Welcome to Unsolicited Perspectives 🎙️🔥💥

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Bruce Anthony: How did music videos become so popular, and why are men obsessed with alpha and beta? We gonna get into it. Let's get it.

Bruce Anthony: Welcome, first of all, welcome. This is Unsolicited Perspectives. I'm your host, Bruce Anthony. Here to lead the conversation in important events and topics that are shaping today's society. Join the conversation to follow us wherever you get your audio podcast. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for our video podcast and YouTube exclusive content rate review.

Like, comment, share, share with your friends, share with your family. Hell even share with your enemies. On today's episode, we're gonna be talking about the history of MTV Alpha bootcamps. Yeah, that's a thing. And another am I overreacting story, maybe even two of them, but that's enough of the intro. Let's get to the [00:01:00] show.

Bruce Anthony: You know, I love Jersey Shore. Well, the original Jersey Shore, and I loved Team mom, team mom one team, mom two. All of these shows were on MTV. If you are a later millennial or Gen Z person, you may not real realize that MTV stands for music television because they don't really even play music on that channel anymore.

And when they originally started, all they did was play music videos, music videos, 24 7. That's how MTV was started. And I was watching a documentary about the eighties and it talked about MTV and I was like, Hmm, this is interesting because MTV is a part of Gen X. And millennial culture. I am what they call a millennial.

I'm in between Gen X and a millennial. I'm not quite old enough to [00:02:00] be a Gen Xer. I'm not quite young enough to be a millennial, and so we're kind of sandwiched in between those 1980 babies specifically where you're after the seventies before 81. We are just in this weird kind of nexus as far as where the generation are concerned.

So I'm in that, but like when my sister's on the show, she is full fledged the millennial and MTV was a part of our culture, right when they finally started getting the shows. I remember them doing the rocking jock for NBA All Star weekend, and then you had the spring breaks. Now the spring breaks were very important to a young Bruce coming of age wishing that he could be a part of those spring break adventures.

Never was, never did it, but. Always fantasized about it. So I was watching this documentary and it's very much MTV is the eighties. It was started in the eighties. It blew up in the eighties. And I was like, I wanna talk about this on the show. I wanna talk about this [00:03:00] on the show for a variety of reasons, and I'm gonna get into 'em.

But first I want to give you a little bit of history on MTV.

How MTV Changed the Game: From Rock to Pop Culture Revolution 📺🎸

Bruce Anthony: So, MTV was launched on August 1st, 1981 as a 24 hour cable channel dedicated to air and music videos introduced by video jockeys or VJs. The channel was headquartered in New York City and was initially owned by Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment.

It's debuted marked a significant shift in how music was promoted and consumed blending television with music industry in a new visual format. Some of the first artists that were featured on MTV, uh, on the very first day, it featured 116 unique videos with video killed the Radio Star by the Boggles Bugles, uh, British New Wave Band.

The earlier rotation included artists like Pat Benatar, love Pat Benatar, the who, Phil Collins, rod Stewart, April Wine, predominantly white, predominantly white rock [00:04:00] oriented ex Rod Stewart had the most appearances that day with 16 video plays. MTV's programming was heavily influenced by the rock genre mirroring the taste of mainstream radio at the time.

So MTV, even though it was called music television, w what they said was, we're just playing popular music, which at the time was rock music, which, uh, maybe to the masses, but it wasn't the most popular music. But I'm gonna get into that later. If you realize something, those names that I railed off, some popular acts weren't included in these names.

And this is 1981. So Michael Jackson was a thing, okay? The Jacksons were a thing Michael Jackson had off the Wall, which I've gone back and forth with that I've said is better than Thriller. If I had to list Michael Jackson's first three albums in order of Best to Worst, it would be bad [00:05:00] Off the Wall thriller.

Even though Thriller sold the most, I believe Musically Bad is the Best Off The Wall is second best, the Thriller is next. And that's not saying Thriller isn't a great album. It's an iconic album. I just think he had three great iconic albums in 1981. Off the Wall was, was out. Not only that, but the Jacksons had Triumph.

Prince was a thing. Rick James was a thing. Pardon it. Funkadelic was in the seventies, had done music videos. Do you hear a pat? Do you see a pattern here?

The Color Line: MTV’s Early Days of Exclusion 🚫✊🏾

Bruce Anthony: No black artists were on MTV. Why is that? So in the early years, MTV was criticized for its lack of black artists in its rotation. The network executives claimed that MTV was originally designed to be rock music, to be a rock music channel.

Uh, uh, if you remember correctly, the history of music that I did, several shows back. Um, black people invented rock music, but, uh, okay. Little Richard was the first rock and roller, but Okay. Okay. [00:06:00] Okay. And there, MTV's rationale was that there were few black artists making music videos that fit the rock oriented format.

The rationale was publicly stated by MTV's former director of music programming and co-founder, who argued that the scarcity of black rock artists and the lack of music videos from black performers made it difficult to include them in the rotation. Okay, so, so basically they're saying that there are no black rock stars.

I guess it would define on what rock is, right? Like what would you consider rock to say that there's no rock stars because Prince was a rock star? That's rock. People want to say it was punk funk, but punk funk is rock. I don't care how you, how you describe it. Punk funk is rock, but okay, they're saying that there aren't a lot of black folks that are doing rock music and they're saying a lot of black folks are doing music videos.

I don't know if you know this, but go back [00:07:00] and Jackson's might be r and b soul, but I guess it could be rock. It's definitely pop, right? Like some of the Jacksons Triumph. 1980 Triumph. There's a whole music video. It's like a movie. It's like seven minutes long. YouTube it, the Jackson's Triumph song. It's a great video not being played on MTV, but black people aren't making videos.

