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A Pick Up Artist or PUA is a member of a subculture (the Seduction Community) that teaches men tactics to seduce women.

Feminist critiques of Pick Up Artistry include:

  • some of the stereotypes of women promoted are quite sexist and racist
  • many PUA techniques treat women as almost completely interchangable with each other
  • many PUAs themselves treat women as almost completely interchangable with each other
  • many PUAs see the community as a game where they compete with other men for who can seduce the most women (which is reinforced with terms like "player" and "score")
  • some PUA techniques and PUAs themselves are actively predatory and abusive
  • many PUA techniques rely on heterocentric assumptions

Pick Up Artist claims

PUA "techniques" are generally based on stereotypical views of the role of men and women in relationships with a general dose of pseudopsychology. They often refer to PUA techniques as "game". Examples include:

  • Negging, or "treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen". The idea is to make hostile or negative comments to undermine her self-esteem, thereby making her more likely to settle for a less appealing partner or become desperate for affection.
  • Kino Escalation. The "seducer" attempts to subtly move into the "target's" intimate personal space, thereby "escalating" from casual conversation to light touching to intimate touching to sexual contact without being noticed, thereby avoiding "token resistance".
  • Saying her name repeatedly. Supposedly, women care only about themselves, so saying her name over and over will "prime" her to think that the interaction is all about her and create a false sense of closeness, which will make her feel like the situation is more intimate than it really is.

It should be self-evident why these behaviors are deeply problematic.

Pick up artists often appeal to pop evo-psych and a view of gender roles bordering on fantasy. For instance, a common claim is that pickup artistry is necessary to protect oneself from becoming a "beta male", and thereby losing opportunities for sex to "alpha males". Alternatively, a man may need to employ his game to prevent the loss of his partner to hypergamy, the supposed tendency of women to invariably be drawn inexorably to men of higher social and economic status, based on a view that women only have sex when they expect to be rewarded with some tangible benefit.

A man may also need to have game in order to prevent his partner from cheating on him. It is claimed that women will seek out "beta" males for stable relationships for the material benefits (money, social status) but will still seek out "alpha" men for sex and reproductive purposes. In the PUA and broader manosphere community, this is referred to as "cuckoldry", and it usually comes with a staggering amount of racism, based on claims that black men are supposedly more well-endowed and singularly driven to "outbreed" the white race.

Harmfulness to men

It should go without saying that pickup artistry is extremely toxic and encourages behaviors that are dangerous and denigrating to women. At the same time, the harm that the PUA community can inflict on men should not be discounted.

  • First and foremost, it doesn't work. A defining feature of pickup artist community leaders is that they do not make their "techniques" available for free. Aspiring PUAs will be directed to purchase numerous books on the subject or to attend seminars where ticket prices can be in the hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
  • Pickup artists often advertise to young men who are socially awkward, have a history of painful rejections or other bad experiences with women, have anxieties about women and dating, or who are otherwise still learning how to pursue romantic or intimate relationships. As such, they may lack the maturity to understand why they should not engage in these behaviors, and doing so may result in a tarnished social reputation at best and legal penalties at worst.
  • PUAs often emphasize a traditionally masculine appearance and sexual prowess. As such, there are several PUAs that push everything from male enhancement devices to bodybuilding supplements. Many of these are expensive, none of them work, and some of them (such as penis pumps and herbal stimulants) can even be dangerous.
  • The emphasis on appearance and sexual prowess can cause or exacerbate body image problems.

See also

External links

"… what tends to happen in the Community is that one gender-stereotype is replaced with another: women as fickle, emotional, selfish and easily manipulated. The idea that sex demeans women remains, but is recast as sluts deserve to be demeaned."