The Pickup Game
Over a billion bucks a year, the pickup industry is surprising, clandestine, and scummy. Workshops and training films promote the idea that women are innately attracted to alpha guys. If shy men can learn to be socially powerful, they'll be 21st-century Casanovas. So says a brochure. Ross Jeffries' 1992 self-published book How to Get the Women You Want into Bed inspired masculine men to use aggressive online marketing. With access to the movement's founders and leaders, this exposé dismantles modern snake-oil salesmen's "date and mate" practices. Self-help seminars are ready to exploit anyone desperate enough to fall for their deadly promises.