In May Ken Hoinsky launched a Kickstarter fundraiser to self-publish his book called Above the Game: A Guide to Getting Awesome with Women. Hoinsky has been publishing his pick-up advice on Reddit, under the name TofuTofu—some of his tips include shit like "Give a reward and then take it away," and "Pick the girl up and put her on your lap—don't ask for permission."

Upon discovering his seemingly pro-assault advice, a lot of people asked Kickstarter to remove the fundraiser, but they didn't—Hoinsky, who was originally hoping to get $2,000, made over $16,000 from over 700 backers.

On Friday Kickstarter apologized for not pulling the fundraiser, said they'd no longer allow "seduction guides" on the site, and they'd be donating $25,000 to RAINN.

Today Hoinsky posted a video response to the criticism he's received, apologizing for and acknowledging that he chose some very poor words:

I fully admit that there are parts in the book where the words could easily be misconstrued and there are indeed parts in the book that are harmful, and seeing this and realizing that has absolutely given me the motivation and the drive to completely revise all the parts that could be harmful to readers. So I've gotten in touch with organizations like DoSomething.org and some of the leading anti-rape and anti-abuse organizations in the United States to sit down and go through the draft and basically fulfill my mission of changing people's lives without having to worry about people misconstruing something and committing a sexual assault because of it.

I'm committed to this mission, I'm also committed to having a public dialogue—unlike what we've seen at Kickstarter—about these issues and see if we can solve it once and for all.

Solve what, exactly? Solve his bad wording? Solve rape culture? Solve the fact that some men feel like they have trouble picking up women? It's a sincere apology, sure, but the theme of it also seems to stick with the message that while he'd like to publish a book that doesn't condone assault, the most important thing here is that he still gets to publish the book.

I, for one, don't think books like this need to exist at all—at least not when framed in a man vs. woman, "Women: How do they work?" sort of way. I don't understand why a lonely, straight man would turn to another straight man for advice on how to interact with women. Save your money and ask a woman, genius!

When a basic human interaction like dating is broken down as though there are tricks and/or shortcuts, then it reads like a game where the woman (or, at least, access to the woman's vagina) is considered the prize. Women are not video games—there are no cheat codes.

Of course, in working with smart organizations, it's possible that Hoinsky's book will rise above that (as the title of his book implies), and Above the Game will actually become something worth reading and something that, as he said, will "make the world a better place." Acknowledging that he can't write this book without more input (a woman's input, for example!) is, at the very least, a good place to start.

Hoinsky hopes to continue the dialogue at Abovethegame.info (nothing's been posted yet), and there's more info at Rawstory.com. And, if you want to hear more about his intent with the book, there's an interview with him on theAwl.com, too.