Tanner Guzy - The Appearance of Power how masculinity is expressed through aesthetics (2017) - Book Review

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Tanner Guzy – The Appearance of Power: How Masculinity is Expressed Through Aesthetics (2017) Book Review

Disclaimer: I am not a dating coach nor am I selling any dating products or services this blog is really for recreational usage to reflect on my previous experiences in daygame and to share my insi…

mindful-masculinity.org

As far as I am aware there’s never been a real pivotal men’s self development fashion coach up until I saw Tanner’s first ever speech at the 21 convention which was around 2017 or 2018 I can’t remember when exactly . Tanner comes across in these speeches as well spoken , seems to live an active lifestyle with numerous hobbies and business successes which I listed in my other blog post analysing him here- https://mindful-masculinity.org/202...ll-tanner-guzy-tom-torero-where-are-they-now/


He has endured a lot - the passing of his brother and two gut wrenching divorces that has lead him to having to fight for the custody of his 6 children - despite his big successes in business, his hundreds of thousands of youtube views I wouldn’t want to be in his position now - he’s often bigged up marrying young and starting families young but with two divorces behind his belt it’s tough to see whether or not his ideas hold up. He seemingly has a lot of religious delusion on his instagram which as a middle eastern atheist who fled religious persecution to come to the UK I’ve personally had enough of people who used religion to come “save them” or help them to go through a divorce when the reality is they just married an ungrateful hoe that they shouldn’t have. Which is the way I view Tanner Guzy’s marriage - after the millions of YouTube views , the seemingly 7 figures of revenue he generated and 6 children his woman still divorced him? Seems fucking nuts and why am I talking about this in a book review well to show men’s self development coaches can still lead tough lives even when it seems they can do no wrong or even when they achieve a lot. It also shows the dangers of religious delusion - the come back of the conservative Mormon Christian even with success attributed to a higher power divorces can still loom and let's face it - nearly all men's self development coaches seem to be in divorces nowadays whether it be Neil Strauss, Tom Torero , Nick Krauser , Mystery, James Marshall , Anthony Johnson - the list is endless and does beg the question where to men turn to for long term relationship success when the coaches themselves can't find one? Of course this has little to do with the book content but this is a PUA blog - I am going to skew my analysis based on a dating/PUA perspective.


I think Tanner’s value to the manosphere is definitely undoubtedly there . I mean for too long men have seen dress as effeminate - gay or whatever - personally I struggled with fashion up till age 20 when a woman in my university class said I dressed like shit- she was right. I actually got bullied a fair bit for my poor dress at university - often by other women who'd accuse my clothes and style as being trampy and in high school when I tried to make a matching uniform or something that looked good I’d get called “gay” by other men.


What I think this book lacked was actual examples of where fashion could make a difference- despite offering some experiments and analysis . From a pua perspective ( and I know tanner an’t no pua fanboy) but there have been interesting studies comparing how women see an average guy well dressed compared to a male model in a McDonald’s outfit- I think Tanner could’ve done something like that to serve as an important example but he doesn’t which for me was disappointing . Sasha Daygame and James Marshall once ran infield together in which Sasha himself saw an improvement in results when he wore better clothes showing the positives of a proactive case study with real life results and action in the field


“Of course cues and classifications can be worn but they’re always going on in the background . It’s up to us to use the conscious , intentional parts of our brain to override or adhere to the signals we/re picking up on from everyone around us.” - In many ways he picks up perfectly how women usually react when someone approaches them in a daygame or night game situation - women are constantly scanning and are programmed to look for any perceived signals of threat - I’d argue they are more conscious and better pre programmed to determine these things than men- so how you act, your posture and of course your fashion can definitely come into play towards winning rapport and minimising risk of blow outs.