That's MTV's rationale for not playing black artists. Of course, this explanation was widely challenged. Many black artists, including Rick James, and even though he's not a black artist, David Bowie publicly criticized MTV for not featuring black musicians, arguing that the exclusion was not merely about genre, but about the race and representation.

The network's reluctance to play black artists became a source of controversy and was seen as a form of discrimination within the music industry. So David Bowie did an interview on MTV in [00:08:00] 1983 with one of the MTV VJs Mark Goldman, and he questioned, why aren't there any black artists on. MTV and Mark Goldman.

You can, it's on YouTube. You could go and watch this interview. Mark Goldman did the, the MTV stance, right? Like black people aren't doing rock music and black people don't have a lot of music videos. And David Bowie pushed back upon that saying, well, wait a minute. Black people invented rock music and there are a lot of black artists making music videos.

Then Mark Goldman made the comment, well, we're not only catering to New York City and Los Angeles, or similar major markets. We're also ca catering to basically, essentially the flyover states. And it's about representation. And we don't want those people in those flyover states to see certain individuals that don't represent them and might even make them fearful.

And David Bowie in that interview says, there you go, right there. So it is racist. What you, what you're trying [00:09:00] to do is saying that black folks are just gonna scare Midwestern white folks and they're gonna turn off on the channel. What ended up happening? Why did black artists eventually end up playing on MTV?

Michael Jackson vs. MTV: The Battle That Broke Barriers 🕺🏾🚀

Bruce Anthony: Because when you think about it, you're like, well, Billie Jean beat it. Thriller all was on MTV. So Bruce, what the hell are you talking about? Of course, black artists were being played on MTV. Let me explain to you what it took. The turning point came on. Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. Despite the massive success of the Thriller album, MTV initially resisted airing his videos.

According to multiple accounts, it took significant pressure from Walter Yetnikoff, president of CBS records, who was Jackson's label, who repeatedly threatened to pull all CBS artists videos from MTV and a publicly accused the network of racism if they did not play Billie Jean. Only after the threat did MTV agree to air the video video, which quickly became a sensation and proved that black artists could drive ratings and cultural [00:10:00] influence on the channel.

Listen to the two things I just said. Drive ratings and cultural influence. This wasn't a thing where middle America was gonna turn up their nose. And by the way, there were a lot of rock acts that middle America really didn't like either that turned their nose up at them. I mean, Ozzy Osborne. Do you think a lot of the hairbands, like Van Halen and those guys represented what was happening in middle America?

You gotta remember in the eighties, the rockers, big hair eyeliner, they were very, what's the word I'm looking for? They were very Hmm. Androgynous. Right? You had Boy George, very androgynous, very different than what Middle America would see. Would, would, would question as normal to them, right? They would look at those people and they say they were freaks.[00:11:00]

I'm not saying that. I'm talking about middle America here, but yet they were white, so it was okay. But black artists like Michael Jackson, who is literally, whether it's on purpose or not, his skin is becoming lightning. He got the curl and everything. One of the, the most non-threatening black people couldn't get on MTV.

I mean, the biggest album Thriller is the biggest album ever. There's nothing that ever touched Thriller, right? The biggest album ever. He's got beat it. He's got Billie Jean, he's got Thriller, uh, all these music videos. MTV is not playing. Who was at the time the biggest artist, the biggest musical act at that time, wasn't playing his videos?

And what was their rationale? Well, you know, it's not rock and uh, you know, they don't have a lot of videos. Listen to the opening of Beat It. It is a guitar rift if that's not rock. I don't know what is. So once [00:12:00] Billie Jean was in heavy rotation and opened a door for other black artists such as Prince Eddie, grant, Donna Summer, and, and the musical youth, the Specials and Herbie Cock, they all received am time on ev, on MTV.

Though the progress remained slow and selective at first, the success of Michael Jackson's videos demonstrated the commercial and cultural value of blacks, black artists compelling MTV to diversify its programming. So why did I bring all this up? I bring all this up to basically say, you know, here's another example.

They try to shut black people out so much so that even still. Even after all those artists were being played, there were still genres of music in the black community that still was not being featured on MTV, mainly r and b, and what later became in the late eighties, new Jack, new Jack swing and rap.

BET Rises: Creating Space for Black Voices on TV 📡✊🏿

Bruce Anthony: Eventually MTV created Yo MTV, yo MTV [00:13:00] raps, but that's because they had a competing music network. It was called BET. I remember being at the University of Maryland and I was in this class. I can't remember if it was a, it had to be a politics class. And I was in this class and there was a white person in this class that said, I don't understand why there is a Jewish student union, a black student union, an Asian American student union, a Latino student union, and there's no student union for just white people.

And I said, there is, it's called the student Union. And, and they were like, well, it's not specifically for white people. I said, but it's dominated by, by white people. 'cause white people are the majority of the population here at this campus. And it's not even like a close, a close race. It's like 85 to 90% of the population here at the University of Maryland is white.

The reason why they create these other student unions is so that other people who are the minority can be included. [00:14:00] BET was created because there were so many artists that were not being featured. On MTV, even after MTV was pressured by CBS, they were still not playing the new Jack swing. And if you don't know what the new Jack swing is, look it up.

It is dope music. Teddy Riley, guy Al B Shore, uh, hell, even BBD New Edition where New Jack swing. Like, uh, who else? What's my man that, that the Keith Sweat, you know, a lot of great music was, was New Jack Swing that just was not being played on the MTV Rap artists. Ron DMC, just not being played on MTV, on DMC wasn't played on MTV until they did the crossover song with Aerosmith called Rock This Way.

