Monday, September 10, 2012

Star Trek Game

Or, Mr. Spock is sexy!
Captain Kirk (for those, if any, who are not STAR TREK fans) is a capable hero and a full-blooded human. Mr. Spock is half-alien and is a creature of pure reason and no emotion. Naturally Captain Kirk responded to every danger with an appropriate twist of his handsome and expressive face. Spock, however, kept his long, serene face unmoved. Not for an instant did he allow emotion to dim the thoughtful gleam of his eye; not for a split second did he allow that long face to grow shorter.

And my daughter said, “I think Mr. Spock is dreamy!”

I started! If my daughter said Mr. Spock was dreamy, then he was dreamy to the entire feminine population of the world, for my daughter is plugged into that vague something called “femininity” and her responses are infallible.

But how could that be? Mr. Spock dreamy? He had a strong face, of course, but it was so solemn and serious, so cool; his eyebrows were drawn so outward and upward, and his large ears came to such a long, sharp upper point.

How could he compare with full-blooded Earthlings with normal ears and eyebrows, who were suave, sophisticated, and devilishly handsome to boot? Like me, for instance, just to pick an example at random.

“Why is he dreamy?” I asked my daughter.

“Because,” she said, “he’s so smart!”

There’s no doubt about it. I have asked other girls and they agree. Through the agency of Mr. Spock, STAR TREK has been capitalizing upon a fact not generally known among the male half of the population.

Women think being smart is sexy!
You can always trust a smart, unattractive man in the mold of Isaac Asimov to leap with certainty to the wrong conclusion when women are concerned. Just as you can trust a young woman to have no idea what it is that is tripping her attraction triggers. Granted, Asimov himself knew better - hence his joke about growing his ears out - but men are as deluded about the sex appeal of intelligence, honor, godliness, sincerity, and dedication as women are about educational degrees, snark, and being gainfully employed.

Intelligence is a useful DHV when a man is already considered attractive, but his intelligence is not why Spock was considered dreamy by women. After all, Scotty was plenty smart too and women didn't think he was dreamy.

Spock is, by human standards, a complete psychopath. He has no emotions. He feels no shame and he has no concern for the feelings of others. That's why he is attractive, because he is off the charts with regards to one of the three core components of the Dark Triad, which attracts women like catnip attracts cats, or perhaps more accurately, like flames attract moths.

Spock is also narcissistic, although he is not Machiavellian. If he was, he wouldn't be a Vulcan, he'd be a pointy-eared sex machine. It is Kirk that is narcissistic and Machiavellian - Koyobashi Maru - but Kirk lacks the psychopathy that makes Spock so "dreamy".

Women love an indifferent man who doesn't give a damn about her needs, her feelings, and her opinions. And no man can be more indifferent than one who is a half-Vulcan genetic emotional cripple.

66 comments:

Whoa said...

I was surprised to see it was Asimov, since the words were stupid enough to emanate from the whining beta lips of John Scalzi.

Shimshon said...

Even though it's a minor element in the Star Trek universe, there is also this. When Spock does become emotional, it is usually expressed very violently.

brian said...

It's right back to solipsism again - "He doesn't show emotions, but I'll be different, he'll show them to meeeeeeeee."

Anonymous said...

The smartness still has something to do with it, since it is the basis of Spock's authority and competence.

van Rooinek said...

Women love an indifferent man who doesn't give a damn about her needs, her feelings, and her opinions. And no man can be more indifferent than one who is a half-Vulcan genetic emotional cripple.

And THAT is how the nerdy/Asperger/engineering genese keep themselves in the population, instead of dying out. That, plus the fact that scientist and engineers tend to be paid well...

Nah said...

Smartness is also the basis of Scotty's authority and competence, but he ain't sexy.

Cail Corishev said...

I'm not convinced all that many women considered Spock the dreamy one. Yeah, many women are attracted to the stoic who seems to be bottling up a lot of rage, because she wants to be the one to crack his reserve. But I think far more women were attracted to Kirk.

This may also be a Ginger/Mary Ann situation. It seems like 9 out of 10 guys today will tell you Mary Ann was hotter, but I think that has a lot to do with wanting to look sophisticated by not giving the obvious answer.

Cail Corishev said...

Meant to add: In other words, if you ask a woman to pick the sexiest TOS crew member, and she picks Kirk, ho hum. Of course she picked Kirk, he's the captain and gets all the chicks. But if she picks someone else -- ah, there's something different about her, she sees more deeply into people than others do, blah blah blah.

And aside from Spock, whom else can she pick? Scotty, Bones, Sulu, or Chekov? She wants to seem different, not a freak. That leaves Spock.