Tanner discusses experiences in the books and discusses “Enclothed Cognition” and how it can help our own perception of ourselves - with the main conclusion being “that we can draw from the studies that the influence of wearing a piece of clothing depends on both its symbolic meaning and the physical experience of wearing clothes” Showing that those who wore a doctor’s jacket were able to focus their minds as a result of wearing the garment- I definitely agree here - for me personally better clothing helped boost my confidence and self esteem - often I found poorly dressed wingmen or pua's often had the most issues with their game and lacked the most self awareness- indeed when I was a virgin and struggling with dating my dress sense was horrific and I looked feasibly lost and low in confidence . When I changed my style and added a bit more muscle my night game results in 2013-2016 definitely saw a significant improvement- I got more makeouts and actually ended up losing my virginity in 2014 aged 21 - had I dressed better earlier on in my life I think I would’ve had at least some tangible benefit in my dating life - although my approach anxiety was still the main problem and the self hurt I felt after dealing with rejection - the mental burden of having to approach a lot once I got that under control clothing definitely enhanced my game. I also grew up in England where I’d say the attitude towards dress was pretty lazy- in the summers I spent them in the South Of France at my Parent's flat there men there were generally better dressed.


When I started doing daygame in late 2017 I realised how much better dressed foreign women were compared to the English ones who I approached during night game when I was at university in Manchester - there was a stark difference and from my 2nd ever daygame lay - a Taiwanese woman I really appreciated how well she took care of her appearance. Something that I never thought about in high school - maybe because the men and women around me dressed so plainly or because any sign of looking after your dress was seen or depicted as effeminate or maybe we generally lack direction in the West when it comes to looking after ourselves.


In fact in London most of the white English females had been displaced - replaced by Chinese students, Hong Kongers, Arabs and Russians predominately - all these cultures seemed to dress a hell of a lot better than Canadians,Americans and of Course the British. Maybe the west has lost its umpfh - even during my times travelling around the US where the majority of my family live I saw a lot of wealthy individuals poorly dress and seemingly given up on their own health. In contrast the Russians , Chinese , Arabs seemed more appearance conscious and immaculately dressed in London - something I always appreciated while doing daygame in London in fact the interactions with these cultures motivated me to take my fashion more seriously and look after my health more . Again a benefit of PUA and cold approach is it opens you up to cultures that you were destined to meet - as a middle eastern man living in London with social circles predominantly made up of caucasians and Middle Easterners I never really appreciated the beauty of dressing well until I approached women that themselves looked after their appearance - which is more predominant in cultures outside the west in my opinion.





Tanner is quick to point out though that “ Dressing well and having good body language won’t make up for being socially incompetent , morally corrupt , or emotionally stunted” Of course from a daygame perspective you’re going to have to have other components nailed down. Just being well dressed isn’t going to draw women into you unless you’re on a beach in Thailand - Pataya maybe it might bring the odd gold-digger here and there but It doesn’t guarantee you anything - I know well dressed wings, rich wings even handsome wings who’ve struggled because their other components of game weren’t in place. Being socially incompetent or emotionally stunted is also a big turn off for a lot of women - of course daygame tends to attract a lot of autistic individuals in particular people with Asperger’s who even with good dress are seemingly fucked when the woman realises that the man in question is emotionally incompetent. Not to say autistic individuals can’t succeed in daygame- but a lot of them have the deck stacked against them.


“ A woman’s beauty becomes a subconscious way for men to jockey for position and status amongst ourselves” Definitely see it as a fair point especially analysing this from a pua perspective - women’s beauty is defiantly something to strive for for men - in black and white terms - as Tanner says we believe the best man gets the hottest girl - he dwells into a bit of comparison to the importance of appearance in men and women- the differences in value that both bring here- nothing transformative and a little a kin to Rollo Tomassi’s Rational male but still decent.


Tanner is against women dressing men because they have different objectives - I am personally not - in fact in 2014 - I had my female uni class mate style me and my night game results improved drastically and I stopped being insulted by women for the way I dressed but I was actually receiving compliments on my dress sense for the first time in my life at 21. Of course it depends on the woman who dresses you- in 2021 I dated a fashion stylist from South China - Guangzhou and she did an immaculate job in dressing me well and this once again improved the results and compliments I got from how I was perceived by other women. A good percentage of day gamers I met say around 50 percent were poorly dressed and didn’t have any female friends to redirect or improve this facet of their lives and I believe they could’ve done with any sort of stylist which would have markedly improved their situation - I see it as a “better than nothing “ situation. In James Marshall’s book “ a natural history” James discusses how his best wingmen were always immaculately dressed and compliments them on how the influence of said wingmen help him . Liam Mcrae’s old YouTube videos were also an influence of my fashion when he talks about investing in expensive clothing which can pay off in the long run and the importance of good fashion - he also documents how in his early life his poor quality fashion and image cost him dates and caused him flakes. The Natural Lifestyles actually had a female stylist who’s before and after YouTube videos on TNL students had a pretty obvious she had a positive effect . Overall the influence on men’s style whether it be from a female or a male can be positive from a Pua perspective and if you have females in your social circle they can be invaluable to dressing you and I’d say most women in the UK have a better direction in terms of dressing well than men especially in the pick up artist scene.


