▲ The movie poster of The Pick-up Artist (1987). Provided by www.pinterest.com.

Pick-up artists are defined as people—mostly men— who study to improve their success rate in seducing or sexually accessing women through Pick-Up Artistry— more commonly known in the Western culture as the Seduction Community. Their job simply involves seducing numerous women through a set of carefully studied and physiologically researched empirical data to make sexual intercourse with them easy. Their methods, or seduction science, are shared throughout the seduction community and known, allegedly, as effective in teaching the methodology of seducing women. What seemingly began as a simple consultation to help discouraged men eventually grew into a filthy industry of the seductive community.

 

The term Pick-up was first used in the current context during the Second World War, in anti-prostitution posters. The phrase was then popularized in the 1970s by Eric Weber’s book How to Pick Up Girls (1972) and by the short-lived magazine Pick-up Times. The actual term pick-up artist came from James Toback’s romantic comedy The Pick-up Artist (1987). The seduction community itself initially began in the late 80s with American author Ross Jeffries and his students. Jeffries opened regular classes that allegedly taught methods of Speed Seduction, a collection of neuro-linguistic programming techniques. Ever since, it has spawned an entire community and industry aimed at helping those who want to improve their seductive skills through consultations and in-field training. 

 

In Korea, the concept of a pick-up artist and seduction community has only been around for a decade. Ever since the introduction of stories of pick-up and foreign pick-up skills in 2006, the industry started to grow bigger in 2007 with the works of first-generation Korean pick-up artists Ttorangwootan, Pancake, and Crow. Initially, Koreans became interested in the concept of pick-up artists and some even saw the positive aspect of it helping out men who lacked self-esteem. However, near the end of 2008, the industry began to corrupt: men started to see pick-up artistry as a way to have quick and easy seduction aimed at One-night stands, as known as the F-close.
 

Ever since its appearance in Korean society, pick-up artistry has been heavily criticized for viewing women as a target to conquer. Pick-up artists use human nature and psychology to trick women into believing that they are not who they are; in other words, they build up fake images of themselves in order to seduce women. “What they are teaching—alluring women into bed—is what really matters in a real, sincere relationship,” says Jeon Bong Han (’10, School of Media and Communication), “I believe it is also an arrogant idea to earn money by teaching human emotion.”

 

Likewise, pick-up artists are criticized for their lack of responsibility in relationship. Romance in modern society, most agree, is an emotional exchange between a single pair. While dating more than two women at the same time is considered morally inappropriate, pick-up artists consider this a matter of one’s ability. They upload stories of their successful hunting (hook-ups) online and disclose personal information of their dates for the purposes of educating other males.

 

Pick-up artistry, although being accused and having fingers pointed at for its explicit objective of getting woman to bed, has recently met some change, according to a famous Korean pick-up artist, Park Jong Min. He says that pick-up artists and the seduction community began to commercialize the good in pick-up artistry. According to his interview with Seoul Economy, pick-up artists help men get into a healthier and longer relationship through a psychological method involving neuro-linguistic programming techniques. They aim to lead men to carefully approach the women of their desire and not to hurt their inner feelings, hopefully leading them to a long-term healthier relationship, different from the traditional objective of pick-up artistry as looking for one-night stands. Moreover, Park stated, “Pick-up artists can help men who have lost their grip in the ever-so-hastily changing relationship trends. We help men not to lose their understanding of women’s desires, thus promoting a stronger bond for couples.”

 

▲ Men taking class of a Pick-up Artist Shadow. Provided by www.12naturally.com.

No matter how enthusiastically artists themselves proclaim their innocence, the general view on pick-up artist and the seduction has been, and is filled with negative notion and abhorrence. Numerous incidents and happenings prove the disgusting truth about their true goal. Last March in Korea, a man who claimed he was a skilled pick-up artist was caught after an attempted rape of a high school girl. During police investigation, it was discovered that he had phone numbers of numerous middle school and high school girls and was trying to show his skills to others. Other incidents involve an alleged pick-up artist who posted personal information and pictures of the women he dated online in order to prove himself.

 

Learning how to get around with the opposite sex is important. It is also helpful for most of the individuals to build self-confidence and charm. However, pick-up artistry in Korea is going far beyond their alleged goals—and has turned into a group of individuals who are only attempting to spend a night with the opposite sex. It is not impossible to say that love cannot be educated. However, the goal of education has to be the sincere and healthy interchange of emotions, not a sexual relationship. Therefore, what pickup artists are doing now, not bringing out one’s true self but considering love as a game, is where the education of love should not be heading for.