George Sodini and the “pick-up” culture

If George Sodini wanted women to actually pay attention to and actually date him, perhaps the best way to go about it wasn’t to call them “sluts,” “whores,” “hos,” and a myriad of other misogynistic terms used to describe women. He should have, instead, actually talk to women and listen to them.
While I am not a woman, I’ll venture to say from my own experiences that treating women like human beings, and actually showing interest more than just in their lady parts, will probably get them to like you more than simply just ogling and treating the intereaction with women as merely a means to and end – the end being getting a chance to take her home for the night. That is, the lack of sex and women in George Sodini’s life is no one’s fault but his own, and all the pick-up artists’ whine about lack of attention from women isn’t a result of women being “coldhearted bitches,” but rather, because so-called pick-up artists have nothing to offer. Sadly for them, sometimes, the offer of a hard cock is just not good enough.
More importantly, and a bit frustrating, is that in the wake of Sodini’s murderous spree, rather than asking questions about men entitlement and reevaluating a culture that expects to automatically sex-up anyone who shows interest, some men are blaming the shooting on feminism – that is, because women have been given the freedom to say no, that god forbid, they refuse the advances of men. This, once again, goes to show that the pick-up artist needs a reality check – a reality that’s often muddled by misogynistic pornography, male entitlement, and the belief that all women are attracted to money, and that if a man has enough money, he would be able to impress (see “buy”) her.
The problem with the pick-up artist, then, is that he refuses to see women as human beings – those who actually have preferences and choices, and is under the assumption that they all the same – that if he applied the same techniques to woman A as to woman B, he’d get the same reaction. He’ll continue to go on and bemoan feminism giving women the freedom to choose, without recognizing that it is feminism in the first place, that makes it acceptable for women to be at bars, parttake in casual sex, and decide what they want to do. Sure, he’ll honor the choice of her wanting to have sex – with him, but the moment she decides she does not want to have sex, or that she prefers someone else, she automatically becomes a coldhearted bitch.
Yet another problem with these pick-up artists is that the “other” women, and see women’s only value only through their actractiveness and bodies. In their fantasy world, women and men aren’t ever friends, that if an attractive woman talks to another man, she must be wanting to jump his bone, and his bone only. Worst, if the same woman is talking to someone else, she is also jumping that man’s bone. Rather seeking relationships with and actually getting to know women, these pick-up artists’ only concern in dealing with women is whether or not he gets laid. For these men, women aren’t not worth paying attention to, or investing time in – and thus, not having women as friends or even acquaintances, is it a wonder why these men are seen as their potential targets as losers and are turned away because of it?
More than anything else, these men see women as, at worst, property, and at the very best, children. This is best exemplified by the belief that if one bought a woman a redheaded-slut or two, that she’d automatically become a slut – his slut, which is a good thing until she decides to have sex with someone else, then she’s a slut, but a bad one. In such a culture, objects and rewards are exchanged for sexual access. But more importantly, pick-up artists also see woman as children – that given enough incentives, they can be, as the great liberal misogynist Bill Maher put it, “talked into and out of anything.”
Already, many pick-up artists are making excuses for Sodini – that it was women’s faults that he killed three people, and thankfully, himself. It was because women have been accepting drinks, gifts and other things without allowing these pick-up artists to fuck them that caused Sodini to shoot the LA Fitness Gym. Firstly, who the hell asked them to buy women drinks in the first place? Pick-up artists have a funny way of reasoning and excusing their behavior. If a woman refuses a drink, she’s a stuck-up bitch. Yet, if she does accept a drink, she automatically owes them something.
Perhaps these answers, for these men, is actually coming over, introducing themselves and having a conversation with her, rather than pathetically offering so-called “icebreakers” that are unsolicted, and then expecting to get a blowjob for buying her a Blowjob.
But it just isn’t their expectations that’s pathetically troubling – it’s also the way they are taught to talk and flirt with women. A lot can be say about male power and entitlement if a man thinks that just by touching or brushing against her (without a permission), a woman would get so wet that she’d beg to be fucked right then and there, nevermind the fact that women might prefer other women. Further evidence that pick-up artists see women as property is the fact that he believes it is within his rights to touch women without her consent – that poking women or stroking her hair or creepily kissing her hand are all acceptable, even if he’s only met her for the first time.
Then, there’s also the way in which the pick-up artist talks to women. They’re supposed to be talked to like children – and according to Amanda Marcotte’s blog, some pick-up artists actually use techniques of insulting women all the while commplimenting them. Their beliefs is that, especially for more vulnerable women, this will work. That is – if you like a woman, be mean to her. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t this the same kind of tehcnique that boys and girls used back in grade school? If it didn’t work in kindergarten, what the hell makes these guys think it’ll work now?
It doesn’t work – at least not most of the time, but if you’re George Sodini, you’d think different. After all, if it’s in a book – especially a book entitled, “How To Date Women Under 35,” it must work. Firstly, women aren’t cars – there isn’t exactly a manual on “how to …” anything women. Even the title in itself is problematic – if, just by the title alone, the author makes the mistake that all women are the same, and thus can all be treated the same way, I have to wonder what other kinds of bad advice are included in the book. Secondly, if they couldn’t get women to date them while they were in the 20s, what on earth makes these men think that women will date them now? Oh, yeah – money, which again shows how much they think of women.
These pick-up artists will continue to blame feminism – and by extent, all women for their social woes. But, ladies and gentlement, I can sure you that all feminism’s done is given women the choices to say no to these creeps, rather than having to be with them, as they have had to do in the past, where women had no voices or choices.
Their solution? Go to other countries, where women are more “gentle” and willing to take care of them. In short, they’re not only looking for a servant, they’re also looking for a mommy – and one they can fuck, at that. This is painfully obvious in the gripes and complaints of mail-order brides not being widely available and advices of going to other countries, where the plane ticket might cost a bundle, but in the end, being serviced by women who have no voices, choices or money, is much, much more satisfying.
If Sodini and other pick-up artists wanted actual partners – those who are equal to them, independent, and can make decisions on their own, all they had to do was walk up to a woman and introduce themselves, and talked to the woman like she’s a human being – it would have actually gotten them somewhere. But they couldn’t do that because they lacked the confidence, charmisma, and intelligence of being able to carry on a conversation with women. In short – they are losers who, instead of accepting the challenges of befriending women and truly dating them, chose to come up with other ways of deceiving and manipulating younger women, and women who have no economic choices to say no.
But, instead, they chose to treat women as objects, and thankfully, because of the hardwork of the feminists who came before them, these women had the right to reject them.
To pick-up artists: if you haven’t gotten laid or a date in 20 years, and women everywhere are rejecting you, the problem isn’t women, and the most certainly isn’t feminsm – it’s you! Or to put it more bluntly, if everywhere you walk, you can smell shit, perhaps it’s time to check the bottom of your own shoes.