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This Article
By Ryan McKee
After reading The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss, I experienced the same epiphany thousands of men had: “I’m an AFC.” Suddenly, I felt let behind a velvet rope and allowed to romp in a VIP area previously reserved for celebrities, millionaires and homecoming kings. Openers, negs and demonstrations of worth became tools in my previously empty bag. My girlfriend of two years, an intelligent feminist who takes pleasure in destroying obvious PUAs, admits my Neil Strauss tactics worked on her. She didn’t even realize they were happening until I told her later.
Old News?
That is exactly why I’m writing this article. For PUA devices to work properly, the woman should not realize they’re happening. It’s been nearly five years since The Game was published and Mystery has become a celebrity with two seasons of The Pickup Artist on VH1. Women know about canned openers that aren’t supposed to sound like canned openers. They know all to well about negging — it’s become a sitcom joke (recently seen on The League). Neil Strauss has addressed this dilemma himself. He said if a woman calls you out, just laugh it off, say you just read The Game, and you wanted to see if it worked. Then start a conversation about that. However, now even that move has been overused.
Teaching Old Tricks To A New Dog
The PUA building blocks are still solid: self-improvement, self-confidence, physical fitness, fashion savvy, and strong conversation skills. However, “the tricks” have been spilled from the patent leather satchel. Do a card trick to demonstrate worth and you’ll be accused of being a Mystery wannabe. Wear a large hat to peacock and you’ll be overlooked for the guy with the subtle, yet well-tailored jacket. Invite a woman into your place at the beginning of the date so she’ll be comfortable coming inside at night’s end and she’ll red-flag you because her male friends mentioned this technique.
Undesirable men will never stop trying to outsmart women out of their league, but the tools need to be updated. When Mystery was parodied on Saturday Night Live, the movement became cartoonish, and those who cling to it too closely have become clichés. You don’t want to be the high school quarterback who hangs around the parking lot three years after he graduated. This isn’t to say the movement was a failure. It taught thousands of men they don’t have to settle for the homely office copy girl. However, it is time to move into the next era of seduction, just like when punk rock took the reigns from garage rock.
PUA DOA
The recent trend toward men with androgynous characteristics may be due to women’s subconscious rejection of the previously celebrated alpha males. Some PUAs already wear the Adam Lambert-manliner. Is the next logical step to blend more feminine attributes into their alpha to make it more easily digestible? Or possibly the same techniques may appear fresh again if presented in a bumbling Seth Rogen-esque manner? The bromantic comedy boom could inspire a new wave of PUAs that look like AFCs. You could be a Trojan Horse of seduction. The woman thinks she’s gotten the gift of a new unintimidating male friend when suddenly a secret chamber bursts open and from it pours sublime seduction skills. Before she knows it, she’s Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up (hopefully without the pregnancy part).
Can you predict the next generation of PUAs and their new bag of tricks? Or do you think the era described in The Game is still in full effect?