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Intimacy and Subjectivity in the London 'Seduction Community'
#1

Intimacy and Subjectivity in the London 'Seduction Community'

I was perusing London Review of Books website for some politically related stuff but I couldn't not notice a flashing banner to my right, boldly advertising a Seduction book.

Knowing that LRB website and magazine is a respectable, liberal and independent(?) brand, I thought I'd give it a glimpse for it promised an inspection of the 'seduction community'. Whereas the author's affiliations and credentials are, what they are, I believe that LRB wouldn't advertise a lowly product (to be honest, I still am not sure why this advertised that particular book on their website).

Now, I'm not that much into reading the whole book, but it was premised upon an article The Work of Seduction and published in a British academic journal. Read for what it's worth. Below, a few quotes I found interesting (which is not equivalent with my agreeing with the author):

"My intent is to provide a more nuanced perspective of this community-industry and its operations in contemporary Britain - not to exculpate it from criticism but to demonstrate that what it represents is, in fact, less a deviation or departure from current social conventions surrounding sex and relationships than an extension and acceleration of existing cultural norms. That is to say, the underpinning logics of the seduction community are consistent with broader reconfigurations of intimacy and subjectivity taking place within neoliberal capitalism."

[...]

"I conducted ethnographic research within the London seduction community between 2012 and 2013. During this time I attended training and promotional events, observed private coaching sessions, and also attended free community events and social occasions. As I have discussed elsewhere (O'Neill 2015), negotiating these spaces as a woman presented particular challenges but also allowed for the development of important conceptual insights. In the course of my fieldwork I conducted interviews with 32 participants representing a broad cross-section of those involved in the London community."

[...]

"It seemed like the investment would be worth it. You know, I spend time in the gym and I was trying to figure out, what's the pay put from that? I buy nice clothes, what's the pay out from that? What's the expected payout from this? Almost certainly higher than either of those two.

Here Doug contends that pickup training is likely to offer him a better 'pay out' or return on his investment than other practices geared towards casual sex, namely fashion and body work. In doing so, he reproduces a commonly-held understanding of sex as a commodity controlled by women and which men seek to gain access to through various forms of labour and investment (Mooney-Somers and Ussher 2010; Seal and Ehrhardt 2003). Crucially, however, this investment is directed inwards, as men who undertake pickup training seek to acquire a skill set which will enable them to have greater choice and control in their relationships with women. As Doug further detailed, part of his motivation for taking the course was that: 'I would want to know that if I wanted to have casual sex, I could walk into a bar and it wouldn't be a problem for me'. Doug's investment in pickup training then is a means to realise a certain sexual 'lifestyle' in which casual sex is pursued and engaged primarily as a recreational activity (Hawkes 1996). In this sense, seduction training is yet another form of 'serial recreational sexuality organized under the aegis of the market' (Illouz 2014: 41)."

[...]

"Conclusion
5.1 In this paper I have argued that the London seduction community is not so much a deviation or departure from current social conventions as an extension and acceleration of existing cultural norms. That is to say, the underpinning logics of this community-industry are consonant with broader reconfigurations of intimacy and sexual subjectivity taking place within the contemporary British context. In developing this analysis I have attempted to show how the forms of intimate and sexual subjectivity negotiated by men who participate in this community-industry - ordered by logics of enterprise and management, competition and consumerism - have resonance with broader patterns of subjectivity and sociality elaborated in neoliberal capitalism. Approaching the seduction community as a site of mediated intimacy, my argument complicates a dominant cultural narrative which figures men involved in the seduction community as pathetic, pathological or perverse - an 'army of sleazebags, saddos and weirdos' (Freeman 2014) - or as individuated 'problems' who can be safely contained through recourse to state intervention. Again, I must reiterate that my intention is not to exculpate the seduction community from criticism - far from it - but rather to nuance our understanding of this deeply problematic phenomenon."

____________________

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#2

Intimacy and Subjectivity in the London 'Seduction Community'

Coming from a woman, it's an interesting step towards the mainstream recognition of game as a psychological tool.
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