Trust said...

Hence the appeal of vampires and warewolves. They don't care what she thinks, would just as soon eat her as bring her flowers, and never suffer any consequences for actions that.would land a human in jail.

Lurking in the shadows said...

There was in interesting post awhile back on Roissy's site equating sexually promiscuous women with emotionally promiscuous men. Basically, most women don't fantasize about being treated like crap by a jerk. They fantasize about being the one special girl who makes an alpha open up his emotions to her. Similar to a guy's fantasy of being an HB 10 virgin's only sex partner. So, in that sense, Spock is sexy because it would take a very special girl indeed to tap the core of turbulent emotions that's kept in check by his Vulcan mind training.

Also, it occurs that modern women may need a very heavy hand since most of them don't know their place. If a girl's brought up with the Feminist lie that she's equal to or better than all men, she's handicapped in her ability to have a healthy relationship, right? She can't perceive a man as alpha as easily as a woman who's been taught submission to a man is her natural place.

I'm new to game and while most of it seems a no-brainer (like the part about the man being dominant), some of it sounds like dispatches from planet weird. Like the part about girls willingly getting pumped-and-dumped by guys who treat them like crap. It seems to me that if you have to treat a female like garbage to keep her in line, she's messed up and she'll eventually mess you up just from dealing with her. Seriously, it's one thing to be self-controlled and dominant, another thing entirely to have to resort to a whip and chair to keep from getting eaten alive.

Anyway, this is an interesting site.

Engage cloaking device.




Ian Ironwood said...

Still wondering why Spock gets so much interest? Here's my explanation:

http://theredpillroom.blogspot.com/2012/05/our-masculine-power-part-three-power-to.html

Trust said...

I remember the "jihadists get 72 virgins" dogma. Anyone who has had a virgin knows its a raw deal.

Shimshon said...

Vox, maybe Spock isn't Machiavellian, but that doesn't mean Vulcans as a rule aren't. Remember the episode Amok Time? Spock's intended mate purposely picks a challenger to Spock, using her impeccable Vulcan logic, so that she can free herself of him to be with her preferred mate. Sounds pretty Machiavellian to me.

Josh said...

This is further illustrated by the big theory episode where Penny starts dating the physicist who won the Macarthur genius grant and rides a motorcycle. Leonard is befuddled because he didn't think Penny was into smart guys.

TBBT is an excellent show for illustrating game concepts, especially the first two seasons. And Sheldon is the master of aloof game.

Nate said...

/facepalm


Star Trek... has always... and will always... suck.

Matthew said...

"Koyobashi"

You're baiting the pedants, aren't you?

Matthew said...

But that raises the more interesting question of why men love things (like Star Trek) that suck. What is the love of Trek a substitute for?

The CronoLink said...

Nate, they say the 60's series is pretty good, not that I have seen it, mind you.

Ermmmm said...

Nerdy men love Trek because they can't get... what?

Hmmm, let me think... that sure is a tough one...

Josh said...

Boobs

rycamor said...

As far back as I can recall, girls I knew were just about equally divided between preferring Kirk to Spock.

Wife and I watched a hilarious documentary about Trekkies a decade or so ago and you wouldn't believe how many women were obsessed with Data (Brent Spiner). I think there really is something to Vox's analysis.

BigNerd said...

Leonard Nimoy got multiples of the fan mail addressed to Shatner. Girls tracked him down at his hotel before the internet existed. A female stalker stole his stage clothes, put them on, and called him saying "I'm you".

Don't ask how I know this. /shame

His attraction to women was very real. I suspect that it was the precursor of the vampire craze today.

Matthew said...

Y'all have banal, predictable, and insufficiently dirty minds.

Watching episodes of Star Trek, dressing up as characters from Star Trek: how do these things make up for a lack of boobs in a man's life? It's clearly not a 1:1 tradeoff. C'mon guys, you can't balance the equation that simply.

A surprising number of intelligent undermenschen find great worth in Star Trek. I'm interested in a thoughtful ALPHA's analysis as to why.

Matthew said...

The homos still love him. See this very disturbing slash fiction video of NIN's "Closer"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uxTpyCdriY

Nate said...

To whom does Star Trek appeal? Men who lead boring lives and seek the escapism that fantasy provides. Kirk slays dragons... metaphorically speaking. His life is adventure.

The average star trek fan lives and works in a safety bubble that minimizes all risk. They are wimps... who live vicariously through fantasy. It is a weak potion to fill the void they have in their soul.

They should be filling that void with their own adventures. But if they did that... they'd be alphas... not deltas.

