How much does a polar bear weigh?
Armed with just this question and a healthy dose of forced confidence, I selected a seemingly eligible young man as a test subject. Would he respond to my pun pickup?
I attempted to casually stroll up to the man in question and delivered my line. As soon as I asked him the question I realised the fatal flaw in this pickup line: people actually think about the answer.
Later, when I was googling the answer to this question, I found this blog about women using the polar bear pickup line. Reading it I became surprised by the outdated notions of courtship this guy was presenting. His argument was that pickup lines should probably be left to the men and that when (unattractive) women did it, it seemed desperate. Not to sound too much like Carrie Bradshaw but it got me thinking... Why can't women use pick up lines? Is this still considered a male only dominion?
This argument that men are meant to chase and women are meant to stand around looking pretty and waiting for a man to sweep them off their feet, is it still valid? Surely it is just playing up to gender roles by saying that men and women still need to conform to these roles and any deviations simply won't work. I'm not sure if I have an answer either way, but perhaps my experience using my pickup line will help shed some, although dim, light.
Aside from getting annoyed about this guy's view, I found myself wondering about pickup lines in general. After reading some of the comments on the blog I came to the realization: pickup line success depends entirely on how you deliver them, who you are and who the object of your desire is. If you are super goodlooking (male or female) then chances are you can use a pick up line and it will seem cute. If the object of your desire doesn't find you attractive, you will seem desperate. It seems that pickup is in the eye of the beholder.
In my experience, most women find pickup lines cringy, but isn't that because they're viewed as sleazy and an artificial way to start a conversation?
And therein lies the secret to an effective pickup line: it should seem natural, or at least spark some ideas that will lead into an easy conversation. Perhaps pickup lines aren't actually needed, just an ability to recognise a conversation starter or an opportunity to spark up a debate or discussion.
Happily, my pickup line managed to achieve this, for a short while anyway. Any initial success at getting my test subject to talk to me was immediately overshadowed when he told me that I was barking up the wrong tree: he had a girlfriend. However, we kept chatting and he introduced me to his friends. So although I wasn't successful in 'picking him up', he didn't run screaming for the hills and seemed amused by my (somewhat clumsy) attempt at using a pickup line.
What I found the most successful about this process was that he remembered me. When I saw him later in the night we had another chat about polar bears and had a sense of connection. It wasn't love or lust, just a feeling of common ground - neither of us knowing what a polar bear weighed.
So, is that the mark of a good pickup line? Is there such a thing? I guess I'll just have to head back to the pub for some further research!
(For those of you who are DESPERATE to know, here are some facts about polar bears and how much they weigh:
1. Polar bears are the largest land carnivore.
2. Male polar bears weigh about 350 to more than 650 kg.
3. Female polar bears weigh about 150 to 250 kg. Pregnant females can weigh as much as 500 kg.
4. The largest polar bear ever recorded was a male weighing 1,002 kg.)
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