“Seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person,
to engage in a relationship, to lead astray,
as from duty, rectitude, or the like;” (Wikipedia)
as from duty, rectitude, or the like;” (Wikipedia)
Although it’s often been used as a sexual-conquest tool
seduction can also apply to so many aspects of our lives. Marketing gimmicks
attempt to seduce the consumer, politicians seduce their followers into voting
for them, realtors seduce their clients into homes beyond their budgets, and
even some job hunters are seduced into taking relocating for jobs that sound a
whole lot better on paper than reality. Seduction is a tease, a front of only
selected facts which may be far from the whole truth. Seduction is a way to entice
someone to do something they might not have if they had the full story in front
of them.
Most sexual seduction is NOT sexy — it’s one partner tempting
the other to engage in sex based on promises and conditions that (intentionally)
might not be accurate. Seduction is trickery. Please excuse the metaphor, but
seduction is something a “snake-oil-salesman” would do. In the instances where
seduction is used in a true romantic setting, it is a way of using sensuality
to tempt, not lies and half-filled truths. The seduced comes out of the
encounter feeling cheated. Sexual seduction has frequently been used in romance
novels in very “hot” scenes in order to grab a reader’s imagination and
interest. Seduction has also been used in instructional guides telling men AND
women the various techniques they could use to “win” their way into bed with a
partner. Face it, alluring is sexy, trickery is just a lie.
Television commercials try to seduce the viewer every 8-to-10
minutes: “Come buy this product”; your clothes will be so clean it’s almost as
if you didn’t even have to wash them; how about the more blatant sexy female
model who shows up to help you decide which soda machine to choose for your
cola or the housewife who is bored by her husband’s sloppy loungewear while she
eats yogurt and suddenly she is facing a very attractive male actor. The
possibilities seem like dream come true, but they really aren’t.
Cynical or not, most politicians will tell their would-be
constituents what they want to hear and not necessarily the truth (even if it
is just a few unmentioned facts). Folks go off to the polls believing in what
they heard only to find in later years exactly how much they were never told
and may even regret being led astray from the “other guy” they had planned to
vote for. And even that job offer you received that came with a salary at least
25-percent higher than what you earn now is certainly enticing, but what the
offer fails to tell you is that the cost of living where you would have to
relocate to is a minimum of 38-percent higher than where you are living now.
Be wary of being seduced. Don’t be coerced or shamed into
doing anything you might not have considered. Truth is a heck of a lot
sexier and certainly more rewarding than deception.