And once again, another group, Aerosmith, who I personally love, don't, don't sit up here and listen to me and think. Then I don't have an eclectic, uh, view of music. I [00:15:00] love almost all types of music. Even some country. I even dig a little bit. I grew up an MTV kid, so I paid attention to what they played.

Tears for Fears, one of my favorite all time groups, Aerosmith, stone Temple Pilots. Uh, of course, of course Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I love that music. I love all of that music. So to say that you're like, Bruce, you just said that because they weren't playing your style of music. No, they were, they were just only playing their style of music.

And I mean, later when you look at how MTV exploded and eventually pushed past BET was because they included rap, they included hip hop, they included r and b in their music video rotations. So I say all that to say this, when you hear black people complain that they're excluded. Realize this is not coming from anywhere.

That isn't valid. [00:16:00] Right? And it doesn't have to go all the way back to the sixties. It can go back to the eighties. And for you, gen Z people and then Gen Alphas, who might even be listening to this, I know the 19 hundreds was a long time ago. For you, for you, you're young. It, it feels like a long time ago.

It really wasn't that long. It wasn't that long ago, right? Your parents were born mostly before that time. That's real life. So just pay attention when marginalized people say that they're excluded, no matter who you are. This is directed towards MTV was specifically speaking towards white people. But there are other marginalized groups out there besides just black artists or Latino artists, and sometimes black people.

And this is a message from my black people and my Latino people. We need to listen to other groups. That aren't really represented that well in the US population and [00:17:00] listen to them about being marginalized too. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean that it's not real.

Bruce Anthony: Scrolling across my timeline. I get interesting stuff, especially when I go on my for you page or if I go on Reddit, which Reddit is fastly becoming my social, my favorite social media site. It's the least toxic too, by the way. Or at least my algorithm of Reddit. It is the least toxic. But I was in either Reddit or my for You page on Instagram, and I came across something that I was flabbergasted.

And I've talked about the manosphere, I've talked about toxic masculinity and it's a thing, right? And, and something that is really interesting that I, that I, when I talk about these things that I don't really. Focus on, but is still very, very much present [00:18:00] in these conversations is the fact that not only, it's not only men, but it's also women that perpetuate these patriarchic toxic masculinity ideals.

Okay. And, but I'm just focusing on men right now. I'm just focusing on men. And in my, in my algorithm, it pumped something to me and it, and I found out about alpha male bootcamps. Now I said, what?

Alpha Male Bootcamps: Toxic Grind? A Scam? 🏋️♂️⚠️

Bruce Anthony: The hell is an alpha male bootcamp. So I went down a rabbit hole and this is what I found out. So an alpha bootcamp sometimes called an Alpha Male Bootcamp or man camps, are intense programs marketed towards men seeking to reclaim or enhance their masculinity confidence and leadership skills.

The camps have gained attention for their high prices, military inspired structure and bold promises [00:19:00] to transform participants into better men through physical and psychological challenges. Okay? At its core, I don't fundamentally disagree with the idea of a man bettering himself. It's the term alpha, and it's the way in which they implement it.

Yo, if dudes wanted to be in the military, just join the damn military, right? Don't join. Don't take part of a fake military. Because it's easy and you don't have to actually really fight. You ain't got no skin in the game, but to improve upon yourself. I don't know about this idea of increasing your masculinity 'cause their idea of what masculinity is.

I still feel this is just extremely toxic. But the idea of bettering yourself, bettering yourself, giving yourself confidence, building up self-esteem, [00:20:00] these aren't things independently that I'm opposed to. I'm actually champion those things. Everybody should be trying to build up their self-esteem.

Everybody should be trying to, to improve themselves. I, I talk about all the time, how much I'm trying to evolve as a person, become better as a person, however. Um, I don't think I need any more masculinity. I think I have enough. I think I need a little bit more femininity. And what I mean by that is a little bit more emotional intelligence.

Those things are not supposed to be correlated, but they are, uh, men are Neanderthals when it comes to emotional intelligent, while women are far more advanced. But I wanna get more to these alpha bootcamps. So what is the concept? The core philosophy is rooted in the idea of becoming an alpha male, a term popularized by outdated ammo, behavior studies, and later debunked by the original researcher.

So the original researcher came up with this alpha beta thing when [00:21:00] describing, when researching the, basically the animal kingdom. He later was like, yo, this really, really isn't a thing because alpha and betas change roles, right? Like one minute you could be an alpha and the next minute you could be a beta and vice versa.

It really depends on your environment. This is what I've been preaching on this podcast for, I don't know, a couple of years now, that you could be both an alpha and a beta, depending on your circumstances. I am both an alpha and a beta. Sometimes I take charge, sometimes I take lead, sometimes I sit in the back and I follow.

You need to be able to do both. To be a successful person in this life, you can't be all or and and or nothing with one or the other. You need to be a mixture of both. So these programs, these Alpha Bootcamps claim to help men shift their mindset of scarcity and self-doubt, which is equated to being a beta to [00:22:00] one of abundance, confidence, and assertiveness.

Which is equated to being alpha. So

once again, if you're building up confidence and self-esteem, self-doubt, part of that mindset of self-doubt, okay, like once again, I'm not opposed to this concept. I actually agree with the concept of conquering your self-doubt and building up your self-concept confidence. It's this scarcity thing that's attached to a beta and it's abundance that's attached to an alpha.

I remember in the 1980s, going back to the 1980s from talking about MTV, uh, wall Street, the movie Wall Street came out and greed is good. That's what the slogan was. 'cause Wall Street was booming, right? Greed is good. That's when corporate takeovers started happening. And it was the, the, the lifestyles of [00:23:00] rich fa and abundance.

