US 'pick-up artist' Julien Blanc forced to leave Australia after visa cancelled

[RA89]

Controversial US “pick-up artist” Julien Blanc has cut short his Australian tour after having his visa cancelled in the wake of protests against his seminars, which promote dangerous and abusive behaviour towards women.

“We can confirm Julien Blanc left Australia overnight,” Victorian police said on Twitter. “His assistant is also due to leave shortly.” The pair had planned to stay until December.

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said Blanc’s visa was cancelled Thursday night.

“The matter was raised with us and we had it investigated and this fellow looked at,” Morrison told Sky News on Friday.

“This guy wasn’t putting forward political ideas, he was putting forward abuse that was derogatory to women and that’s just something, those are values abhorred in this country.”

Australians were outraged after discovering Blanc, a so-called “date coach”, was holding seminars to teach men how to “pick up” women using physical force and emotional abuse.

Venues in Melbourne refused to host his events after protesters highlighted his videos, Twitter feeds and photos promoting violence against women and abuse as a means of attracting them.

Blanc’s assistant then attempted to hold a seminar on a boat on Melbourne’s Yarra river on Thursday night, which a handful of men paid to attend.

Protesters rallied along the river and also trailed the pair by boat, and Melbourne River Cruises cancelled the event as soon as they were told what was happening. In the end police escorted the men off the vessel.

Blanc’s abortive visit comes as Victoria grapples with the devastating impact of family violence, with the deaths of 29 women and eight children at the hands of violent men in the past year.

Victorian police commissioner Ken Lay, who has consistently worked to end violence against women, was so disturbed by Blanc’s behaviour that he released a statement Friday condemning it.

“I’ve seen Julien Blanc’s work,” he said. “To me most of it appears to be deeply disturbing and offensive. Labelling women as objects and actively promoting the abuse of women degrades the dignity of our whole community.

“We want to assure everyone that we have been paying close attention to this issue and appreciate that so many community members have expressed concern.”

Some people have been critical to the response against Blanc, saying it only gives him more underserved attention.

But Lay said he was proud Victorians had taken a stand, saying “it gives me confidence that we are moving in the right direction”.

Blanc began his seminars in Sydney last week, but the movement against him had gained significant momentum by the time he reached Melbourne.

The #takedownjulienblanc Twitter campaign led by online activist Jennifer Li helped spread word of his talks, and an anti-Blanc Facebook page also emerged. An online petition urged Morrison to deport him.

Protesters holding placards with slogans such as “destroy rape culture” followed Blanc wherever he went.

Neither Blanc nor his company have responded to requests for comment. According to his tour schedule, he is due to appear next in Japan.

“Just go through Tokyo, grab girls and yell ‘Pikachu’ and put her head on your dick”, Blanc instructs his audience before showing footage of himself doing just that. This is nothing short of a lesson teaching how to rape.

footage from a seminar in Japan

+ YouTube Video

PUA are the worst, their followers are pathetic too.

[Loony Le Fist]

Disgusting, eh?

I opened PUA Turning into Sexual Harassment. I suppose the two might need to be merged.

[RA89]

Sorry mate didn't see your thread. Would appreciate if a mod could add these posts to Loony's thread.

Very disgusting, his game is basically a way to screen for women who lack confidence/assertiveness and will go along with something even if they don't like it.
He knows that women who have courage/more self-worth won't put up with his shit, so he seeks to pick out more vulnerable ones.

It's concerning that he has a lot of success with his tactics. Also worrying that so many guys will pay money to attend seminars and whatnot.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Glad to see this, hopefully it's a trend for the future

[Loony Le Fist]

Sorry mate didn't see your thread. Would appreciate if a mod could add these posts to Loony's thread.

No need for any apologies. I'm happy I'm not the only one noticing these things.

Very disgusting, his game is basically a way to screen for women who lack confidence/assertiveness and will go along with something even if they don't like it.
He knows that women who have courage/more self-worth won't put up with his shit, so he seeks to pick out more vulnerable ones.

That's exactly what it is. It screens for a particular set of personality traits. Those traits are pretty common however. There's not a whole lot of confident people in this world in general.

It's concerning that he has a lot of success with his tactics. Also worrying that so many guys will pay money to attend seminars and whatnot.

He does this because most people don't know how to respond. That is the entire basis of the tactics. Pull people out of the ordinary and shake them out of their pre-programmed responses. This is a double edged sword. On the one hand, it's cool to break people out of social conditioning, and perhaps help them re-evaluate a situation. On the other, it becomes easier to manipulate people when you break them out of those pre-programmed responses.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I watched the videos and it was also interesting/concerning that there were women in some of the seminar videos, clapping and smiling along to what he was saying like the other attendees.

