For anyone not in the know (and the scene remains remarkably unknown for a multimillion-dollar industry), the pickup artist scene consists of charismatic men who will teach you (assuming you're a straight cis man), how to talk to women, get women into bed, and never, ever, strikeout. Heady brew for young males who sometimes can't even manage to talk to a woman or look a woman in the eye (I wish I didn't speak from experience). At least one critic ragged on the pickup coaches' personal presentations--a man-bun here, a scraggly hell-yes-I-can-change-a-tire beard there.
Trouble is, this stuff isn't funny. For thousands of dollars, you'll get conditioning on how to treat women as enemies to be worn down, baffled, flummoxed, and finally slid horizontal. Military machismo abounds: "I'm gonna fuck this girl, or, I'm gonna burn it to the ground." As one fellow who got the whole thing going relates, "There was no emotional register. I was an executor."
A female dating coach, Minnie Lane, hangs around the edges of this action to inject some sanity along with a female viewpoint. Women are often vulnerable to men playing games, she warns, because women often play their own game, namely pretending to be confident.
I could have guessed that the pickup coaches only show their charges footage of successful pickups, editing out the dozens or even hundreds of times they themselves garner no traction. I could not have guessed that the pickup coaches sometimes hire hookers to mingle with their students and make it look like the young men get what they paid.
Young straight male teens and twenty-somethings need to watch this. They'll save themselves getting fleeced. And maybe, just maybe, they'll learn the importance of honesty, respect, and mutual understanding, when it comes to the opposite sex. Highly recommended.