PEACOCKING

Peacocking is a standard weapon in the pick-up-artist arsenal, but it’s something that is still grossly mis-understood by many when they start exploring the Venusian arts.

As practiced by Mystery, peacocking is the art of wearing a few garish, compelling items which draw attention. Mystery has been known to wear top hats, multiple wristwatches, garish earrings, and flamboyant clothing. But peacocking doesn’t have to be so loud to be effective.

The key to peacocking is to make strong style choices. Wear clothes that are interesting, with aggressive cuts and patterned fabrics. Then add a few pieces of jewellery. It’s fine if they’re subtle, but it should always be visible.

The primary mistake most men make is going too subtle. If you’re not used to dressing fancy, or if a button-down from J. Crew over jeans is your idea of taking the extra step, experiment with getting outside your comfort zone. Add a few pieces of jewelry. Consider piercing your ears, but you don’t have to start out with that such a big step. One could break peacocking down into three levels:

Level 1: Have a few interesting rings, bracelets, or a pendant around your neck. Wear an interesting hat, or add at least one completely unnecessary item just because it looks cool or interesting. The idea is simply to give the women you meet some aspect of your appearance that they can notice, talk about, or touch.

Hypnotica’s “better orgasms” t-shirt is an example of this sort of peacocking, especially because he can back it up by saying, honestly, “I teach women how to have more powerful orgasms.”  (This is a great example of how simple peacocking can feed into a DHV story).  If you’re not peacocking at least at this level, you are simply not trying very hard, and your results will really suffer.

Level 2: This is taking it a bit further. Think about the image you want to portray, and then go for it, moving a little past your comfort zone. Style used to talk about tribes: how can you present yourself as a member of a tribe that she – your target – wants to join or, at least, to visit. Don’t go in half steps.

Decide what your tribe is – are you a hippy, a goth, a rocker, a jersey-shore type, or whatever, and own it. The mistake most PUAs make in this area is not making a strong enough choice. It’s fine if you want to be an intellectual, for example, but make conscious choices about what it means to dress like an intellectual – don’t just wear whatever you normally wear because you are one already.

Level 3: This is what Mystery practices, and it’s not for everyone. At this level, you are making spectacular, garish choices, primarily for the purpose of being noticed. Attention for the sake of attention is the goal here, but there’s a catch: if you’re getting attention, you will magnify whatever you’re doing.

If you’re holding court, generating tons of preselection by being surrounded by women, then peacocking like this will help you. But if you’re obviously trolling the club, looking for people to talk to, and look uncomfortable, level 3 peacocking will hurt you: you’re inadvertently calling attention to your demonstrations of lower value.

You should start practicing level 1 peacocking today. If you don’t have any jewellery, go out and buy some. Find pieces which speak to you, and learn to talk about them in interesting ways. As you develop your identity, find ways to add more strong elements to achieve level 2 peacocking, advertising who you are. And if you really want to maximize your results and have the game to back it up, go for the whole enchilada. It’s fine to start small … but the key is that you start.