The Language of Pick-Up Artists – GSLS

The Gender, Sexuality and Language Studies Group (GSLS) meet once a month to discuss the intersections of language with gender and sexuality. They cover topics including trans-inclusive curriculum design, mental health stories from bisexual people and translating queer literature.

The 24th of February meeting focused on the language of pick-up artists with a lively discussion of Dayter’s (2020) book chapter ‘Lexical Aspects of Pick-Up Artist Discourse’. Dayter’s (2020) analysis focuses on how language is used by pick-up artists. Her analysis investigates where specific terms originate from, how they shape ideas about men, women and dating, and the relationship between social media architecture and pick-up artist’s online language.

The group initially raised concerns on the ethics surrounding internet-based research, particularly for the researcher. While studies on internet language use have been around for some time, the COVID-19 pandemic catapulted this area to the forefront of many research design projects. An often-overlooked aspect of ethics in this area is the health and wellbeing of the researchers themselves, especially when dealing with potentially disturbing topics.

As GSLS has members from across the Asia-Pacific region, attention was then drawn to potential culture differences in heteronormativity. While there are broad differences between Western and Eastern cultures in relationship dynamics, there is an underlying assumption of heterosexuality in dating advice across regions. Another commonality is that pick-up artist classes proliferate online, making them a cross-border phenomenon. However, in China and Japan, in-person classes are also popular, teaching ‘secret techniques’ to have romantic and/or sexual success with the opposite sex (Katayama, 2008, February 17).

A common feature of the language of pick-up artistry is claims to special knowledge. Dayter (2020) argues such ‘knowledge’ leans heavily on pseudo-scientific language. Experiences are transformed with numerals and initialisms to build credible authority. These features also help frame such pick-up artistry techniques as a commodity. The group finished the discussion about lexicalisation of initialism and anacronyms. Whether changes in typographic representation change the word’s meaning (e.g., LOL vs lol).

The next meeting of the GSLS will the 24th of March. If you’d like to join the discussion, please contact Claire Maree at cmaree@unimelb.edu.au.

References:

Dayter, D. (2022). The language of pick-up artists: selling online discourses of the seduction industry / Daria Dayter and Sofia Rüdiger. Routledge.

Katayama, L. (2008, February 17). Inside the bizarre world of Japanese Pickup Schools. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2008/02/inside-the-bizarre-world-of-japanese-pickup-schools/

Further readings:

O’Neill, R., (2018). Seduction: Men, Masculinity, and Mediated Intimacy / Rachel O’Neill. Polity.