Star Trek holds little appeal to alphas because it was so obviously written by someone who didn't understand women at all. Which.. applies to almost all sci-fi / fantasy

LostSailor said...

brian (@ 10:22) and Lurking in the shadows have it right. The unemotional aloofness that Spock exuded is attractive because every woman wants to believe that she's the special snowflake that will "fix" him and get him to show just her the raging emotions that they just know lurk beneath the surface. Because they're special. They'll be the ones to obtain the unobtainable. And they'll put up with all kinds of degrading behavior to prove that they're right...

Matthew said...

Nate said: "[Star Trek was] so obviously written by someone who didn't understand women at all. "

Now that's the kind of explanation I was hoping for. Mere escapism is insufficient to explain the attraction.

Nate, what do you think about Star Wars vis a vis Star Trek?

Matthew said...

Where I'm heading with this: why is Star Trek's particular form of escapism attractive to the Gammas and Omegas? Is it because Star Trek was created by a Gamma?

In contrast, consider Dirty Harry. Also escapism, but I suspect it is attractive to an almost completely disjoint group of men from Trekkies.

Aeoli Pera said...

Heartiste ought to append this to Ectomorph Game.

Nate said...

Deltas dig star trek on some level because it reinforces their image of psych-sexual interaction.

Consider another eastwood movie... High Plains Drifter. Clint rides into town with barely concealed contempt. The town hottie immediately shit tests him... he ignores her... she does it again... he insults her... she tries to slap him... he drags her into a barn and rapes her.

Which is exactly what she wanted.

deltas are seriously turned off by this aspect of the movie because it is totally anti-thetical to their psycho-sexual worldview.

Alpha's and Sigmas however saw it and chuckled.

Orville said...

Nate is just frustrated cause he has an unfulfilled man crush on Quinto.

van Rooinek said...

My wife is a trekkie.... has been one, since long before we met!

Nate said...

Apart from the idea that I may even know who this Quinto character is... the most absurd thing here is the notion that I have an unfulfilled anything.

Ron Jeremy has had a more boring life than I have.

LP2021 Bank of LP Work in Progress said...

Not giving damn is just as important as when a man MUST ignore a woman's moods.

Redlegben said...

The '60s series is excellent. I can't stomach TNG or the other spinoffs. DSN is okay. All the men in TNG are actually women. It is feminism run amok on TV. The original had writers that explain human interactions in an accurate manner. My favorite episode was Kirk slapping/berating a woman into submission. This episode also featured a woman whose tears would cause men to do whatever she wanted. Quite fun to watch with game in mind.

Anonymous said...

Especially since Vox actually spent time in Japan.

Daniel said...

Amen. All that gonorrhea is so fulfilling.

Nate said...

Actually....I've never had any of that. I its not that hard to avoid. Bag it.... And be a little picky about more than just looks. Most alpas only card about looks and fun. I avoided swimming in the public pools.

And no... It was not fulfilling at all. It just wasn't boring.

Stickwick said...

Nimoy's fan mail increased dramatically after the episode "The Naked Time," wherein we see that Spock is not by nature an emotionless psychopath, but that he makes a concerted effort to control his emotions. (Spock later declined to participate in the Kolinahr, the final purging of all emotions, so we know he did have them.)

Stickwick said...

BTW, Matthew, most ST slash fic is written by women.

Ian Ironwood said...

I am a professional Trekker. I got paid to write some Trek stuff, and have more than a passing understanding of the phenom. And Nate is wrong. Sorry, dude, but if you don't understand the attraction then the fault isn't with Trek.

There are PLENTY of Trek guys and girls who get laid -- practically a whole sexually-active nerdy subculture of them. There is such a thing as Trek fan Game, and I've seen it work (not on non-Trek folks, but within their tribe). The stereotype of the permanently-Beta guy who can never find a lady is just bogus hype based on folklore more than fact. Sure, you can find plenty of burgeoning adolescents at cons who look hopeless...but in a few years they're just as into Trek and learn how to get laid in Trek-land.

Dismissing an entire subculture based on a cursory and inadequate inspection is unfair. If Trek isn't your thing, fine -- but millions of others are happy to use it as the social context for their real lives. There is nothing inherently "sucky" about it -- there are just people who get it, and those who don't.

Ian Ironwood said...

One word: Klingons. All Alpha.

Nate said...

sure buddy... keep telling yourself that you're not a big dog in a sub culture of losers.

Lets see how it works for ya.

Matthew said...

Stickwick, I imagine the men who would like slash fic are busy role playing it.

Matthew said...

Ironwood (snicker), you're begging the question. Why is there even a subculture? And why Star Trek? What sort of man is drawn to a counterfactual fictive kinship group?

