| New bag of tricks: Today's men learn the art of getting some (4/08) | | Print | |
| Written by Camille Smyth | |
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Say goodbye to "You must be the reason for global warming because you're hot!" No longer will you hear "If you were a burger at McDonald's,
you'd be called McGorgeous!" Pickup lines are out and a new way of
picking up women is in. Women beware, because today’s pickup artists
have a new bag of tricks up their sleeves.
Today books and TV shows offer men all the tools they need to get the
411 on picking up women. Although the idea of teaching a guy how to
bring a woman back to his house may seem immoral, the pickup artists
giving advice swear that their work is helping all the Average
Frustrated Chumps, AFCs in pickup artist lingo, the stereotypical nice
guys who have no pickup skills or understanding of what attracts women.
On VH1's The Pickup Artist, master pickup artist Mystery trains eight lovable losers in the art of attracting women. These AFCs are taken out of their element and forced to approach women in bars and nightclubs. The men selected to participate on this show appear hopeless. The majority of them freeze up or make complete babbling fools of themselves when around the opposite sex. But with a few stellar gambits ¬— conversation starters such as "Hey ladies did you just see those two chicks fighting outside?" even if no fight occurred — these men are well on their way to finding that special someone. Other gambits include asking a set, or group of people, their opinions on random subjects, like whether a friend should get a tattoo of his girlfriend's name or which clubs are the best in town, or playing a guessing game about which song is the most sung in showers. These questions may seem trivial, but, according to Mystery, they tend to help the conversation flow and put these AFCs more at ease around their “targets,” which are the women they are attempting to seduce. The basic idea of the Mystery Method is to approach under the radar. “Don't approach a woman with a sexual come-on. Learn about her first and let her earn the right to be hit on,” Mystery said. According to the method, only amateurs hit on women right away, while a pro waits eight to 10 minutes before making his move. The lesson that sticks with these AFCs is that practice makes perfect. They are encouraged to work out routines, rehearse opening lines and partake in “peacocking,” or dressing up in flashy clothing in order to get attention, all in order to feel more at ease with themselves. Once a man gains the woman’s attention, he should engage in “negging,” according to Neil Strauss, a former AFC, who is one of today’s “master” pickup artists and the writer of The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists. Negging is the art of seemingly accidentally insulting a beautiful woman. The idea is to fake a lack of interest in the target so as to intrigue her, especially if she’s an attractive woman who is used to men approaching her. Throughout The Game, Strauss recounts nights when all he had to do was backhand compliment a woman in order to take her home. Some of Strauss’ examples of negs include “Those are nice nails; are they real?” or “I am really impressed that you’re not intimidated by all the pretty women here.” Other methods are much less subtle. Strauss suggests walking into a bar with a bag of tricks by your side — magic tricks that can attract the attention of anyone in the room. When approaching a set, these pickup artists-in-training pull out a deck of cards or perform a “Beer Levitation Trick.” The books and TV shows are quickly inspiring teenagers who haven’t quite hit the club or bar scene. Junior Camron Saleh, who read The Game, said “it was funny and entertaining how these guys started off as losers and became gods.” But its not just teenage boys who are reading up on pickup artists. Junior Michelle Agbayani said it was “interesting to read how men think when they’re picking up women.” She found the tactics a little too extreme. “A lot of the time their methods seem way too complicated than they need to be,” Agbayani said. “Just go up to her and say ‘hi.’ ” Regardless, pickup artists like Mystery and Strauss have developed a following and a community of their own. Strauss describes a pickup artist community with workshops and self-proclaimed master pickup artists, known as gurus. He recounts how he used to be an AFC before he attended one of Mystery’s workshops and applied the Mystery Method to his everyday game, enabling himself to step outside of his shell and actually meet women. The Game also reveals the existence of online pickup artist communities. Mystery’s Lounge is an online community where pickup artists post field reports or written accounts of a night out picking up women and exchange stories or methods that they invented. The Lounge is only accessible to master pickup artists; men must earn the right to become a member by improving on the work of the masters and creating their own pickup skills. However, with the release of books and TV shows, this secret society of men is no longer quite so secret. ABC’s sitcom Ugly Betty recently aired an interview with Phil Roth, author of a book on picking up women titled Tap That. His method is similar to negging: approach, subdue and score (ASS). Another pickup instructional book is Tucker Max’s I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. The book documents all of Max’s exploits, many of them too inappropriate to discuss. However, men, including teenage boys, are reading about his adventures, which are also featured on his Web site (tuckermax.com). Junior Nathan Gadye described the book as “the Gossip Girl for guys.” Although junior Viktor Romanov found Max’s novel entertaining, he didn’t agree with his methods. “A lot of his qualities should not be mimicked,” Romanov said, adding that he feels that no man would actually use Max’s tactics due to how inappropriate they are. With all of this information at their fingertips, men are guaranteed to find the woman of their dreams — or at least talk to one. But one risk of the growing popularity of pickup artist shows, books and Internet forums is that when tactics are more publicly exposed, women are more likely to spot an aspiring pickup artist. But as Strauss would say, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” |
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to listen.
