Twitter Tells Us How to Talk to Women

An article that encourages harassing women into conversation went viral on Twitter and inspired hundreds of “How to Talk to a Woman” tweets

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Twitter has been blowing up since Monday night after screenshots of an article offering creepy dating advice circulated across the site. The article, titled “How to Talk to a Woman Who is Wearing Headphones” came from a men’s interest website dedicated to teaching men how to aggressively pursue women. It unwisely advises men that if a woman is wearing headphones out in public, rather than leaving her alone, he needs to put in extra effort to force her into conversation.

The article posits that as long as you, the “alpha male”, approach the unsuspecting woman with enough confidence, get right in her face so she can’t ignore you, and refuse to back down on your request that she remove her headphones and speak to you, she’ll appreciate your efforts and reward you with a date. This article is disturbing in the way it assumes men have some sort of inherent right to a woman’s time and attention, and that most women would be flattered and entertained by your persistence.

Trying to force a conversation with someone who does not want to speak to you is harassment. If a woman is wearing headphones and she indicates that she doesn’t want to engage, yet you persist, you are are making an assumption that what you want to say is more important than her desire to be left alone.

Giving men these kind of step-by-step instructions to harass women is dangerous and only promotes the idea that women owe men their attention. Websites such as this perpetuate the ridiculous idea that women who don’t want to have a conversation are just playing hard to get and merely pretending that they’re uninterested.

Luckily, Feminist Twitter is on top of things and gave this article and its author the ridicule they deserve. People have been coming up with their own version of the article’s headline that are so much better than the original:

Some kind citizens have even offered pieces of very good advice for anyone who is still uncertain about whether they should attempt to speak to a woman wearing headphones.

This particular article is only one of many from this website on the same theme: forcing women to date you. Modern Man offers courses and books along with their blog posts to teach men how to “properly” approach and date women. These “pick up artist” classes and advice columns are an unfortunate trend now among communities of men who have trouble with dating.

These websites are harmful to both men and women, as they encourage men to harass women and be aggressive with them, but they’re also teaching men that there is only one right way to be a man. According to the men that write these posts and run these seminars, if you’re not a hyper-masculine alpha male, you are worthless and no woman will ever date you.

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Hopefully all of the jokes that have been spreading around Twitter are making men think twice about following this advice and subscribing to this dangerous pick up artist philosophy.