Empower Yourself
PICK UP ARTISTS EXPOSED! LADIES WATCH OUT! by S.S. Davis
There's little new about that favorite male past-time, picking up women. However, a new book, along with the Internet, has facilitated the perfect combination for men to connect and compare notes on just how to go about that artful pursuit.
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss is a sometimes tragically hilarious Swingers meets Revenge of the Nerds-like account. Strauss recounts his true-life experiences of the complicated and distinctive techniques used by an underground network of pick-up artists ('PUAs') to meet, approach and manipulate women into sex. And what a game it is. This book and its confessed womanizers make legendary Don Juans look like amateurs.
And men think The Rules is bad? An event at Book Soup in West Hollywood gathered mostly mid-twenties to forties average-looking guys. Only a smattering of the mostly male audience raised their hands when called upon to identify themselves as part of the 'community.'
' I thought only guys would show up to an event about how to pick up women,' I heard a few guys say as they perused the seven or so women present. 'You're taking notes?' I heard the cute 30-something guy behind me say (who, it was no surprise, turned out to be a disciple of The Game). 'I'm covering it for a magazine,' I said, noticing slight surprise. 'Oh, what magazine?' 'A writer's publication, actually.' 'Oh, you're a writer. . . ' I could see the wheels turning quickly in his head, as he searched for the next appropriate comment, no doubt part of the 'technique.'
Under 'normal' circumstances, the attention I received would have been flattering, but by the end of this event, I began to feel like a hunted animal, as I seemed to be the prize for a throw-toss barrage of ridiculous questions, such as 'What's your sign?' Asked by a not bad youngish looking guy. 'See, it worked!' he said with aplomb, even before I threw my head back in laughter.
Managed like a sports 'pool,' The Game seems to be experienced like the ultimate sporting event spiced with a bit of frat boy humor among mostly young men from 20 to late thirties.
Worse than being compared to a piece of meat, women are chosen, scored, flayed and cross-cut, their attributes analyzed and detailed accounts of their sexual submissions posted on the Internet for all to see. To demonstrate the elaborateness of The Game , try sampling from the 'seduction lair' blog on the Internet by PUA Hypnotica's 'Challenge' for 'contestants' to participate in: http://www.thundercatseductionlair.com/2005/04/pua_challenge_g.html .
It would appear that these hypnotic techniques could be dangerously close to other control modes plaguing male-female relationships since the beginning of time. It begs to be asked: Isn't this form of manipulation the very type of behavior that leads to stalking and forms of violence toward women? At the core of all this rhetoric, take the use of controlling techniques just one step further, and there doesn't appear to be much difference between the males who use these controlling techniques and ones who use GHB (the 'date-rape' drug), and liquid Ecstasy, to have their way with women.
Just like other forms of addictive behavior such as alcohol, drugs, gambling, Internet and/or sex and pornography, for some, being involved in The Game of male predatory behavior may become an addiction just as hard to crack as, well, crack itself. Basically, these PUA techniques teach men to disassociate themselves on a spiritual level with the women they meet, all of whom simply become their sexual conquests, thus creating an unhealthy, ultimately lonely emotional bankruptcy.
Lying, cheating and distrustfulness often starts out 'harmless' and can easily become a routine. Infidelity always involves a shattering of trust, which often can never be restored. So is the risky lifestyle of The Game really worth it in the end? It may be, if the only goal is to bag as many women as possible. But if there is even an inkling of compassion or a romantic notion about love, it could actually be more damaging to the psyche in the end. The bottom line regarding The Game is this: while it might seem like a great way for a bunch of guys who can't get any action to find it, it isn't really going to satisfy any emotional human void. In fact, playing The Game just may exacerbate the void into an even more excruciatingly lonely unsatisfied desire.
For those who cannot bear to or have no interest in reading the book, have no fear. Strauss has confirmed that Columbia is set to take The Game to the big screen, though it probably won't star Jack Black and Kate Hudson as the rumor mill suggests.