Right was championed. It led to the largest stock market crash of all time, and people woke up and in the nineties, people was like, Hey man, all this abundance is all this stuff. All this materialistic ain't what it should be because our economy basically crashed. Okay. Confidence and assertiveness, I'm not opposed to, right?

Like I said, if you have self-doubt, build up confidence. Cool assertiveness. Mm. Sometimes that could be a good thing. Sometimes that could be a bad thing. Assertiveness is good in moderation. All of this could be good in a mod in moderation. Even abundance can be good in moderation, which I think may be contradicting one another, but.

I dunno. So let's, let's dig more about this approach.

 Why “Alpha” Culture is DANGEROUS (Spoiler: It’s Fake) 🚫🧠

Bruce Anthony: The approach often involves breaking down participants through hardship and then building them back up to realize the potential as [00:24:00] leaders, fathers, and partners. Now, what type of partners are we talking about here? Like marriage and relationship partners?

'cause everything that they're describing right now does not to me correlate to being a good romantic partner, not the alpha male trait. Being assertive. Assertive. How? Like taking charge of the household. That should be a partnership that goes against partnerships, right? 'cause it's a give and take, but trying to fulfill yourself being a good leader and follower.

And father, you know that nothing, I'm never opposed to being a better father. Not everybody's meant to be a leader. Some people are meant to be followers and I've never believed in this Breaking somebody down to build 'em up. I know the military does it all the time. But the military does it for a reason.

The military does breaks you down to build you up 'cause they're building you up in the form of a team, right? That you guys must work all work [00:25:00] together for a common goal. And yeah, there are ranks, there are hierarchy hierarchies, and you follow orders, but that's not something that you really want in your family.

What I mean by that is, yes, you are the parent and there are children. You have rules and these children follow the rules. But you should explain to your children why you have the certain rules and what the benefits of the rules are and what the consequences of not following the rules, not just in punishment, but down the road, why these rules are in place.

Right. So I just don't believe in breaking people down and building 'em up. I know a lot of coaches out there believe in this militaristic mindset, and there's a reason why people enter the military. They have a different mindset than than the majority of people, right? Like people that play football. You gotta have a certain mindset to be a football player.

You gotta have a certain mindset to be a boxer. You gotta have a certain mindset to be an MMA fighter, you have to kind of, maybe not like [00:26:00] pain, but really not mind it. And I don't know about y'all. I hate pain. I hate when I'm sick. I hate when I'm hurting. There's nothing about that's enjoyable. That's the reason why I never entered the military.

That's the reason why I quit football in high school. That's the reason why, you know, I, I did do a little bit of boxing, did do some martial arts, but I would never go and like fight, fight. Like I, I never wanted to fight. I fought because I had to. So these ideas of breaking people down and build them back up, I'm not real fond of this is what I'm talking about.

This toxic masculinity idea that you've gotta break people down to build them up. No, you don't. You don't have to do that. And you're talking to, and this is somebody who was a teacher and a coach. No, you can just build people up. You can. Alright, well, what are the structures of the methods of these camps?

Many camps, such as the modern day night project, use a bootcamp format, get this 75 hours of grueling physical task, sleep, decoration, [00:27:00] obstacle courses, and intense group exercises led by military veterans. So it's a military wish camp I. These people could have just gone into the military, but once again, they want the aspects of military without putting skin in the actual game.

This process is intentionally stressful and confrontational with the idea that suffering leads to superpowers. This is a literal quote that suffering leads to superpowers and that overcoming adversity together forges, comradery, and personal growth. Now, you ain't getting no superpowers, but I understand what they mean that going through stuff in a group builds this kind of comradery and personal growth.

I mean, that is true. We've all been in groups or teams or things of that nature and have to overcome together, and you have these bonds that are created because you went through tough times together. [00:28:00] But how does that help you? With the people that's not going through this with you, like your family and your children, this is what doesn't make sense to me.

What are you going to put your family and your children through this tough process? So, and go through pain and, and, and anguish and, and adversity in order to come through it together and be closer. That sounds stupid as hell. Some programs like activate the Alpha and incorporate more holistic elements, including relationship exercises, trauma work, and access to mental health professionals to address emotional needs alongside physical challenges.

Now that's what I'm talking about. If, if you are trying to become healthier by doing these physical grueling things, I don't know about sleep deprivation, right? And 75 hours of in intensive [00:29:00] exercise like that as a fitness professional. That is very, very dangerous. But if you're taking relationship exercises, you're doing trauma work and you're working with mental health professionals, that's actual evolution.

That's actually, well, I still don't agree with the term alpha, but you're definitely evolving and, and becoming a better you. What are some of the claims and promises from these bootcamps? The promise, the bootcamps promise to help men shatter self-doubt and see purpose clearly. I'm not opposed to that.

I'm opposed to how they get there. He'll pass trauma. I'm not opposed to that either. I'm opposed to how they get there. Become better fathers, partners and leaders, I talked about that earlier. Not opposed to that, opposed to how they get there. Improve mental health marriages and even business success once again.

Not opposed to any of that. Opposed to how they get there. The programs often include follow-up coaching and mastermind groups [00:30:00] for ongoing support and personal development. Now let's get into some of the criticisms and controversies that, uh, expand upon some of my already comments about how I don't agree with a lot of the actions being taken by these bootcamps.

There's questionable effectiveness. Critics argue that these camps misunderstand the true pur purpose of military bootcamp, which is a prolonged multi-faced process designed to build teamwork. And, and it's done over weeks and months, not just 75 hours of hardship. Once again, it's, it's a dream camp, military dream camp, but it doesn't prepare you.

