves to writer about Alpha heroes and a reader who loves to read romances with them in, it’s great to read your post describing the true Alpha – not the bully-boy or unredeemed jerk myth that has grown up about them.
For a romance conflict to work the hero and heroine must challenge each other and the hero most likely to present as challenge to the heroine is the powerful, apparently invulnerable Alpha. But the Alpha male isn’t invulnerable – in fact he’s very very vulnerable – to his heroine as he finds himself falling in love with her.
Yes an Alpha hero has to be tough, hard-edged and forceful, but underneath it all they have to have a heart of gold and be capable of the deepest all consuming love that their heroines deserve – Those heroines who are, after all, the best females around – they’re heroines – and so suitable Alpha mates for an Alpha Male.
As Robyn Donald said – “Every good romance heroine must have a hero who is worthy of her” – And it is that core of steel at the centre of a good romance hero that makes it all worth while.
You make a lot of good points about the alpha male Charlene, and why he’s so good in romance stories, but… I gotta admit, I hate him. Actually, that’s an exageration. It’s not that I can’t enjoy the romance of Mr. Unmovable Object meet Ms. Irresistible Force (as long as it is Mr Good At Heart Alpha). I can. It’s just that I spend the whole novel cringing.
The thing is, while you see him as ‘honest enough to be who they are, flaws and all’ I see him as so blind to his own flaws he doesn’t even get why the heroine is being driven furious. He thinks *she’s* in the wrong. AAGH! Just thinking about him drives me mad.
PS But I don’t know about romantica being peopled solely by alpha males. I’ve read lots of good gamma males in some lovely erotic tales, although I admit I can’t name them off the top of my head.
Oh dear. None of my heroes are alpha males. So I guess I can’t agree. I feel like the voice of dissention here, but I love my heros. If anyone read ‘A Grand Passion’, or ‘Gladys Hawke’, they know what I’m talking about.
I know I’m in the minority here, but I’m not afraid to say it. I don’t like alpha males. I don’t like reading about them, I don’t like them in real life, and I think I do really well with my sensitive, intelligent heroes.
I have to say, I love alpha heroes! I don’t mind reading sensitive heroes, they just don’t get the blood pumping like alphas do. I do find that in many cases the romances I don’t finish that have plot holes usually have the ’sensitive’ hero. I can stick with a great alpha through a so-so plot, but I just can’t seem to do that with the others.
As an interesting counterpoint, there’s a thread over at AAR regarding romantica. The person makes several (not too flattering) comments about romantica books, but the one that’s germaine to this discussion is the following comment: “And just like in mainstream romance, the women are passive during sex acts and general wimps otherwise, though some are *gag* feisty.” Another reader describes romantica heroines as “wimpish outside the bedroom.”
I like my romances with two strong characters, and that sounds like what Charlene’s talking about in her post(”Mr. Unmovable Object meet Ms. Irresistible Force”). But it seems that alpha heroes are all too often paired with virginal, young, or just outright wimpy heroines. I think this is the biggest danger in writing a really dominant hero– he may come across as strong while the heroine seems weak. I like alpha heroes just fine, but not when they’re wiping their feet on a doormat heroine.
Kate, I can tell you love alphas just by reading your book titles! And you put your finger right on it, it’s that hidden deep vulnerability to the heroine that makes the alpha so darn loveable.
Shelly, I’m with you. I’ll stick with an alpha when the plot is thin because HE is so interesting.
Kay and Jennifer, not everybody loves ‘em and the great thing about romance is that there is a story for every taste. I can actually think of one Romantica author who doesn’t do alphas; Chris Tanglen. And he’s so darn funny I don’t care! It does seem to be the exception and not the rule, though.
And Meg, congrats on your upcoming EC release! You’re right, the heroine has to be just as strong as the hero or the relationship is unbalanced. But women tend to express their strengths in different ways. Showing that difference while still conveying her strength makes it a knock-my-socks off romance!
Alpha males. There is definitely something to say for a man who doesn’t play by anybody’s rules but his own. But… there are beta males who will ignite a woman’s fire, also. It’s all in the delivery.
I do admit that I’m resistant to reading a story where the man is unwavering and arrogant while the woman is furious and wondering what in the world she did to deserve this treatment.
If, however, she gives as good as she gets, I will likely read the story twice. That is the highest compliment in my book.
It’s all about the chemistry. If the alpha male runs roughshod over the female, and she is the doormat or virgin “sacrifice,” I will promptly heave the book out of my house and never lay eyes on it again.
If however, she kicks HIS ass on a regular basis, thereby evening out the story, I’m rooting for her.
Alpha males aren’t overdone or overused. Sometimes they are simply a caricature of what they should be. But as long as the author avoids this, I say he’ll live on in our stories and entertain us for years to come.
Grins*
I love all kinds of heroes except jerks. It’s the story I read for. I’ve fallen in love with a ton of alphas over the years: SEP’s, J. Lindsey’s, Julie Garwood’s, Suzanne Brockmann’s Navy SEALs and Catherine Mann’s Wingman Warriors, and OMG, my first loves, the millionaires (my absolute favs were the Greek Tycoons) of Harlequin Presents. But I’ll take a, I guess they’re called Gamma, any day too. Deb Morris and Karen Templeton write great nice guys next door books. Karen Kelley writes great Brava heroes and they tend to be a mix of both characteristics.
It’s all in the writing. Make me love the hero and I really don’t care what his personality type is.
It’s all in the writing. Make me love the hero and I really don’t care what his personality type is.
