Julien Blanc

Julien Blanc (born c.1989) is a Swiss-born, California based pickup artist (PUA).

Blanc's seminars and methods

Blanc, an instructor for Real Social Dynamics (RSD), has described himself as an "international leader in dating advice", touring the United States and the rest of the world to advise men on how to date and have sex with women. In the language he and others use, he instructs men to "game" their "targets." With his help such individuals can "become a true pimp with the highest abundance of hot women in the shortest amount of time". According to Blanc a lot of his clients meet their spouses on his programs.

Blanc's courses range from a 'Freetour', to a collection of instructional videos, to a 'boot camp'. These courses cost from a minimum of a completely refundable $20 (£13) to $497 (£312) for the videos plus a ticket to a live event. With the addition of 'boot camps' to the package, the price rises to $2,000 (£1,250). Until the controversy closed the page down in November 2014, customers paying for the more expensive options also gained access to Blanc's Facebook account which asserted that men could "Make Girls BEG To Sleep With You After SHORT-CIRCUITING Their Emotional And Logical Mind."

Julien Blanc has been under a lot of stress from the media. In the opinion of Chinese-American activist Jenn Li, Blancs teachings involve "teaching men how to manipulate, and in some cases, sexually assault women." On Facebook, Blanc's page had a pie chart with a central circle labeled "Power and Coercion." Originally developed by the charity Domestic Abuse Intervention (known as the Duluth model) of Minnesota in the United States, it was designed as an aid enabling women to confirm that they were suffering from domestic abuse perpetuated by their partners, but the purpose behind its use has been drastically altered. Above the chart Blanc put the following text: "May as well be a checklist… #HowToMakeHerStay." (A tweet with the wheel has been deleted.). The segments, use a bullet format for the text, and are labeled how to "use coercion and threats", "use intimidation", "use emotional abuse", "use isolation", "deny, blame and minimise", "use children", "use economic abuse", "use male privilege." However, Blanc publicly stated that he does not teach this and that this chart is actually in the opposite direction of what he teaches and that he just posted the image to mock it. Blanc, on his website, describes his methods: "it's offensive, it's inappropriate, it's emotionally scarring, but it’s damn effective… just kidding…"

In one video seminar, recorded in Tokyo, Blanc demonstrates techniques which include the grabbing of random women by the throat on the street and the forcing of women's heads towards his groin. Blanc has been accused of bigotry and racism. "At least in Tokyo, if you’re a white male, you can do what you want," comments Blanc in the same recording. "I’m just romping through the streets, just grabbing girls' heads, just like, head, pfft on the dick. Head, on the dick, yelling, 'pikachu', with a pikachu shirt." Blanc uses the hashtag #ChokingGirlsAroundTheWorld on social media to promote his activities. "I think Julien’s video was absolutely stupid," wrote RSD co-founder Owen Cook, known as "Tyler" online, on their company's website. "It was totally out of context and he posted it to get shock, not realizing the full outcome. I’m sorry about the video."

One seminar is called "How to destroy her Bitch Shield," which involves commanding a woman to "Get down on your knees, call me Master, and BEG ME to kiss you…" Somayya Ismailjee, a writer from Perth, Australia commented in an article for theguardian.com website: "The instruction and promotion of abuse and the total violation of consent is this company’s stock in trade." That it is a profitable enterprise "is a testament to the extent to which our society accepts rampant rape culture." However, she never posted proof of him violating any woman's consent.

Andy J. Semotiuk in Forbes magazine commented that Blanc "operates from the view that men like him are intellectual superiors whose primitive needs must be fulfilled by women whose role in life is to subordinate themselves to the likes of Blanc and his followers." Lindy West in The Guardian called Blanc "an odious brand of conman who specialises in 'helping' lonely, desperate, socially inept men by turning them into repulsive, entitled, sexually aggressive creeps with horrible fashion sense." According to Sarah Green of the British-based End Violence Against Women Coalition: "At worst this tells victims of abuse that what has happened to them doesn't matter, and gives potential abusers the nod that such behaviour will not be taken seriously."