It, the purpose of of the bootcamp is to build people up in a team atmosphere. Yes, it does supposedly make you a better you, but it makes you a better soldier. That's, that's what it's doing. I. Also, the alpha concept [00:31:00] itself is based on outdated science and can promote unhealthy stereotypes about masculinity, like toxic masculinity.

Like you need to be assertive and aggressive, and self-confidence is a good thing until it turns into being, you know, conceit. And when you're conceited, that's an issue. There's also the high cost and accessibility participation often requires a significant financial investment of eight of up to $18,000 for a single three day session.

Maybe I should run a alpha bootcamp. I mean, it sounds like a hustle to me. It sound like a hustle to me. Some see this as exploitive, especially given a lack of scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of such a belief and intense innovations. So the holistic approach of relationships, trauma work, mental health professionals.

I'm all for that. That that's something that [00:32:00] I preach. The concept is alpha, very toxic. Very toxic. That's the Andrew Tate stuff. These are toxic individuals. You know, I was talking to somebody earlier about toxic masculinity and you know what I would actually love? And, and it's problematic. What I'm about to say is problematic, but hear me out on this.

I would love a homosexual male. That is the old stereotype of what a homosexual male is. Flamboyant, uh, that that is full of feminine characteristics. This is a toxic, toxic stereotype. I'm not saying this is what gay men are like. I'm saying that most of the times they're portrayals. And mass media have been that.

So let's take that characterization, that stereotype of a gay male. And I want him to be the UFC champion [00:33:00] in all the weight classes.

Smashing Stereotypes: Taking On Toxic Masculinity 💪🚫

Bruce Anthony: 'cause that would immediately on its head attack, the alpha male mentality and toxic masculinity because they see people in this manosphere, people in this toxic masculinity mindset, see those particular stereotypical gay men as everything, not masculine, as everything beta, but if he whooping everybody ass.

You see what I'm saying? Like that. That would be like a dream to me. 'cause it would put everything that they believe on, on its head and maybe hopefully make them think. But these people most of the time are apes and don't think so. I don't think they would. Okay.

The Real Dangers of ‘Alpha’ Culture: What You Need to Know 🧠💥

Bruce Anthony: What are the safety and ethics of these alpha male bootcamps?

There have been serious incidents including a participant's death during a session raising questions about safety protocols and sustainability of such [00:34:00] extreme methods for addressing men's emotional needs. Lemme tell you something about bootcamp. Bootcamp starts with getting people into shape. They're putting these people through marine training and you know, you don't just start out with the intense marine training, the average eye as a fit individual.

Somebody who works out six days a week, somebody whose body fat percentage is in the very low teens, if not in the preteens, right? I think it's in the preteens right now. When I say preteens, it's like 11, 12% great cardiovascular, like the heart is good, like I'm in really good shape. I could stand a drop my body fat percentage just a little bit more, but.

I'm in really, really good shape. I couldn't go do that Marine stuff. I would pass out and puke and contrary to what you think working out till you puke is not a good thing. That's not a, that's not a great workout. [00:35:00] You're working yourself past your body's performance level. That's not a good thing. People have died.

'cause you got Joe Schmo who sits on the couch eating potato chips every day thinking he's gonna go do this three day program. And you got people running these programs who believe in this toxic masculinity that they're gonna change man, or they're hustlers. 'cause of the 18 grand a pop. Think about that.

You got 10 people on a three day weekend. You done made $180,000 for three days of just barking orders and telling what these people what to do. That's a scam and it's dangerous.

 Real Growth: Therapy Over Toxic “Alpha” BS 🌱❤️

Bruce Anthony: What are the alternatives and professional support experts suggest that while some men may benefit from the c camaraderie and challenge, these camps are not substitutes for pro for professional therapy or evidence-based mental health interventions.

Programs that integrate licensed mental [00:36:00] health professionals and focus on emotional as well as physical development are viewed more favorably. So that program that I was talking about earlier, which was the Alpha, what was it again? The Alpha, the Activate, your Alpha Academy, that introduced those very things.

I'm not opposed to that. Look, if you making men get off their ass workout, giving them self-confidence, self-esteem, helping them with relationship coaching, helping them with their trauma, giving them mental health through licensed professionals. Now that is a man camp. Th that's a man camp that I could back up.

As long as they don't bring in this alpha, beta ideology. And really what these camps with that particular camp is doing is getting men into better shape. 'cause if you get into better shape, your self-confidence goes up, you look better, you feel better. That is a real thing. Okay? [00:37:00] But also what that camp is really doing is increasing men's emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Matters for Men & Women 🧠❤️

Bruce Anthony: This is a real difference between men and women, is emotional intelligence. I, I gave the analogy a couple of shows ago of why there are certain groups of white people in America that have a really hard time of, of letting go subconsciously or consciously of letting go of the fact they're not this superior race.

And they tried it to sweep under minority accomplishments as in firm of action. DEI like it. It wasn't an accomplishment. And the only reason why they got there is because it was a handout or they got a leg up not wanting to realize that maybe they're just better at particular things or that these particular white people, not all these particular white people, just aren't exceptional.

And I know that's tough for [00:38:00] some people to realize because your whole life, you've been told that you're exceptional. Men since the beginning of time have been told that they are the leaders of the pack. You gotta be a man, you gotta be strong. It is very tough to come to the realization that you aren't, that women are surpassing us in education and in the workforce.

Though wages are still not where they're supposed to be for people doing the same job, women are still being paid less. By and large, women are making more money as a group and becoming more educated than men are surpassing men. Men not all. But there are a lot of men in this manosphere that are talking about, well, it's only because these, there are all these things for women.

