Picture the scene: you’re walking down the street, sitting in a coffee shop or browsing a supermarket when you’re stopped and chatted up by a random man.
While it might sound like a scene from a romantic comedy, it is possible you are actually the unwitting target of a man trying out a growing dating trend, one with creepy and misogynistic undertones.
So-called ‘daygaming’, which is sweeping the UK and other parts of the world, sees men stop a woman they find attractive to strike up a conversation with the end goal of walking away with a phone number, or ‘closing’ the deal.
Marketed as a way to meet women away from expensive night clubs, social media and dating apps, it’s proving increasingly popular – and there are now several websites and pricey courses dedicated to helping men hone the ‘art’.
However women who have been at the receiving end, known as being ‘hooked’, have described how the contrived opening lines and conversations often come across as insincere and ‘creepy’.
Daygame is a dating trend sweeping the UK and other parts of the world. It sees men stop a woman they find attractive in broad daylight to strike up a conversation and – the end goal – walk away with a phone number. Pictured: stock image
According to blogger James Tusk, who runs Project Tusk, a website dedicated to the technique, it’s a more ‘honest’ way of meeting women, in a sober and spontaneous setting.
‘Project-Tusk was created to help men rediscover what it means to be a red-blooded male by helping our clients meet and date girls without relying on social media dating apps or having to go out to bars and nightclubs and get drunk. This is called “Daygame”,’ the website reads.
James operates as a daygame coach, offering private lessons to lovesick singletons aged between 18 to 70 to help them achieve their ‘dream dating life on your own terms’.
Project Tusk offers a variety of ‘packages’ around the world, including an introductory taster daygame/bargame session, costing £279.97 for 127 minutes, and a week-long ‘masculinity recharge’ residential costing £3,997.97.
Marketed as a way to meet women away from expensive night clubs, social media and dating apps, daygame is proving increasingly popular – and there are now several websites dedicated to helping men hone the ‘art’. Pictured: stock image
And James is not alone; others are cashing in on the trend, with one website – daygame.com, run by Yad Bar – offering £950 bootcamp sessions to teach men ‘how to meet, approach, and attract beautiful women anywhere, any time’.
Yad explains on the website that the technique works because ‘the reason women watch romantic comedies and read romantic fiction novels is because it plays into their fantasy of how they’ll meet the guy of their dreams’.
Project Tusk’s website includes a selection of glowing testimonials, with one man from Germany claiming to have ‘got his first lay’ thanks to James’ intel.
But some women who have fallen prey to a daygame mission have admitted to finding the experience creepy.
Blogger James Tusk operates as a daygame coach, offering private lessons to lovesick singletons aged between 18 to 70 to help them achieve their ‘dream dating life on your own terms’
Mirra, 31, of Soho, London, told Refinery29 she was approached on the street and found the interaction quite fake.
‘Nothing about the behaviour of the two men who stopped me was inappropriate, but it was still creepy nonetheless and their questions were very contrived,’ she told the publication.
Faye, 28, another London-based woman who has experienced it, said she found it rather manipulative.
‘You’re stuck in a conversation they’ve pitched in such a clever way that they’re not being sleazy by their standards because they’re just chatting with you,’ she said.
‘I think it’s incredibly manipulative because they make you feel like you’re not a very nice person if you dismiss them.’
Some women who have fallen prey to a daygame mission have admitted to finding the experience creepy. Pictured: stock image
She added: ‘Personally, I’d feel safer having someone come up to me in a bar. I’d probably be with my friends and there are usually lots of other people in close proximity who can step in and get involved when it’s clear I’m uncomfortable.’
While James stresses that daygame is ‘the most genuine and authentic way to meet girls’, it’s given rise to a number of men engaging in it to win points rather than find true love.
A number of Twitter accounts are dedicated to the technique and share their ‘hook’ success stories (and failures) with their followers, often laced with misogyny.
A Twitter user who goes by the username @BroodingSea regularly shares his interactions with women on the street.
A number of Twitter accounts are dedicated to the technique and share their ‘hook’ success stories (and failures) with their followers, often laced with misogyny
A recent tweet read: ‘Just had a nice playful interaction with long-legged girl trying to find a hairdresser at 3:30 on a Sunday. Good hooks like crossed legs and hair flicking. Thought the close was on but she had a boyfriend and wouldn’t go for it. Decent. Better than last set. A** like a six-year-old boy.’
A European ‘daygamer’ in the Midwest also took to Twitter to boast about his stats, tweeting: ‘That’s a wrap for my #daygame session today. Eight approaches, one number. The first of those approaches was my 250th daygame cold approach, my goal of 300 by EOY [end of year] looks closer and closer each day!’
Another tweet using the hashtag #daygame by user @redpilldadpua read: ‘Number closed, a hot little brunette at the local coffee shop. Nothing wrong with a one-off approach in a warm situation.’
And one by user @b_u_um said: ‘Lmfao got this middle-aged Polish cougar’s number at the grocery store #daygame.’