Successful masculinity : in search of the alpha within
Lyons, Dermot (2015)
2015
Tiedotusoppi - Journalism and Mass Communication
Viestinnän, median ja teatterin yksikkö - School of Communication, Media and Theatre
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2015-07-31
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201510292401
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201510292401
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
Pickup artists and the seduction community have gone from being an underground network of workshop and internet based teachers and students, to, following the publication of Neil Strauss' book 'The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists', a movement entering the wider public consciousness, a subculture of (primarily) men who wish to get better at meeting, sleeping with, and dating women. They try to make the transformation from men who are not successful socially or with women, termed 'AFC's or 'Average Frustrated Chumps' in the seduction community, to PUAs, or PickUp Artists. There are now seduction companies, TV shows, radio shows, podcasts, blogs, books, forums, websites, chat rooms, and community groups for major cities all across the world. This material is not always practiced or preached in a mainstream-safe way, but rather is done by breaking through groupthink, going against perceived norms, not being politically correct, and using the findings of evolutionary psychology and life coaching. The thinking behind this is: Everything can be taught, so why not how to get girls?
Game is (supposed to be) a fun, pleasurable way to improve your overall self: diet, exercise, hygiene, education, career, living circumstance, behavior, sociability - all are looked at towards bettering an overall enhanced version of yourself, almost quantifiable, to be the most optimal self you can be, where you are having a good life, and women are a part of that life, who may join you on your own individual journey as a man. An alpha.
The present thesis focuses on Strauss' book 'The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists', highlights themes and issues which are pertinent for social and inter-relational reasons. Masculinity in postmodern hypercapitalist neoliberal western society is examined, through the prism of the text. The seduction community and its pickup techniques have not been examined adequately so far in academia, there is little research on the validity of the apparently successful routines and social dynamic structural mechanisms which pickup artists use to attract women.
Findings include the similarities in the ways that Game overlaps in some instances with social theories, better understandings of male-female interactions, and a more comprehensive picture of masculine dating and attraction rituals.
Pickup artists and the seduction community have gone from being an underground network of workshop and internet based teachers and students, to, following the publication of Neil Strauss' book 'The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists', a movement entering the wider public consciousness, a subculture of (primarily) men who wish to get better at meeting, sleeping with, and dating women. They try to make the transformation from men who are not successful socially or with women, termed 'AFC's or 'Average Frustrated Chumps' in the seduction community, to PUAs, or PickUp Artists. There are now seduction companies, TV shows, radio shows, podcasts, blogs, books, forums, websites, chat rooms, and community groups for major cities all across the world. This material is not always practiced or preached in a mainstream-safe way, but rather is done by breaking through groupthink, going against perceived norms, not being politically correct, and using the findings of evolutionary psychology and life coaching. The thinking behind this is: Everything can be taught, so why not how to get girls?
Game is (supposed to be) a fun, pleasurable way to improve your overall self: diet, exercise, hygiene, education, career, living circumstance, behavior, sociability - all are looked at towards bettering an overall enhanced version of yourself, almost quantifiable, to be the most optimal self you can be, where you are having a good life, and women are a part of that life, who may join you on your own individual journey as a man. An alpha.
The present thesis focuses on Strauss' book 'The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists', highlights themes and issues which are pertinent for social and inter-relational reasons. Masculinity in postmodern hypercapitalist neoliberal western society is examined, through the prism of the text. The seduction community and its pickup techniques have not been examined adequately so far in academia, there is little research on the validity of the apparently successful routines and social dynamic structural mechanisms which pickup artists use to attract women.
Findings include the similarities in the ways that Game overlaps in some instances with social theories, better understandings of male-female interactions, and a more comprehensive picture of masculine dating and attraction rituals.