In a BBC documentary PUA instructor ‘Roosh V’ claimed that his website receives 1 million views a month. Other leading instructors host internet forums which have thousands of participants discussing a variety of ‘game’ related threads. Blanc’s YouTube channel ‘JulienHimself’ has over 140 000 subscribers and 15 million views. For example, one of the most famous PUAs is Julien Blanc, an in-demand instructor with Real Social Dynamics (RSD) a prominent business that is a market leader in providing PUA related services. Indeed, the seduction community is welded together by numerous websites and internet forums. These ‘lairs’ are augmented by concomitant on-line discussion groups on Facebook and other social media. These cities also frequently contain PUA ‘lairs’ (or ‘inner circles’), where young men meet together regularly to discuss and practice various aspects of game, with one website reporting around 240 ‘lair’ groups across the world. Most major North American and European cities regularly host well-attended ‘bootcamps’. They last around three days and involve classroom teaching as well as ‘in-field’ instruction on the streets. These ‘bootcamps’ are led by a professional PUA instructor who teaches pick-up techniques to a small group of men, paying up to 3 000USD each. Since then, the community has expanded and the pick-up industry was recently estimated to be worth around 100 million USD, with numerous companies offering a variety of products including in-person seminars, books, individual consultations, on-line courses and ‘bootcamps’. The origins of the seduction community can be traced to Los Angeles in the early 2000s, when two PUA instructors known as ‘Mystery’ and ‘Tyler Durden’ began systematizing and commercializing ‘pick-up’. Viewing figures in season one were high enough to warrant a second season of ‘the Pick-Up Artist’, which was shown in 2008. Leading PUA instructors were depicted in Neil Strauss’ best-selling book ‘The Game’, which reached the New York Times bestseller list, and reportedly sold over 2.5 million copies, as well as in the 2007 TV series ‘the Pick-Up Artist’, which was shown across North America on the VH-1 channel. The seduction community is led by professional ‘pick-up artist’ (PUA) instructors who teach various aspects of ‘game’ to eager young men in the community. This community has labelled itself ‘the seduction community’, a term also employed by academics and used in the current paper.
In the last decade, a large cross-national community of like-minded young men has emerged, ostensibly dedicated to learning a variety of techniques and mindsets with the stated aim of improving their success with women, or ‘game’. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of the findings for official mental health service provision for young men. Interestingly, some of the practices commonly taught and utilized within the community resemble aspects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mental health peer support. The findings are summarized in five themes (i) loneliness and social inclusion (ii) lack of male role models and need for guidance (iii) mental health and well-being issues (iv) skill acquisition and personal development and (v) the dark side of pick-up. The community appears to fill a void in providing a place of hope, fellowship and learning for young (often immigrant) men. The results reveal that men often join the community to address a range of psychosocial deficits, and that community involvement successfully equips participants with numerous valued social and communication skills. Interviews were augmented by lengthy participant observation, and data was analyzed by content analysis techniques. Specifically, we recruited young men participating in the seduction community for an in-depth qualitative interview (N = 34) to explore self-reported motives and impacts. To meet these aims, we used an inductive qualitative methodology giving ample scope for bottom-up understandings to emerge. As such, this study is propelled by two specific objectives, namely documenting and understanding (i) the reasons why young men join the seduction community and (ii) the impacts of community involvement on participants’ lives. There has been little research on the men who participate in this community, and none from a mental health angle. This community is led by professional ‘pick-up artists’ who teach these young men a variety of techniques and mindsets with the stated aim of improving their success with women, or ‘game’. In the last decade, a cross-national community of like-minded young men has emerged, commonly known as ‘the seduction community’.
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