Top News Stories
Men in training
Burnaby Now
Published: Saturday, September 08, 2007But Marjorie Griffin Cohen begs to differ. As a political science and women's studies professor at Simon Fraser University, she found Lee's theory flawed.
"I think these are gross generalizations that just don't hold," says Griffin Cohen. "I don't know that that has any bearing in actual fact."
Sweeping statements are quite hard to deal with because they tend to slot people into categories that aren't necessarily true for individuals, she added.
Griffin Cohen calls Lee's practice of approaching unknown women in malls "dreadful."
"I would say he has to learn something about human relations. Most people are attracted to someone because they know something about them," she says.
"It doesn't sound to me as though this is something that's going to make men more empathetic with women."
According to Griffin Cohen, in an adult society, men would approach women because of some genuine interest, not a formula based on preconceived ideas of the opposite sex.
"It sounds too formulaic to have anything other than a gimmick to make some money," she says.
But SFU's Charles Crawford, professor emeritus of psychology, thinks the course is legitimate.
"He's just teaching old-fashioned Victorian social skills," he says, adding we live in an era where men and women don't learn how to behave with the opposite sex.
"People are quite deficient in old-fashioned social virtues."
But Crawford says there's an easier option for the kind of men who come to Lee.
"You could get the thing resolved by reading Miss Manners," he says, referring to the popular etiquette advice columnist. "I think it would be a cheaper way of doing things."
But for any of it to work, you have to really believe it, he adds.
"People will be able to detect if you don't believe it."
But despite the criticism, Lee's business is expanding and he's training other coaches, both male and female while launching a new website for women called "Happy Sexy You."
"If, at the very least, I can teach both men and women to have the conversation that they want to have with the opposite sex, then I would consider that to be a success," he says. "There is a too high percentage of men and women around the world, who can't even do that."
