Last week, Jared Rutledge and Jacob Owens were considered upstanding members of the unusually liberal Asheville, North Carolina community. As the owners of Waking Life Espresso, they had made a name for themselves in the town, supplying goods to a number of local establishments as well as coffee shops nationwide. But…

Here at the headquarters of the Global Feminist Conspiracy, we have a lot on our plates: misandry, oppressing men, hating men, attacking men, growing out our leg hair to ever more luxurious lengths, and, of course, tending to our hundreds of cats. But in the past several weeks, all of our efforts have been focused on…

Pick-up artists are nothing if not resourceful. After being cockblocked by all those independent, assertive feminists in Western countries, they've set their sights on distant lands - namely North Korea, where authoritarianism or other socioeconomic realities make them into the ultimate forbidden fruit.

Ohio State University campus denizens are about to be down one creepy as hell — albeit entertainingly delusional — self-proclaimed pickup artist after a diverse cross-section of the student body banded together to call him out on his predatory antics. Here's the story of how he got taken down, and how he vowed to…

For a while, some Internet-dwellers have been enthralled by the concept of harassing women in public, videotaping it, and putting the footage on YouTube as documentation of their hilarious and funny and very clever prankster mentality. Remember how much fun everyone (i.e., everyone but the women who were used as…

"LaidNYC" purports to be a NY-based pick-up artist; you may know him from past rhetorical standouts like "Don't Marry Women over 25." His recent essay on how much his sperm is worth (a lot) can be summed up in this one prudent declaration: "My seed is liquid gold and I don't give it out like its god damn tap water."…

Self-described feminist pick-up artist Arden Leigh says the seduction community gets a bad rap. She argues that worthy gurus are devoted to fostering intimacy, not creepy coercion, and claims most pick-up artists aren't entitled misogynists who write crowd-funded seduction manuals that encourage predatory behavior.…

Kickstarter just published a thoughtful, effective apology for allowing a slimy pick-up artist to use the site to solicit funds for a "seduction guide" that reads like a how-to for sexually harassing and assaulting women. Here's the company's explanation — entitled "We were wrong" — which includes a vow to ban…

Pickup artists are not going away. As long as there's a planet (or at least an OKCupid) for them to meet women on and a Reddit where they can swap tales of sexscapades that probably didn't actually happen, the PUA will continue to exist among us — at the club, on the street, maybe even at work. They are the Gollum to…

A self-described "master pickup artist" used Kickstarter to raise 800% of his target goal to publish a book that encourages men to aggressively dominate women — specifically without asking for permission — if they want to get laid. After widespread protest, Kickstarter called the project "abhorrent and inconsistent…

There's a pick-up artist project on Kickstarter — (over)funded almost exclusively thanks to Reddit, natch —- that encourages men to "force" women to rebuff advances because “personal space is for pussies." Will Kickstarter shut it down before the creator receives over $15,000 this afternoon?

Pick-up artists treat women as if they're shiny gold coins instead of human beings; ladies are rewards for players savvy enough to unlock the levels of "the game," not people with whom one might enjoy a mutually satisfying relationship. That's why gamemakers think dudes will pay up for a "Become a Pickup Artist"…

Ladies: did you know that you're "pick-up artists" if you want to (gasp!) pursue a man and/or a relationship that doesn't end in matrimony?

After we told you all about prominent pick-up artist Jeff "Jeffy" Allen and his prized "rape van," we received dozens of comments and emails from women who were also initially intrigued by Allen's colorful vehicle and offbeat sense of humor. All of them eventually realized that Allen wasn't a slightly cocky yet…

Jeff "Jeffy" Allen is a big league pick-up artist instructor who has published multiple books and DVDs on the craft of treating women like shiny gold coins in a video game. He's also the owner of San Francisco's well-known "Freedom Van," which he calls his "rape van," and a pathetically avid OkCupid troll. Please stay…

Simple Pickup purports to be "a group of 3 regular guys...out to show the world that any guy can get a girl, simply by being themselves." They may be the first pickup artists to employ inspirational quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt and Hellen Keller wedged between clips of motorboating women's breasts in public and…