Qui Es Muy Macho?
I love this from Megan McArdle over at the Atlantic:
I find it hilarious that the pick-up artists think of themselves as especially manly. ...what they sound like to me is girls--specifically, girls in the 14-17 age group.
Exactly. Megan links to this piece, but if you want to read some great stuff on the subject, try my City Journal colleague Kay S. Hymowitz especially here. Kay is a wonderful writer and her stuff is great but, when I finally met her at a CJ party, I did feel obligated to introduce one cavil: she refers to these pick-up shnooks as alpha-males. There's nothing alpha about them. John Glenn is an alpha male. Spartacus is an alpha male. Even Tony Soprano is an alpha male, until the feds catch up with him. Alpha males are leaders of men, which requires that they have control over their sex lives not the other way around. I mean, good heavens, have these pick-up boys never heard this sage advice?
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Jun '10
Re: Qui Es Muy Macho?
Quiet confidence is manly. Nothing to my mind is more adolescent than false bravado. And what the heck does someone mean by pick-up "artist?" What about picking up strange women for gratuitous sex could be artistic? It strikes me as rather low and base behaviour.
May '10
Re: Qui Es Muy Macho?
Some months ago, after I bashed the pickup artists, The Weekly Standard ran a piece on the subculture that cast me as their foil. And let me tell you, it's like criticizing Ron Paul on the Internet! It's probably the most hate mail I've ever gotten for any position I've ever taken on any subject.
Re: Qui Es Muy Macho?
The rise of the pick-up artist is a lamentable trend. More regrettable still is the culture that rewards these libertines with great success at their craft. Emily Esfahani Smith might be able to elucidate on why this is so (she’s working on a book about pop feminism and the “hook up” culture), but according to the author of the article that Andrew (and McArdle) links to, the rise of the pick-up artist is a sign that
May '10
Re: Qui Es Muy Macho?
Conor, I read about three paragraphs of that Weekly Standard piece and have never been happier that I'm a boring, dateless loser. A spirited defense of hook-up culture, conducted by "smart" people who have shallowness down to a science, sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry in the dark.
Megan McArdle's piece that Klavan linked could serve as a good summary of my own feelings on the subject (except funnier)!
May '10
Re: Qui Es Muy Macho?
Diane,
I think your post speaks to the whole root of the problem: Women are giving up sex to easily. Women are the gatekeepers to sex. It used to be the sisterhood shunned those that were too easy because they saw the threat those women were to stable relationships. Throw in no-fault divorce, and why should a man even get married? All the sex he wants, all his money spent on himself. It is like life turns into one big R-rated movie aimed at 13 year olds.
May '10
Re: Qui Es Muy Macho?
As is his way, The Most Interesting Man in the World skewers the pick-up artist.
Re: Qui Es Muy Macho?
Diane and Bryan -- I think you're right. Sex has become too easy--and women are giving it away for free! But if that's true, then I wonder why "pick up artists" go to such calculating lengths to score. Maybe it's because women flock to the alpha-males (as Andrew describes them), leaving the "pick up artists" to resort to desperate tactics.
Also, this part of the article cracked me up:
I've interviewed young women who were lured into a "pick up artists" room with lamer excuses than that! One guy asked a girl if she wanted to check her e-mail in his room--only to ram his tongue down her throat upon arrival. Then there's the tale of the guy who e-mailed his crush on a Sunday afternoon, not asking her on a date, but wondering if she wanted to "hook up" in the freshman lounge of their dorm. Smooth. Wanna know what's worse? She said yes!
May '10
Re: Qui Es Muy Macho?
Emily,
That sounds like the women in question are looking for a fig leaf of an excuse to act out.