“‘I have to want you to act this way’”: a political reading of sexual violence, men’s Rights Activism, and the Pick-up Artist

ABSTRACT

Since the emergence of allegations of sexual violence against media producers, directors, writers, and actors in 2017, viewers have questioned how their alleged abuse impacts viewership of their creative works. These questions hold even more significance in cases where the creative work represents behaviors and power dynamics that are reported to have supported these creators’ abuse. I analyze James Toback’s film, The Pick-Up Artist, next to allegations of his sexual misconduct and common Men’s Rights Activist strategies to contend that Toback’s film and other media texts implicated in similar distasteful resemblances ought to be read for their political force and subsequent implications, due to the work that these texts do to normalize violence and maintain the status quo. Through my analysis, I argue that, due to the resemblances between Toback’s film, his alleged abusive behavior, and PUA teachings, the film ought to be read as political. Ultimately, I conclude that a reading of Toback’s film as political demonstrates how mediated romantic storylines can reflect, inform, and, upon examination, disrupt manifestations of violence in daily life, as well as the potential for examining resemblances that emerge in media texts to reveal new analytical possibilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Romance genre
• James Toback
• sexual violence
• pickup artist
• cultural scripts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).