In a long blog post today, Kickstarter announced that all guidebooks about seduction “or anything similar” are now prohibited on the fundraising site.
We covered the controversy at AppNewser:
Kickstarter posted a long blog post criticizing a controversial seduction guide project by Ken Hoinsky that raised $16,300 on the site. Many readers had complained about violent content the author had posted on Reddit. Kickstarter has decided to ban seduction guides “or anything similar” on the site. They also donated $25,000 to RAINN, an anti-sexual violence charity.
Hoinsky has posted a statement about the book and a mockup cover for his book. We’ve reprinted his response below. You can also read the quotes he says were taken out of context at this link.
I am devastated and troubled by the allegations that my book, Above The Game: A Guide to Getting Awesome with Women, promotes rape. That couldn’t be further from the truth. A handful of quotes were taken out of context and posted on Tumblr which steamrolled in a game of telephone where hardly anyone bothered to read the original version.
People took advice from a section on “Physical Escalation & Sex” and posted them online. Devoid of context, they appeared to be promoting sexually assaulting women when that wasn’t the case at all.
The gist of the controversial advice is “Don’t wait for signs before you make your move. Let her be the one who rejects your advances. If she says no, stop immediately and tell her you don’t want to do anything that would make her uncomfortable. Try again at a later time if appropriate or cease entirely if she is absolutely not interested.”
The thing that the commenters on social media are leaving out is that the advice was taken from a section in the guide offering advice on what to do AFTER a man has met a cute girl, gotten her phone number, gone on dates, spent time getting to know her, and now are alone behind closed doors fooling around. If “Don’t wait for signs, make the first move” promotes sexual assault, then “Kiss the Girl” from The Little Mermaid was a song about rape.
That cherry-picked advice, without that important context, makes it sound like I am advocating non-consensual sexual advances on strangers. I would absolutely never do such a thing.