Matt said...

You would think, but after about the fiftieth time Worf gets sappy over Troi or gets punched across the room by the villain of the week, you start to wonder.

Daniel said...

The concept of interest-based "tribes" is in fact, a gamma/low-delta workaround to lubricate interactions with the otherwise overlooked sub-6 women and the occasional promiscuous 6 or really promiscuous 7. It is a perfectly fine system, but the fact that some Trekkies have sex does not mean that their version of Game is actually Game.

I mean, Furries have sex, too, but that doesn't make the popular guy dressed like a cuddly pink hippo an alpha, just because he has a three-way with a duck and a cat.

Affiliating with fan "tribes" is like entering a holding pen in the socio-sexual hierarchy. There are perfectly fine reasons for doing it, but don't kid yourself - it is usually going to be a huge ding against one's greater social status. Now, for some, the status is already so dinged that the tribe feels like "home," but for anyone risking a status backslide, it will be an uncomfortable, and likely temporary, alliance.

Ian Ironwood said...

Worf is hardly a pure Klingon, culturally-speaking. He's Russian. They get maudilin over the least little thing.

Gowran, now, he's a right bastard. Full-on Alpha Klingon.

Ian Ironwood said...

"Affiliating with fan "tribes" is like entering a holding pen in the socio-sexual hierarchy. There are perfectly fine reasons for doing it, but don't kid yourself - it is usually going to be a huge ding against one's greater social status. Now, for some, the status is already so dinged that the tribe feels like "home," but for anyone risking a status backslide, it will be an uncomfortable, and likely temporary, alliance."

You're missing an essential point about Game: it's not about how high your own Sex Rank is, objectively -- you do the best you can with what you've got. It's about how high your Sex Rank is compared to the women in question. Since not everyone can be billionaires or supermodels, appropriate social contact with potential mates within your range is the focus, not going after a high-end woman whose interest you can't sustain longer than an evening.

The social status negative associated with Star Trek, Star Wars, and other "nerdly" pursuits has largely evaporated. When Bill Gates and Steve Jobs can afford to buy hundreds of million-dollar quarterbacks on a whim, the whole "top dog" social rules have been re-written. When there are fortunes at stake (and there are plenty in the sci-fi/geeky/nerdy/techie universe) then big muscles and a sparkling smile are only going to advance you so far.

Ian Ironwood said...

@Matthew:

"Ironwood (snicker), you're begging the question. Why is there even a subculture? And why Star Trek? What sort of man is drawn to a counterfactual fictive kinship group?"

There is a subculture because Star Trek is an essential element to the advance of post-industrial culture in the 21st century. Don't believe me? Put down your communicator (cell phone), turn off your PAD (tablet), and pay attention to the viewscreen (monitor) in front of you for a moment:

Popular science fiction like Star Trek and Star Wars provided the absolutely essential conceptual basis for the development of post-industrial civilization, the digital revolution, and the focus on portable electronic devices which have transformed our culture so profoundly. If the intellectual and conceptual underpinnings for such things as the Internet, cell phones, and tablet PCs had not been expounded on so utterly in the 1960s and 1970s, then there would not have been an Internet in the 1990s.

Further, beyond the technological issue, popular SF has introduced unique and valuable spiritual and cultural memes that have allowed us to adapt our culture to accept and integrate our super-duper sci-fi technology into our very human lives without the sense of alienation that industrialism created in its opponents, or the de-humanizing feelings produced by a mass consumer culture. Believe it or not, concepts like "the Force" and "the Prime Directive" have been the guiding moral voice of the emerging technological civilization we live in...and we could do a lot worse.

And as for why a bunch of dudes would be "drawn to a counterfactual fictive kinship group?" you'll have to ask each particular Trekker/Fanboy.

And then ask the Civil War recreationists.
And then ask the Medieval recreationists.
Then ask the Freemasons.
Then ask the college Fraternity system.
Then ask the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Then ask the Knights of Columbus.
Then ask the Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts.
Then ask the Skull & Bones Society.

Starting to get the picture?

Ian Ironwood said...

@ Matthew:

Oh, last thing: Ironwood is my porn name. Your snicker is noted.

Anonymous said...

