Dark Magic

[Trigger warning.]

Unfortunately, not all practitioners of the magical arts are as dedicated to using their powers for good as is our resident magician, Kenny Blogginz.

Shaker QW sent me this link to a product for sale at the Penguin Magic site, with the explanation that it purports to "teach insecure manboy magicians to use magic tricks to trick women into sleeping with them." Which is no exaggeration.

So what do you get when you mix hypnosis, magic sociology and psychology in the context of interactions?...This!

…In the First disc, Spidey (Sociology major and social magician) is joined by Human relations expert, Yasmine B, to go over the entire social interactive part of The Art of Attraction. … You will learn everything you need to know from starting a conversation, to creating rapport, to increasing connection and everything else needed for successful interaction with women.

…[On disk two], you will learn 10 magic/mentalism tricks specially designed for specific moments in the interaction that well help you accelerate the attraction process. These tricks use language patterns and emotionally compelling presentation designed to appeal to women on a very subconscious level.

The listing assures potential buyers that "Spidey's method and interactive techniques have helped men all over the world improve the quality of their interactions with women, for years," and the testimonials sure seem to back that up.

"The tricks in this DVD are absolutely AMAZING, but just like the girls; Spidey will teach you how to pick them up really fast!"
- Pierre-Luc Bergeron, professional magician

Well. Who can argue with that?

I don't imagine I need to explain in detail why I find this problematic. Suffice it to say, I don't believe this shit works; I do, however, believe there are lots of men who believe it does, or hope it does, and find nothing disturbing about the possibility of "tricking" women into sleeping with them, or, worse yet, hypnotizing them—literally circumventing their conscious ability to consent and then "sleeping with them," what we around these parts call raping them.

So whether this shit works or not is quite beside the point. It fuels a very dark part of the rape culture that says making women vulnerable in order to take advantage of them is a legitimate seduction technique—and if hypnotizing a gal to "fuck" her is okay, then slipping her a drug in her drink should be okay, too, right? Right?