sophisticated art, the ultimate form of power and persuasion. They learned
to work on the mind first, stimulating fantasies, keeping a man wanting
more, creating patterns of hope and despair—the essence of seduction.
Their power was not physical but psychological, not forceful but indirect
and cunning. These first great seductresses were like military generals plan¬
ning the destruction of an enemy, and indeed early accounts of seduction
often compare it to battle, the feminine version of warfare. For Cleopatra,
it was a means of consolidating an empire. In seduction, the woman was no
longer a passive sex object; she had become an active agent, a figure of
power.
With a few exceptions—the Latin poet Ovid, the medieval
troubadours—men did not much concern themselves with such a frivolous
art as seduction. Then, in the seventeenth century came a great change:
men grew interested in seduction as a way to overcome a young woman’s
resistance to sex. History’s first great male seducers—the Duke de Lauzun,
the different Spaniards who inspired the Don Juan legend—began to adopt
the methods traditionally employed by women. They learned to dazzle
with their appearance (often androgynous in nature), to stimulate the
imagination, to play the coquette. They also added a new, masculine ele¬
ment to the game: seductive language, for they had discovered a woman’s
weakness for soft words. These two forms of seduction—the feminine use
of appearances and the masculine use of language—would often cross
gender lines: Casanova would dazzle a woman with his clothes; Ninon
de l’Enclos would charm a man with her words.
At the same time that men were developing their version of seduction,
others began to adapt the art for social purposes. As Europe’s feudal system
of government faded into the past, courtiers needed to get their way in
court without the use of force. They learned the power to be gained by se¬
ducing their superiors and competitors through psychological games, soft
words, a little coquetry. As culture became democratized, actors, dandies,
and artists came to use the tactics of seduction as a way to charm and win
over their audience and social milieu. In the nineteenth century another
great change occurred: politicians like Napoleon consciously saw them¬
selves as seducers, on a grand scale. These men depended on the art of se¬
ductive oratory, but they also mastered what had once been feminine
strategies: staging vast spectacles, using theatrical devices, creating a charged
physical presence. All this, they learned, was the essence of charisma—and
remains so today. By seducing the masses they could accumulate immense
power without the use of force.
And So It Starts
Thousands of years ago, power was mostly gained through physical violence and maintained with brute strength. There was little need for
subtlety—a king or emperor had to be merciless. Only a select few had
power, but no one suffered under this scheme of things more than women.
They had no way to compete, no weapon at their disposal that could make
a man do what they wanted—politically, socially, or even in the home.
Of course men had one weakness: their insatiable desire for sex. A
woman could always toy with this desire, but once she gave in to sex the
man was back in control; and if she withheld sex, he could simply look
elsewhere—or exert force. What good was a power that was so temporary
and frail? Yet women had no choice but to submit to this condition…… read more
Improve Yourself TODAY!!!!
Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh, when i opened my mailbox this morning with a letter from my girlfriend crapping me out, after I asked her 3 weeks ago to start writing some articles for mytravel blog, I realised that we were already in February and if I didn’t start blogging about the most fabulous journey through South Africa within the next couple of days, I’d probably forget half the stuff.
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) do a trip to Simons Town. OH, DON’T FORGET THE PENGUINS!!!