And women are given all these advantages and men are being held back when reality men just aren't up to snuff. And the reason is, is because we're emotionally, and forgive me for using this word, but it's apropo. [00:39:00] We're emotionally retarded. We're emotionally handicapped because we were never taught to express our emotions.

Think of it like this. Think of it as a crayon box. You remember an elementary school when we had crayon box boxes, right? Typically, most kids got the primary colors right? The eight primary color box, the eight crayon box. You know, you had the blue, the red, the green, the yellow, the black, your white, all that type of stuff, right?

There were some kids that had that big 64 box, right? That had 64 different crayons, that had fuchsia and teal and all these other colors that you couldn't even imagine. That's the difference in emotional intelligence between men and women. Women are the 64 crayon box. Men are the eight. We, we don't know how to deal with emotions.

We were never taught. It's a part of the patriarchy society. It's part of toxic masculinity, and also we don't like to be perceived as weak. It's a pride issue. And pride [00:40:00] is one of the what? Seven deadly sins. So don't come to me talking about the Bible and religion when you are clearly. Exhibiting every day of your life.

One of the seven deadly sins. So the reason why men feel like they need to be Alpha is because women are surpassing us. And it's because I've been saying it and I'm saying it as a male, I'm saying it as a male who I. It has a lot of masculine traits, a lot of feminine traits as well, but you know, a lot of masculine traits.

You know, I, I talk to my bestie all the time about that, about that, you know, I was like, you know, you're dealing with somebody who's very much against your ideal of a man. She was like, no, when I see you, I very much see a man, a masculine man. And that might be because of my stature or the way I present myself.

I have a lot of confidence in myself, uh, almost to the point of conceited almost. Um, I don't have a lot of self-doubt, uh, and don't really have too many problems with my [00:41:00] self-esteem. But, you know, there are issues with my self-esteem. But by and large, you're hearing this from a man that has a lot of masculine traits.

We, male females are the more evolved species. And don't say to this, well, we're stronger than them. That's literally the only thing that we have over 'em. And oh, by the way, just because a species is physically stronger doesn't mean it is better. Are you gonna say that you're not better than a gorilla. A gorilla is physically stronger.

A gorilla is phy, physically stronger, but it's not smarter. It is not more evolved. So yes, we're physically stronger than women, but we're not more evolved than women. And we can't even say that we could take pain like women, right? Because there, there's this machine that can mimic the, the pain that women have during their, you know, that time in a month.

And men will get like a three on the, on the pain meter and will crotch down like they've been shot. They'll put that same instrument on a, on a [00:42:00] woman, and they're like, yeah, this is a, this is a really light day. This isn't really that bad. And then crank it up to a 10 where men can't even deal with it.

And a woman is like, okay, yeah. Now we're starting to get to a hard day. Women can tolerate pain better than men can. Men wouldn't be able to give birth. We would pass out. Women are smarter than us, as evidenced by them passing us an education. They're smarter than us when it comes to emotions because they could deal.

They got, they're the 64, they're the 64 crayon box where we're still the eight. They're more evolved than us. So wouldn't that make them the alpha in this situation, under these definitions of alpha male? Look, some men are gonna be, a lot of men are gonna be pissed off. About what I'm saying and they say, how you going to say that?

They better than us? You a male? And I'm just like, look, I speak the truth. You don't want to hear it. But I speak the truth. Like the very first episode where I [00:43:00] misspoken, I said, power the truth, truth, the power. I look, I speak the truth whether you wanna hear it or not. Women are more evolved. But by and large, I don't have a problem with a man camp.

Like to activate the alpha. That's encouraging men to become physically fit, address relationships, address their trauma, address their mental health. Those are fantastic man camps. These other toxic man camps. The people that a person will die on and, and you gotta pay 18,000. Those are just scams. Once again, those are only scams that dumb ass men would fall for.

Eh, hate to be real, but gotta be.

Bruce Anthony: Speaking of toxic males, uh, went to my, you know, I've talked about it a lot. Am I overreacting? [00:44:00] Look for a person that is as messy as I am. Granted. I don't want no drama in my life, but please tell me all the drama in your life. I'm messy. I like hearing gossip. Okay. That's the reason why I like Jersey Shore and teen mom too.

I'm messy. Am I overreacting? A Reddit sub, A sub Reddit from Reddit is literally my favorite thing. I can sit up there and read other people's messiness and all the comments for hours. I can literally get lost in it for hours. But speaking of toxic masculinity, this one, am I overreacting, I thought was really important because little.

Boomers to Zoomers: How Generations See Relationships Differently 🧓👶

Bruce Anthony: To my knowledge until I found out recently there's a lot of younger Gen Z. Borderline Gen Alpha is actually listening and watch the show. I was surprised because we talk about some issues that in my mind would be a little complex for Gen Alpha, but then I had to realize Gen Alpha, the oldest Gen Alpha was [00:45:00] born in 2010.

They're 15 years old now. They're sophomores, freshmen, sophomores, they're in high school. So the idea that understand concept, uh, complicated concepts, it's there. 'cause that's, I started understanding these concepts in middle school only because my dad forced 'em upon me. So I'm specifically dealing this.

Am I overreacting, is dealing with a younger Gen Z, not quite, uh, gen Alpha, but it's something for not only gen Alpha, gen Z millennials, gen x boomers, and whatever's above that. This is something that I know. Men do, and it's toxic. So am I overreacting. My new boyfriend wants me to replace all my brass underwear and lingerie.

