Thanks/curses to Darcy for alerting me to this deeply disturbing public conversation between the writer (Tycho) and illustrator (Gabe) of Penny Arcade, a conversation that had the unfortunate result of reinforcing the perception that geeky dudes are seething misogynists that you better hope don’t have guns or the ability to get you alone. Tycho played the part of the man of reason, a man who sees women as human beings, and a man who is therefore properly and completely skeezed out by the pick-up artist crap.
I get fascinated by sparkling things sometimes, things I want to incorporate into my nest, and it cinches a noose around my mind which locks me into a kind of inexorable “information accrual” mode. Scientology is a perennial in this regard, to the extent that I actively avoid information about it because it’s too fascinating and I don’t want to join the “church” in a moment of weakness. I recently had the misfortune of being exposed to some propaganda from the “seduction community,” and I’ve spent the weekend on a kind of data bender that has left me psychologically gutted. I’ve been trying to navigate away from this page for about an hour now, and I can’t do it. That these people are base manipulators should be apparent to any literate person; they’ve made a cage of language that I can’t escape from.
As I’ve asserted before, I think the PUA shills are class A hucksters, and just as Scientology is not going to clear you of the aliens ruining your life and homeopaths aren’t going to cure your cancer, PUAs aren’t going to teach you the one! perfect! system! to bed! any! woman! you! desire! The people most being manipulated here are the sad sack misogynists who are so busy throwing a no pussy blues* pity party that they can’t even grasp that their inability to see that women are basically people is being exploited to free them of their spare cash. I appreciate Tycho’s concerns here, and he’s not wrong. Once you get a group of men together to socialize around the concept that a woman’s will is merely an obstacle between you and her pussy—-an obstacle that you not only can overcome, but should overcome to prove your manhood—-then I fail to see how that doesn’t slide into making excuses for and even outright calling for sexual assault.
Which is all the more reason that Gabe’s reply misses the point.
I don’t know, Love Systems doesn’t seem so bad to me. It’s really hard to talk to girls, and this is just helping guys with their confidence. Women are terrifying and strange, I don’t see anything wrong with getting some advice.
You think women are terrifying? Men who clearly don’t respect your will or your right to say no are terrifying. Men who approach you with a “system” that’s “guaranteed” to get you into bed are terrifying. Women put a lot of work into finding ways to defuse situations when you’ve been selected by such a man, and you realize no isn’t an answer he’s willing to take, and he’s going to neg you and manhandle you until you a) scream or b) give him a fake phone number so he can feel he’s accomplished something and leave you alone.
Tycho remains calm:
I’m fairly certain the purpose of this course is to make you a better predator of women. Check out their offers of “in-field training,” as though you were going to hunt antelopes from a jeep in the Goddamned Savannah.