Mary Beth hit the nail on the head.
If the writing is good enough to suck me into the authors vision or fantasy, types of heros or heroines, story lines or plot devices wont matter. For me, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE WRITING.
We all have “favorites”, time periods, hero types, story lines, but a good author can make you enjoy a story that doesn’t falls outside of your comfort zone.
“doesn’t” wasn’t supposed to be in that last paragraph–I’m a lousy proof reader–LOL.
Uh, where to start.
Personally, I hate alpha. Not the characters but the term. To me any label that has to have a infinite number of modifiers just to clarify what we specifically mean doesn’t work all that well. Besides which, I tend to think EVERY romance hero & heroine are the alphas characters in their OWN story. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Okay, I think I’ll slink back into lurkdom now.
Labels are slippery things, Beverly, I agree. It’s not like they’re all carbon copies of each other. And it is a funny term to begin with; how good an analogy for male heroes is a dog term?
I love them so much I married one.
They are my favorite to read, and to write. My heriones like men that they can’t push around too much, or they loose respect for them. In my current romantica, my alpha has read all of my herione’s erotica to please her more. See, they aren’t all evil. They have weak spots for the women they love.
As a writer I think it’s all is in the writing, like Mary Beth said.
I like alpha heroes–but mostly if they have a strong beta streak in them, or if they break down and grovel for being an asshole at the end. An alpha hero who doesn’t want to change the heroine, just tame her, and remains unapologetic to the end for any asinine assumptions he’s made about her and the resulting asinine actions? ARRRRGH. In my personal universe, Sebastian of Lord of Scoundrels or Devon of The Windflower are examples of good alpha heroes, while most heroes by Kathleen Woodiwiss, Laurie McBain or Linda Howard (especially her older books) are examples of alpha heroes who completely infuriate me to the point that I abandon the books because I find myself fantasizing vividly about having the heroine kick the hero in the nuts and then run away with the hero’s much nicer, much more sane best friend or younger brother.
And this statement here: “They’re honest enough to be who they are, flaws and all, instead of hiding the dark side so it can come as a nasty shock later” implies that beta and gamma heroes have hidden dark sides that manifest themselves in nasty ways later in the book–which doesn’t sound too accurate to me, not for a romance novel hero, anyway. The big appeal with nice-guy heroes is how very functional they are; if they have hidden dark sides, they’re more shady spots than abysses of doom, gloom and torture. They don’t mistreat the heroine, though they certainly don’t allow the heroine to call all the shots. Anyone read a romance novel hero who was pussywhipped? I haven’t, not even the ones featuring the nicest of nice guy heroes, like Jack Langdon in Loretta Chase’s The Devil’s Delilah.
I’m Alpha all the way. I don’t want a wimpy, wishy-washy man in real life, and I don’t want to read about one either.
Alphas, to me, are what the “leader of the pack” label implies. Men others look up to. Men who are leaders. Men who want a strong capable equally alpha woman at their side. Men who can plan and command, think on their feet, provide not only sustenance but security.
Jane Porter gives an awesome workshop about alpha males from a perspective that goes far and beyond what most think of as “tough guys”. She goes into the psychology and sociology of the term. Forever changed my outlook on the meaning of the label.
The stereo-typical arrogant, bastard of an alpha hero does nothing for me other than make me angry. (My blog entry from a few days ago explains why!) But, as others have said, that is not the only kind of alpha hero. To me, a real alpha is a man of intense energy – although it may be under tight control. But his life choices reflect that energy, in that he has rarely taken a quiet path. He has sought highly demanding work/roles/situations and throws himself into them 110%. He’s not a man that you’d miss in a crowd. But because of the intensity of that energy, he has not found his balance – and he’s not found a way of dealing with it other than throwing himself into physically or mentally demanding situations. And then the heroine arrives, and opens the doors on the emotions that his adrenaline and testosterone have been overpowering for years, and hell, now he’s got this whole other passionate, intense side of himself to deal with, but he doesn’t know the rules.
Now, THAT kind of alpha – yep, he’s the kind of alpha that I enjoy reading and writing
I love alpha guys. Love’em, love’em, love’em. The more alpha-ish they are, the more I like them.
But I’m one of those freaky, un-PC readers who miss the old bodice rippers, and the overbearing ship captains and such. I even miss the covers the Smart Bitches love so much.
But I also enjoy other heroes, too. Nerds, even. The man on the page makes or breaks the book for me, regardless of his label.
I’m one that links the Alpha hero myself, but I also find myself enjoying the more sensitive and intelligent here as well. Since I happen to write male/male fiction, I get to write the best of both worlds usually in the same story. When I write my traditional boy meets girl romance, it is usually the alpha male that comes out to play for some reason. I can find good qualities in both types of hero, so writing and reading both of them truly comes easy to me.
Alpha heroes are housebroken by the end of the book.
Housebroken alphas are yawn-inducing.
But I guess that wouldn’t be a romance then. The iltumate fantasy of a woman who wants to know she can tame a wild tiger into a cool looking but harmless pet.
Btw, most romantic heroines are wimpish in the bedroom too. The amount of ‘female submission’ sex boggles the mind.
‘romantica’ heroines, I meant. (re an earlier post)
HA!
That settles it.
I’m sending you BOTH my ECs when they come out. I seem incapable of doing alphas. . .
me?
Oh, Summer, I hope that was directed at me!
It doesn’t have to have an alpha for me to enjoy the story.
I love this site, so thank you