There's little new about that favorite male past-time, picking up women. However, a new book, along with the Internet, has facilitated the perfect combination for men to connect and compare notes on just how to go about that artful pursuit.
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss is a sometimes tragically hilarious Swingers meets Revenge of the Nerds-like account. Strauss recounts his true-life experiences of the complicated and distinctive techniques used by an underground network of pick-up artists ('PUAs') to meet, approach and manipulate women into sex. And what a game it is. This book and its confessed womanizers make legendary Don Juans look like amateurs.
And men think The Rules is bad? An event at Book Soup in West Hollywood gathered mostly mid-twenties to forties average-looking guys. Only a smattering of the mostly male audience raised their hands when called upon to identify themselves as part of the 'community.'
' I thought only guys would show up to an event about how to pick up women,' I heard a few guys say as they perused the seven or so women present. 'You're taking notes?' I heard the cute 30-something guy behind me say (who, it was no surprise, turned out to be a disciple of The Game). 'I'm covering it for a magazine,' I said, noticing slight surprise. 'Oh, what magazine?' 'A writer's publication, actually.' 'Oh, you're a writer. . . ' I could see the wheels turning quickly in his head, as he searched for the next appropriate comment, no doubt part of the 'technique.'
Under 'normal' circumstances, the attention I received would have been flattering, but by the end of this event, I began to feel like a hunted animal, as I seemed to be the prize for a throw-toss barrage of ridiculous questions, such as 'What's your sign?' Asked by a not bad youngish looking guy. 'See, it worked!' he said with aplomb, even before I threw my head back in laughter.
Managed like a sports 'pool,' The Game seems to be experienced like the ultimate sporting event spiced with a bit of frat boy humor among mostly young men from 20 to late thirties.
Worse than being compared to a piece of meat, women are chosen, scored, flayed and cross-cut, their attributes analyzed and detailed accounts of their sexual submissions posted on the Internet for all to see. To demonstrate the elaborateness of The Game , try sampling from the 'seduction lair' blog on the Internet by PUA Hypnotica's 'Challenge' for 'contestants' to participate in: http://www.thundercatseductionlair.com/2005/04/pua_challenge_g.html .
It would appear that these hypnotic techniques could be dangerously close to other control modes plaguing male-female relationships since the beginning of time. It begs to be asked: Isn't this form of manipulation the very type of behavior that leads to stalking and forms of violence toward women? At the core of all this rhetoric, take the use of controlling techniques just one step further, and there doesn't appear to be much difference between the males who use these controlling techniques and ones who use GHB (the 'date-rape' drug), and liquid Ecstasy, to have their way with women.
Just like other forms of addictive behavior such as alcohol, drugs, gambling, Internet and/or sex and pornography, for some, being involved in The Game of male predatory behavior may become an addiction just as hard to crack as, well, crack itself. Basically, these PUA techniques teach men to disassociate themselves on a spiritual level with the women they meet, all of whom simply become their sexual conquests, thus creating an unhealthy, ultimately lonely emotional bankruptcy.
Lying, cheating and distrustfulness often starts out 'harmless' and can easily become a routine. Infidelity always involves a shattering of trust, which often can never be restored. So is the risky lifestyle of The Game really worth it in the end? It may be, if the only goal is to bag as many women as possible. But if there is even an inkling of compassion or a romantic notion about love, it could actually be more damaging to the psyche in the end. The bottom line regarding The Game is this: while it might seem like a great way for a bunch of guys who can't get any action to find it, it isn't really going to satisfy any emotional human void. In fact, playing The Game just may exacerbate the void into an even more excruciatingly lonely unsatisfied desire.
For those who cannot bear to or have no interest in reading the book, have no fear. Strauss has confirmed that Columbia is set to take The Game to the big screen, though it probably won't star Jack Black and Kate Hudson as the rumor mill suggests.