[Rosa Partizan]

I watched the videos and it was also interesting/concerning that there were women in some of the seminar videos, clapping and smiling along to what he was saying like the other attendees.

internalized misogyny. Been there, done that.

[Loony Le Fist]

I watched the videos and it was also interesting/concerning that there were women in some of the seminar videos, clapping and smiling along to what he was saying like the other attendees.

internalized misogyny. Been there, done that.

Would you also say that peer pressure is involved here? Is internalized misogyny a type of peer pressure? Is it a result of peer pressure eating away at one's own development of self-identity? Maybe these women might have different thoughts when pulled away from the group and the associated social pressure. They might even be paid to be there. Just curious to hear your thoughts.

[Rosa Partizan]

there's definitely a lot of pressure to consider these things cool that guys like. If you don't laugh about sexist jokes, downplay male harassment, don't condone porn and prostitution, you get the label of a bore, a prude, a man-hater and much more. Actually, this is, apart from a slut, the worst thing you can be. As a woman, you can't win either way.

[Rad]

There are lots of desperate men out there. They make a good market. Clever guys exploit this market, claim to have a magic potion that would attract women etc. etc. It is all about the market at the end of the day. Our behavior is practically dictated by the market mechanism.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Having read the Neil Strauss book about the PUA community, I imagined recalling experiences from the book that the women in the audience were the PUAs 'conquests' and were there to support the scumbags at their seminars.

Internalised misogyny is a strange thing. I tend to think that it's more likely when gender oppression isn't combined with another form of oppression or exploitation. For example, it seems most likely that a white, middle-class/bourgeois women is far more likely to internalise patriarchal values than, for example, a black working class single mother, simply because the wealthier white woman may have been insulated from some forms of oppression/exploitation (for example, they may not have worked, may not have had to take public transport at night).

Of course, that is no more than my own theory. I wonder if anybody has anything to add to that. If they do, that'd be great.

[Atsumari]

Idiotic dudes like him are always forgetting that white dudes are not the sexy guys in Asia that make all the Asian men jealous, it is the Koreans.
This attitude reminds me of the Saudi exchange students I met who think they all American girls are naturally slutty and thinks they are doing them a service/asking for it by outright molesting them sometimes.

And on the topic of internalized hate, it happens to any social group desperately trying to fit it. It happened in Argentina with the second generation immigrants who did not want to be associated with the radical anti-capitalist politics of their parents, it happens to African Americans who want to appear like the people who "made it" and stopped complaining, and it is very prevalent with Asian Americans who want to do everything they can to integrate at the expense of their well being. It sucks to be an outcast, that's all.

[Half Commie]

there's definitely a lot of pressure to consider these things cool that guys like. If you don't laugh about sexist jokes, downplay male harassment, don't condone porn and prostitution, you get the label of a bore, a prude, a man-hater and much more. Actually, this is, apart from a slut, the worst thing you can be. As a woman, you can't win either way.

Sorry for bumping, don't know if it's against the rules... but aren't men more objects than women in porn? When was the last time you saw a man's face in mainstream porn? I think that pornography has been very important to progressively desexualize female bodies!

[Palmares]

What do you actually mean? When you mean men are more "objects", are you referring to the male gaze? Or? And how does pornography "progressively desexualize female bodies"?

I'm confused.

[Redistribute the Rep]

Sorry for bumping, don't know if it's against the rules... but aren't men more objects than women in porn? When was the last time you saw a man's face in mainstream porn? I think that pornography has been very important to progressively desexualize female bodies!

It doesn't sound like you know what it means to be objectified. When we talk about objectification, we mean the portrayal of someone as not having agency. Porn is generally made for a male audience, and the male actors play the role of a sort of blank canvas, if you will, so the man watching can imagine himself as the actor. In this sense, the male actor is most certainly the subject, whereas the females are there solely to be acted upon. That the males face is not included would seem to substantiate the idea of porn as female objectification, as it supports this "blank canvas" type of porn in which male viewers can feel they involved. The last sentence of your post is so laughable I don't even think it needs to be addressed.

[Loony Le Fist]

In this sense, the male actor is most certainly the subject, whereas the females are there solely to be acted upon.

Exactly. The female is generally the object in heterosexual porn. What is your opinion in the case of gay porn, however?

[Half Commie]

What do you actually mean? When you mean men are more "objects", are you referring to the male gaze? Or? And how does pornography "progressively desexualize female bodies"?

I'm confused.

What I mean is that we no longer get aroused by seeing an ankle. Sex becomes "normal".

[Red Son]

As the stereotypes in the Fosters ads say - 'Good call'