Awareness is not an antidote

Susan Walsh wonders if female knowledge of Game precludes its function:

1. Does female knowledge of Game reduce its effectiveness?

We know that in matters of state, politics, athletics, and commerce it’s important to keep strategy secret for maximum impact. If a competitor finds out what you’re up to, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to recover. Is this true in dating as well?

Little Miss HUS has experienced some serious negging and push-pull in the last couple of weeks. Rather than feeling intrigued, she’s ready to Next this guy. As she said to me:

Can’t game Blogdaughter, bitch!

This was said in jest, but does it have an element of truth?

No, unless one confuses principles with tactics. And even then, it usually doesn't matter. The principles of Game would stand intact even if a specific tactic were to become less effective with foreknowledge. However, as Roissy has pointed out on several occasions, the fact that a woman is aware a man utilizes Game is no more going to make him less attractive to her than the fact a man is aware that a woman is wearing a push-up bra makes her any less attractive to him.

If anything, men tend to both enjoy the view provided as well as appreciate the woman showing that she is willing to put in the effort to be attractive. When women claim that a specific Game tactic isn't effective on them - snowflake alert - because they are aware of it, in most cases, this is only the obvious consequence of the man who is using it being of insufficient socio-sexual rank. Game isn't magic and it's not going to turn the average man into Tom Brady or whatever the Hollywood flavor of the day might be.

Whether they care to admit it or not, women enjoy getting negged and dissed and push-pulled for the sake of the experience. As Penelope Trunk has demonstrated, they even enjoy "domestic violence" for the sake of the drama and self-importance it provides. And the enjoyment exists regardless of whether their enjoyment of it is enough to push a man employing such tactics into the attractive zone or not; notice that Little Miss HUS didn't actually state that it was the Game tactics that were the impetus to throw the guy into the discard bin. They may be the only reason she hasn't done so already, even if she doesn't think she is intrigued.

It sounds as if even with his apparent knowledge of Game, Mr. Push-Pull was always borderline in Little Miss HUS's eyes. The informative thing would be for Susan to track if similar behavior were to prove successful when utilized by a more attractive young man, or if stronger Game were successfully employed by a young man of comparable attributes.