When most of us go out on the town, we dress to entice.  We can spend ages selecting the perfect outfit to express ourselves.  Ultimately we end up with something stylish, sexy, and well-fitting.

From a young age, we're taught to dress in a way that makes ourselves look more attractive.  In fact, that's the purpose of clothes, isn't it?  Not just to keep us covered, not just to keep us warm, but to enhance our best features and make us look more appealing to men.

For years, I believed that only three choices were available to me: dress comfortably, dress professionally, or dress sexy.  I dressed comfortably at home.  I dressed professionally at work.  And when I went out, I dressed sexy.

It wasn't until I began to research the male pickup artist scene for a seminar talk that I realized I was missing out entirely on another category.

Dress to be noticed.

This isn't the same as dressing sexy.  Men will notice and feel attracted to a woman who enhances her curves and femininity with the right clothes.  But they will also notice women who play into different fantasies.

Women who dress goth.
Women who dress like prim and proper librarians.
Women who dress like schoolgirls.
Women who dress in Victorian gowns.

Not normal daywear, right?  But that's precisely the reason it stands out.

In the male pickup community, a pickup artist named Mystery pioneered a concept called peacocking. Just as a male peacock attracts attention by its garish fan of luminescent feathers, so a pickup artist will dress in garish, even tacky fashions to draw attention.  Think of platform boots, wigs, fake noserings, leather pants, gaudy shirts.  Think rock star fashion.

It's amazing how many people assume that a man wearing such outrageous fashions must be famous.  At the very least, people are intrigued.  They want to know more about him.  And that's one way the pickup artist attracts so many women.  Women are fascinated by the individual who's not dressed like everyone else in the club.

When I first heard the concept, I was stunned.  So it's not about being attractive?  The most important thing isn't looking good? 

Peacocking works for men.  It's been proven by pickup artists around the world.  The real question for me was: would it work for women? 

So I put it to the test.

I bought a pair of handcuffs and some knee-high black boots.  The first day, I pulled my hair back in a tight ponytail and wore the black boots, a pin-striped miniskirt, a black turtleneck, and the handcuffs clipped on the belt loops so that they'd dangle on my hip.

I got stared at.

I don't think I've ever been checked out that much in one day.

The next day, I wore skinny jeans tucked into the boots with a tight black t-shirt and the handcuffs again clipped on the belt loops.

Fewer stares, but more than a few comments in the hallways of my office building.

Does peacocking work for women?  From my brief experiment, it seems that it might.

Would you help me test this theory?  Try going out one weekend in something that you'd ordinarily never think of wearing.  Think of it like wearing a costume.  Try tight tank tops with camouflage trousers, or horn-rimmed glasses with a figure-revealing turtleneck and hair in a bun.  Pick a male fantasy and play into it.  Be fun and playful, and see what happens.

It might just start a trend. 

This weekend, I went to a "singles mingle" at a local bar known as The Grumpy Mole.  Now, the Grumpy Mole is notorious for being a meat market. It's decorated in a Wild West theme, with a stage at the far end that had played host to nude hot tub parties during the biggest singles bashes of the previous year.

This night, however, word about the "singles mingle" must not have gotten out. Despite being nearly midnight, the bar wasn't happening yet. The men and women milling about were older than the usual late teens/early twenties crowd that usually occupied the place. They nursed drinks, hunched their shoulders, and lifted their heads only to see who else was there.

I'm not sure whether it is the city or the culture, but slumping seems to be a national pasttime. I glanced across the bar and saw no one holding their body proudly. Heads were bent down. Shoulders were rounded. People kept their arms close to their sides. No one looked excited. Everyone looked, well, embarrassed to be there.

I noticed one girl in particular. She was wearing black hot pants and a wrap-around bra. Though she had a curvy figures, she held her drink closely to her chest and hunched her shoulders. With an outfit like that, she should have been displaying her curves with a chest-up bottom-out "look at me" stance. Instead, she simply looked uncomfortable and hopeful.

Conclusion? Keep your spine straight, throw your shoulders back, and look up for the world to see. Look at the mirror. Do you have a proud body? Don't keep your elbows close to your sides; let them relax. Gesture animatedly. Keep your head up.

Be the girl that men can tell at an instant has confidence in herself and loves who she is.

It was St. Patrick's Day, and I headed out to an Irish pub with my friend Daryn to celebrate the spirit of the Irish.

The pub was bustling. We made our way to the bar, and as Daryn waited for a space to open up to order, I noticed that the television above the entrance was tuned to the sports station. A game was in progress: the Cats versus the Crusaders, provincial rugby teams.

Now, I love rugby. My favorite Valentine's Day ever was spent in a pub watching the Six Nations rugby (France v. England) on a big screen, eating pizza and drinking beer in a pink-trimmed dancing dress. So I was content to stand and watch the rugby, ignoring the people streaming past me, while Daryn got drinks.

It was a rather awkward place to stand. Anyone entering the pub had to pass me in order to make their way to the back. I was too entranced with the game to move for passers-by.

When Daryn returned with the drinks, we decided to stay where we were. A fascinating thing begin to happen.

"All those guys are checking you out," Daryn said.

"What?" I hadn't even noticed.

"Seriously. That one guy just walked past and even turned his head back to look again."

"Naah." I laughed.

But over the next hour, it kept happening again and again. Guys would come into the pub and give me a sweeping gaze of appreciation before passing on to the bar or further back into the room.

Guys check women out. It's in their nature. But to be checked out so often in such a short period of time could only mean one thing.

I was standing in prime territory.

Every man who came into the pub had to look at me. I was standing right in his line of sight, facing him. Best of all, my gaze was focused on the game, which gave him the opportunity to check me out without my noticing.

Where you stand in a bar or club can determined whether you get noticed or ignored. There's a reason that wallflowers don't get asked to dance. The corners of a bar or club are often quite dark, hiding those lingering on the edges. However, the people standing in the middle of the bar, close to the flow of traffic, with their fronts (not backs) facing the door are the clever ones. They'll be the first to get seen.

Location, location, location. Think about it the next time you go out.