Tanner Makes a good point midway through the book:



“ From a purely rational perspective - the man who looks more physically imposing may not be smarter, more qualified, or better suited for a given task, but our DNA runs deep and that Halo Effect we discussed earlier is very real. By looking stronger and more imposing , you will be given more deference, authority, respect and admiration..”


I think this points out to the importance of ascetics in Pua- it won’t guarantee you by any means but it will make life a lot easier if you dress better - you will most likely get less blow outs too if you have a good physique - women will most likely trust you more. This doesn’t mean getting a six pack is going to get you laid all the time- but it does make life easier for you- certainly I realised my results drastically improved when I improved my dress.


Tanner goes through some interesting concepts like colours and their contrasts, I can’t really comment on this stuff as I am a big newbie when it comes to this sort of thing but it for newbies this is helpful and somewhat innovative as I believe the majority of wingmen in the Pua space never really had their fashion together or understood the importance of colour contrasts and how that could help their outfits.


In the last chapter of the book Tanner is against the outsourcing of your style- but for me personally having benefited from being dressed by women I’ve dated who worked as stylists I disagree- and in the Pua space most men dress so poorly and have no sense of identity with who they are that outsourcing it alone to female friend would be a big improvement on what they are doing now . I think most men really don’t give a shit and even a lot of dating coaches like Sasha Daygame or Nick Krauser never really dressed that well - Tom Torero himself had the leather jacket fuck boy look which most of the London daygame model followed everyone seemed to have more or less the same identity and could’ve done with someone to push them into a different direction. I think some people who like mannequin’s for a stylist could still look better than the majority of people out there in the Pua-sphere.


Tanner concludes with some important points regarding the consistency principle “One of the reasons improving ourselves can be so difficult is because we see any major change not as progress but as inconsistency” - Again this can be applied to a Pua’s journey- once I started doing daygame I was seen as different from my friendship peers- when I started dressing better I wasn’t judged so much at university in comparison to high school when I was taunted as being “gay” when I tried to make some effort with my outfit- as a result of those taunts I never put any efforts into my dress till I was about aged 20. Tanner also highlights that a lot of men are Hard wired to resist the kind of drastic change in people’s own lives “ Rather than recognise it for the improvement that it is , we retire back to our desire for consistency- even if we try to hide our desire for comfort by the use of more noble sounding terms like “authenticity” and “individualism”” Again I’ve seen this excuse from dating coaches- Sasha Daygame himself never dressed well claiming he was being authentic- but his “authenticity” itself was just his weakness and lack of desire to change. He was a dating coach but wasn’t putting effort into his dress and obviously being lazy but used “authenticity” as an excuse not to improve - and I see a lot of spiritual individuals use God or being “authentic” as an excuse not to self improve.


Conclusions -


Overall this book is balanced well with a lot of ideas that can help budding pick up artists improve their fashion and guide them towards being better in the field. Tanner has something for every man in this book and whilst I disagree with his ideology on marriage and religion I think he offers a lot of value. There’s never been a male “fashion influencer” in the men’s self development space. Tanner is the first to be this and he does the job well- aside from some shitty advice on marriage and religion on instagram I think he adds a lot of value. Is it oversimplified at times? Maybe but equally his discussion on men’s taste- chapter 10 does seem overcomplicated at least from my perspective . I think Tanner is worth following on instagram to reinforce the ideas and create inspiration for men to maintain their fashion and their looks because those attributes do make a difference in Pua whether we like them or not and for some newbies that I met in the Tom Torero meet-up in 2019 I felt a lot of beginner daygamers could do with basic fashion improvements and that said improvements would lead to plausible improvements in their dating results - some may require guidance and convincing though and I believe Tanner's book maybe just the tonic they need.

Score 8/10