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BOX 12.4 Hooking Up In/To the Seduction Community In 2005, Neil Strauss released his book titled The Game: palm reading), and so on. Above all, these routines must Penetrating the Secret Society of Pick-Up Artists. In this conceal the man’s seductive motives. In the words of autobiographical work, Strauss recounts his experience pickup guru Mystery, “There must be a sense that this in what has come to be called the “seduction commu- interaction is real and genuine” (Strauss, 2005:160). nity,” a community of heterosexual men who discuss These scripted routines, when used correctly, imbue and practise techniques for approaching and talking pickup artists with various forms of what we might call to women, acquiring women’s phone numbers, and seductive capital. Embodied forms of capital—economic enticing women to have sex with them. Although the capital (e.g., money), cultural capital (e.g., intellect and seduction community attracts men from a variety of dif- style), social capital (e.g., “who you know”), and symbolic ferent lifestyles, it often appeals to men who lack ade- capital (e.g., reputation)—can be replicated by seductive quate social skills when speaking to women. As Strauss capital through the use of varying seductive techniques. puts it, “If drug addicts go to rehab . . . then social Outside the field of seduction, however, these forms of retards go to pickup school” (2005:16). Here, “pickup seductive capital dissolve. For example, a pickup artist school” refers to attending seminars, workshops and might use strategies that present him as an “alpha bootcamps taught by pickup “gurus.” For a price, a guru male,” a leader of men, a possessor of social/symbolic will mentor a student and accompany him out onto the capital. A woman who sees this man might believe that “field” (pubs, nightclubs, college campuses, etc.), acting his capital is transferable, that the man is alpha in other as a “wingman.” A wingman’s job is to help the pickup fields as well—in his career, in bed, etc. Yet, in social artist (PUA) attain his “target”—the woman he wants to reality, this man might be a jobless “geek” who spends pick up. most of his time reading and posting about pickups In a typical scenario, as the wingman distracts the online. Because this sort of capital is not real or gen- target’s friends, the PUA will approach the target and uine, it cannot sustain itself apart from the field. To put it use a memorized “opener” to start a conversation. An simply, the seductive capital possessed by an individual opener is different from a pickup line. In the seduction one night will usually not transfer over to the next; it has community, pickup lines are never used because they to be re-replicated all over again. The fleeting nature of never work. The problem with a pickup line is that it seductive capital acts like a drug. Pickup artists become makes it obvious that the man is trying to pick up the addicted to possessing capital that they could not other- woman. An opener is meant to achieve the opposite wise attain. In turn, men become “hooked” to seduction effect: It makes the woman believe that the man is not like a drug addict is hooked to a drug. In this sense, men trying to pick her up. For example, the opening phrase do not only “hook up” with women, but hook up to the “I need a woman’s opinion” on something provides the mechanism of seduction itself, the addictive pursuit of woman with an acceptable reason for why the man is seductive capital in its many forms. talking to her. If the opener succeeds, the PUA can then proceed to use a variety of “scripted routines” on the Sources: Andrew Brown, The Sphere of Seduction: How One-Dimensional Seduction Emerges from the Two-Dimensional Screen, unpublished bachelor’s thesis, University of British woman, such as rehearsing a funny story, using “negs” Columbia; Neil Strauss, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, New York: (playful insults), performing sensual magic tricks (like HarperCollins, 2005. NEL