Wow, do your post move fast. I wanted to respond to the post Women Aren't Attracted to Godly Men but what I was going to say will work here as well. I have been married to a mainline denominational minister for 24 yrs. We met in college and I had an inkling that he would enter the ministry but that is definitely not why I started dating him. It was for his intelligence, you see his IQ is over 140, his self-determination and the fact he was over 6' were also a huge plus. As a strong believer that innate personality and intelligence are inherited my choice for a husband not only revloved around my feelings but also what I was looking for; someone whose innate nature made up for the flaws I saw hanging from the branches of my own family tree. I think this is when hypergamy is/can be at its best. I wanted those genes for my children pure and simple.
Why is intelligence is a turn on? Because an intelligent man can think his way through life's problems whether that is fighting Klingons off the starboard bow or finding a way to provide and maintain equanimity in his family it makes a wise woman feel safe and secure. Sounds like you've got a smart daughter.

Redlegben said...

I just see the resolution phase of TNG episodes to be promoting feminist ideology. Whereas the original series did no such thing. I will grant that the original cast's theatrical movies are quite leftist.

Daniel said...

You've got it upside-down. Rank is critical analytical factor in Game: it is the engine. The fact that some of its principles can be implemented in (relatively) weak gender pools of omegas, gammas and low deltas does not somehow transform these guys into alphas anymore than it makes the slutty sixes into virgin 10s.

In other words, just because Beulah Brachiasaurus is the finest gal at the convention in her season 1, size 16 Troi skirt, doesn't mystically, via Game principles, transform her into a hot young Marina Sirtis. Relative rank is not the same thing as socio-sexual rank.

It may be relative, but it ain't that relative.

Put it another way, unless he's slumming for laughs, a true alpha never has to catch the dregs at closing time. A gamma may feel like a sex machine because he catches a drunk not-quite-ugly fish just before the lights come up, but there's a world (or, in this case, a galaxy) of difference between the two.

I think you may be confusing pick up techniques based on Game principles with Game itself.

To mangle Ridley Scott and paraphrase Gene Roddenberry:

In public Star Trek fandom, no one can be an alpha.

Daniel said...

I get the picture:

Skull & Bones, Knights of Columbus, Frats and Freemasons don't allow women. Game is not relevant to their operation.

VFW was for all intents and purposes a men's club, and in many ways, still is, but I'm sure is being rapidly transmogrified as the WWII guys completely pass on.

The recreationists and Holmes enthusiasts were traditionally men's groups and for the most part, continue to be so. Groups like the SCA are similar to Star Trek, although there's a bit more chance for the SCA to have an alpha or two around, if for nothing other than the combat sports legitimizing their membership.

Even the SCA has gender segregation (Civil War certainly does). Star Trek fandom doesn't.

You can't compare the groups.

FACT: Star Trek fandom is, in the socio-sexual judgment of society, and always will be nerdy as hell. You can't fight that.

Even if Star Trek did invent the internet in partnership with Al Gore, nobody cool cares.

Starting to get the picture?

Don't misunderstand me: I'm not saying fandom doesn't have value, if that floats your boat. Just don't confuse techniques with analysis. While sex may be available, social rank is not: Star Trek nerdfests are not an ideal environment for Game.

Admitting Star Trek fandom for the purposes of Game, is not Game.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are nerdly nerds: any woman, including the thinky 5 at Trekfest, would pick a night in bed or a marriage with the relatively impoverished Tom Brady...seven days a week.

This is the way of the world.

Daniel said...

I should say that Game is not relevant to the all-men's groups in the same way: it obviously will have some bearing on leadership roles.

Jack Amok said...

"Star Trek holds little appeal to alphas because it was so obviously written by someone who didn't understand women at all."

I dunno how much Gene Roddenberry knew about women, but he landed his share of hotties. But then, he was a WWII Bomber Pilot who won the DFC, and flew for Pan Am for a few years after the war. Plus, he was pretty sharp-elbowed in his business dealings, so maybe it just came naturally to him. Lots of Alphas aren't even aware of what they're doing.

Justthisguy said...

Doohan, who played Scotty, was seemingly a Natural Alpha Man's Man IRL. He was Arty (a Redleg) and had no problems with attracting the ladies. Like Nimitz and Yamamoto, he was missing a finger due to his military activities. Curiously, I never noticed this when watching Star Trek, though I pride myself on my autistic attention to tiny details.

Justthisguy said...

I thought Star Trek was stupid when it first came on the tube, and I was a little kid at the time. But then, I was a little kid who was already familiar with the works of Heinlein, Doc Smith, H. Beam Piper, Poul Anderson, Hal Clement, Clarke, Van Vogt, etc., and whose Mom had bought him subscriptions to Analog and Galaxy.

Justthisguy said...

Ectomorph Game? Hmm. I'm gonna go read that, seeing that I'm all skin and bones and nerves, and go 130 lbs soaking wet. "We slender nervous people", as Barney Fife said. Really, I can't float in fresh water without a lungful of air.

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