I need help on this asap. I'm 18 and my boyfriend is 19, and we have recently just got into a relationship together. He said this to me the other day, and I'm not sure what to think. Is this a red [00:46:00] flag? Should I run or am I overreacting? The lingerie part I sort of understand, but brass and underwear I don't get.

So this is the conversation between the 18-year-old boyfriend and the 19-year-old girlfriend. Here's the 18-year-old boyfriend. I know this must sound strange, but I want you to get rid of any underwear, bras at any form of lingerie you have. I hate the idea that other guys have seen you and used you in them.

RED FLAG ALERT: “Throw Away Your Lingerie?!” 👙💔

Bruce Anthony: It bothers me a lot. Her response, wait, I can't tell if this is a joke. You want me to throw away my whole drawer between my lingerie sets, bras and panties? I have at least one k. No joke, him. I know it sounds intense, but I want you and us to start totally fresh her. It's clothing. It doesn't hold any meaning like that to me.

Plus, I like my bra sets and I [00:47:00] have loads of different designs. Him, I could take you shopping and can replace and get new. I'll pay for everything. She gave him an emoji face, like seriously, and he, he texts back. Come on. Is she overreacting for not wanting to do that? Ma'am, you are not overreacting and you need to run.

This is what we call the key of a toxic male. He wants possession of you. He doesn't actually care about you. He wants to possess you. He wants to make it so that you're only his there. You know what? It's sad. I don't think they do the made for TV movies anymore or the after school specials that taught us about these guys.

There was one where, uh, I can't remember who was in it. Oh, it was Fred Savage. Fred Savage. I think this was based on a true story. Fred Savage is like some wrestling superstar at his high [00:48:00] school, and he was dating, dating this woman, and he used to get super jealous and possessive and beat her up. And then finally her friends was like, Hey, you need to like leave him after He like really hurt her bad.

And so she decided to leave him and he couldn't take it anymore. He wanted her or else nobody else could have her, and he kidnapped her and he killed her. Yet these type of stories happen all the time. That's how it starts. That's how it starts. And it was the I, it was the comment of him saying, I don't want you, I don't want them to have had you in them.

Had you, I talked a few episodes back about the idea of dating an adult star, and I told the story about when I did and the regret that I have for not being able to handle the past and how I really cared for this person. There was nothing [00:49:00] that was bad. We never fought that. The only time we fought is when I found out that, that she had done some adult work before we got together.

We never fought. We had a good time. She was funny. She was beautiful. You know, there were no problems. The problem was for me, I couldn't deal with her past and now me being older, it is so stupid because 45. I date anywhere from I, I know I'm 45 and five years is not that far, so I should be able to date a 50-year-old, but I just can't, I just feel like that's too old, so, so I'll date somebody 46, maybe 46 and a half.

All the way to the youngest out date is 35. And that's a stretch for me. And when you get to that age, you've had a lot of sexual partners. If you've been active and women out here been active, man, they're gonna have a lot of sexual partners. I understand at this age, he's [00:50:00] thinking that they shouldn't have a lot of sexual partners, but even at that age, people be, people be out here having sex.

Ma'am, you're not overreacting. You should run because he just wants to possess you and it's only going to get worse. It's gonna get to the point where you can't have any male friends. Then it's gonna get to the point where you can't talk to any other males that's not in your family. And then he might even get jealous of the men in your family that you talk to.

What? You got something going on with who? My uncle. Like it could get that crazy. And then if you leave him, who's to say that that possession won't become physical? Oftentimes it does. And then when you try to leave them, that's when they try to hurt you. No, and and this goes for all my women out there. If your dude gets super jealous, jealousy is not a good thing.

Jealousy is not a good thing. I remember dating this woman and I met her on a dating site and she even eventually became my girlfriend, which is crazy about that. And I remember her saying on her profile, yeah, lil [00:51:00] jealousy isn't that bad. And I was like, what do you mean by that? She was like, you know, just a little jealousy.

Isn't that bad? I was like, I think all jealousy is bad because if you're jealous, that means you don't trust your partner, which means you shouldn't be in a relationship, like you shouldn't be in a relationship. Something is wrong if you are jealous of your partner's interaction with the opposite sex or the same sex if you're in, um, a gay relationship.

There's something wrong with that, that that needs to be addressed on your end. There's nothing healthy about it. If men are jealous, if women are jealous, get out that situation. Or, I mean, you could try and reassure 'em if they don't get it, move on. And I know people are always gonna say, Bruce, here comes the sniper again.

That's my uncle's nickname for me. Here comes the sniper again. All you do is cut people loose when things get [00:52:00] iffy. No, I cut people loose when things are, when they show signs of it becoming a problem, that's a sign of a problem. A thousand dollars worth of clothing that he's gonna replace. All because he's scared that other people have seen her in it.

Seen her in it. So she, I mean, can she even wear a bathing suit when they go to the beach? Because a bra panty set is essentially just a bathing suit. That's what it is. He so. Y'all. Is it me or does this absolutely sound crazy? And she's so young, she's only 19 years old. She doesn't know any better and I'm glad she went on this Reddit so that we can describe to her why it is such a bad thing.

This man literally said that, that he didn't like the fact that she was used in [00:53:00] them. He used the words that other guys have seen you and used you in them. Woo, ma'am. Run away. Run away as fast as you can and, and ladies and gentlemen, if you were out there and you are in a situation like this, run away as fast as you can.

I got another one. And these two just happen to be relationship ones.

Politics & Partnerships: Can You Ever Agree? 🤷‍♀️🔥

Bruce Anthony: Alright, this one is, am I overreacting to my boyfriend sending me another podcast? Okay, so me. 20-year-old female and my boyfriend, 3-year-old male. First of all, I'm gonna pause right there. She's 20 years old and he's 32. I just said I would have a problem if I was 45 and she's 35.