Julien Blanc publicly apologised on CNN for his actions shown on the material he put online, stating that it was merely an attempt at humour which was taken completely out of context by the media. For instance, Blanc stated that in a picture he posted online of him "choking" a woman, he wasn't choking the woman at all, but just put his hands around her neck. He stated that he posted the picture online to provoke shock and that this is not what he teaches.

Petitions and overseas visits (November 2014)

Jenn Li, a woman of East Asian descent who lives in Washington D.C., was particularly repelled by the video seminar concerning Japanese women. She created the #TakeDownJulienBlanc campaign in response to Blanc's activities. Jenn Li's campaign began on November 2, 2014.

Australia

On November 6, 2014, a seminar held by Julien Blanc in Melbourne was canceled after an online petition. There were over 25,000 signature and 3 hotels banned Blanc's seminar. The seminar was held instead on a boat moored on the Yarra River in Southbank, Melbourne, which was location where protesters gathered and the event was disbanded by Victoria Police. Protesters also petitioned to have Blanc deported from Australia.

It emerged on November 7, 2014 that his visa to enter Australia had been revoked, after the protests, and he had left the country overnight. Blanc and his associate had planned to remain in Australia continuing their tour until December. Australia's Immigration minister Scott Morrison told Sky News: "This guy wasn’t putting forward political ideas, he was putting forward abuse that was derogatory to women ... those are values abhorred in this country." "Not exactly true as everyone knows," observed blogger Jane Kelly on the website of Britain's Salisbury Review.

Japan, South Korea and Brazil

A series of events were also planned for Japan in November 2014, but a petition organized in the country by Jake Adelstein gained 32,588 names within 3 days. Concern was raised by Japanese customs officials that Blanc had not had a proper work permit on the earlier visit to Tokyo, and the relevant video appear to show him committing "forcible indecency" (kyōsei waisetsu), a serious criminal act in Japan. The scheduled "boot camps" in Japan and also in Canada were canceled by RSD until further notice around 13 November out of a fear that their instructor's safety could not be guaranteed. Contact would be via Twitter and YouTube instead.

Blanc was denied visas to enter Brazil and South Korea and his Facebook page was deactivated. In the strict sense, Blanc had not been denied a visa to Brazil because he hadn't applied for one, but the Brazilian Foreign Ministry indicated that he would not gain entry to the country. They were reported as saying that there were "enough elements" in available information for a visa application to be disallowed; events are scheduled for January 2015. The authorities in South Korea, the Border Control Division of the Korea Immigration Service, made a similar response with Blanc said to be unlikely to gain entry there, although a formal ban was yet to made by November 14. Reportedly scheduled to visit in December, but now on hold, Blanc activities run against the "morals and customs" of the country an anonymous official told South Korean journalist, Lee Tae-hoon.

United Kingdom

A petition in the UK, which had begun by November 10, was organized by a City of London worker, Caroline Charles (not her real name), who urged the British government to block Blanc's admission into the country. Reports have suggested that he is planning to visit the country in February 2015 to deliver a series of seminars. By November 14, 2014, 110,000 people had signed the petition. It emerged on this day that Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary (Labour), had written to the home secretary Theresa May saying that his attitudes amounted to incitement to violence against women, and his potential presence to the UK would not be "conducive to the public good."

Marina Hyde in The Guardian thought that "those demanding Blanc be banned ought to ask: has a crime been committed? If it has, then the campaign should focus on demanding it be investigated" pointing to the concerns raised about the Tokyo video. She also thought that "a ban is next to pointless" because in the internet age "[i]deas do not have borders." Deana Puccio of the RAP project has said: "Anyone that promotes criminal behaviour, we should not tolerate. That's what Blanc is doing - he is promoting sexual assault against women." Although he was not defending Blanc ("an oily creep"), Martin Daubney, an ex-editor of lads' mag Loaded thought that Change.org, the web host of the petitions, had "become a weapon of outright censorship" which is "contrary to the very cornerstones of freedom of speech." Andy J. Semotiuk, an immigration lawyer practicing in both Canada and the US, wrote "[l]et us greet Blanc with the derision and condemnation he deserves. In our desire to condemn his views, we must beware that we do not condemn our democracy or imperil our freedom in the process."