And even at that age of, even at that 10 year difference, there's a shorter maturity gap [00:54:00] than 20 to 32. That's crazy. But let me continue on. We're having very con conflicting. We have very conflicting political views, and I'm getting really sick of it. I've tried to just not talk politics with him and it's caused us to fight a lot, but we are both stubborn as hell and he has gotten mad at me in the past for bringing up politics.

So this was my response when he sent me a podcast about how Trump's tariffs are so great for the economy. I don't know. It's immature, but I'm so sick of him sending me his dumb little podcast from Joe Rogan and whatnot. It irritates me to my core that he even watches some of that stuff. Her punctuation is just horrible.

It's just run on sentence. Sentence at the run on sentence. But she's 20 years old, so I kind of get it. Not to mention I'm in college. Well, she is in college. It's finals week and I have a job. I don't have all day to twiddle my thumbs and watch podcasts. Everything else is [00:55:00] great. We get along, we get along great.

So he sent her a podcast from PBD. It's a PBD podcast. I, I'm not gonna promote this guy. I don't like him. I think in the beginning. He was somebody that very much started a podcast like I did that wanted to have sense, sensible conversations. I think now he's leaned towards more of where the money is and the money is in propaganda and right wing extremist ideology, that's where the money is.

The money is not in what I'm out here talking about. The money is preaching about hate manosphere Trump. That's where the money is. Uh, so he sent, he, he, her boyfriend, her 3-year-old boyfriend sent her the podcast and put interesting and a, and the little emoji where they're thinking, she texts back, I'm busy.

Trump doesn't GAF. Y'all know what that stands for about you? [00:56:00] Quit sucking his, uh. So hard. And what and what world are tariffs that will cost us consumers more money good for the already struggling American citizens, majority of whom live paycheck to paycheck. Is she overreacting from that? Um, eh, well, you're not, okay.

First of all, you too young to be dating this 3-year-old. That's the first problem. And I know sometimes, you know, women mature, well, women mature faster than men, so they might be at the same maturity level, but they're not in the same position in life. So she's in college, he's already in his career, hopefully already in his career.

They're in different phases in life. They probably don't have a lot in common. That's number one. Number two, if anything, has been proven since 2016 to now, if you have differing political [00:57:00] ideology. You cannot be in a relationship. I mean, completely opposed to the two extremes. You can't be in a relationship.

Can somebody who's a centrist or moderate be with a conservative or a liberal? Sure, but can a conservative and a liberal be together? No, it's never gonna work out because even if you don't talk politics everyday, life is politics, right? People are like, I don't like talk politics. I don't know how you don't, because everyday life is politics.

That's, that's the climate that we live in. So if y'all are not aligned or at least semi aligned politically, it's not going to work out. So not only do you have the age difference, you have them politically not aligned, and you have both of them not stop talking about politics. You can kinda live in this fairytale land where you won't talk politics.

But if neither one is agreeing to it. [00:58:00] No, it's not gonna work out. Are you overreacting by saying what you said to him? Yes. Maybe a little bit. But he's baiting you, right? He's sending you these things because he knows that you don't agree with him. He's trying to get you to agree with him, and the way that he's doing it in the condescending, passive aggressive type of way is aggravating.

Especially when you're dealing with finals and you have a job. It seems like you got a lot on your plate. Maybe having a man right now that is 12 years older than you and isn't aligned with you politically, politically isn't the best decision. Look, these are things that you need to think about because if you're getting into relationships with people, you gotta have some tough conversations because if you get in a relationship, you wanna start a family, how are you gonna raise the kids?

Like, like what is the process of raising the kids? 'cause you believe in two, two completely different things. You have two completely different philosophies in life. It will not work, [00:59:00] it will not be successful. Are you overreacting for kind of the language? I mean, you, you may, you may have overreacted a little bit.

Just a little bit. You know, there was some foul language in there. It was a little bit, I'm not above saying foul language. I say foul language all the time, but you know, you know, maybe, maybe. I like to intellectually destroy people and not yell or scream and don't even need to use big words and not cuss.

It gets my point across a little bit better. But that came with age. I wasn't always like that when I was 20. I definitely responded the way she did. So is she overreacting? Eh, a little bit, but not by much. Y'all have bigger problems that y'all need to deal with, and I'm gonna really be honest with you.

Y'all don't really need to be together. Y'all need to separate. Separate.

Parting Shots & Final Takeaways 🎉👋

Bruce Anthony: And on that note, ladies and gentlemen, I just want y'all to think about [01:00:00] some of the things that I brought up, right? Like you have your ideology on life and maybe you're right, but leave open to possibility that you could be wrong.

And listen to other people, um, listen to their perspectives. Listen to their ideals. You don't have to agree, but listen, and you might gain something from it. Don't immediately shut it off because you don't want to hear it. That's what this whole show is about, and I hope you learned something from it. But on that note, I want to thank you for listening.

I want to thank you for watching, and until next time, as always, I'll holler. Woo. That was a hell of a show. Thank you for rocking with us here on Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Now, before you go, don't forget to follow, subscribe, like, comment, and share our podcast. Wherever you're listening or watching it to it, pass it along to your friends. If you enjoy it, [01:01:00] that means the people that you rock, we'll enjoy it also.

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Donations go strictly to improving our software and hardware so we can keep giving you guys good content that you can clearly listen to and that you can clearly see. So any donation would be appreciative. Most importantly, I wanna say [01:02:00] thank you, thank you, thank you for listening and watching and supporting us, and I'll catch you next time.

Audi 5,000 Peace.