Julien Blanc, also known as RSD Julien, is a self-described “executive dating coach” seemingly without a conscience. In expensive seminars held in hotels around the world the Real Social Dynamics instructor teaches men to “Make Girls BEG To Sleep With You After SHORT-CIRCUITING Their Emotional And Logical Mind,” as his breathless promo material puts it.
What this means in practice? Manipulation, mind-fuckery and in some cases outright physical assault — none of which he makes any attempts to hide.
Indeed, a video Julien himself put out in September showed the “dating” guru working his particular magic on unsuspecting Japanese women — by putting them in headlocks and/or pushing their heads to his crotch.
In footage from one of his recent workshops, he told a roomful of hopeful creeps that in Tokyo,
if you’re a white male, you can do what you want. … I’m just romping through the streets,just grabbing girls’ heads, just like, head, pfft on the dick.
After discovering a video featuring some of this footage — the one I’ve embedded at the top of this page — feminist activist Jennifer Li set up a petition on Change.org urging the Como Melbourne hotel, and other hotels hosting Real Social Dynamics seminars, to boot Julian and his comrades, charging them with “[making] a living by teaching men how to violate women through physical and emotional abuse.”
Li also started up the hashtag #TakeDownJulienBlanc in order to spread the news and organize opposition to Julien’s seminars.
It worked. The video featuring Julien’s abusive tactics went viral, racking up a quarter million pageviews on YouTube, and the petition quickly garnered nearly fifteen thousand signatures.
And the Como Melbourne hotel listened:
Following an objective review, we are in the process of advising Real Social Dynamics of our decision not to proceed as their event venue.
— The Como Melbourne (@ComoMelbourne) November 4, 2014
[UPDATE: RSD quickly rescheduled the event at a different location.]
Li and the other #TakeDownJulienBlanc organizers are now aiming their sights on hotels hosting other RSD events in Seattle and Austin, Texas. Anonymous has also gotten into the action.
It’s easy to see why the #TakeDownJulienBlanc campaign has spread so quickly. Pickup artists are a sleazy, manipulative and generally pretty amoral bunch But “RSD Julien” takes PUA creepiness to a whole new level, teaching his acolytes a form of “pickup artistry” that bears a strong resemblance to domestic abuse.
In his promo material, he boasts that his approach is
Offensive, It’s Inappropriate, It’s Emotionally Scarring, BUT IT’S DAMN EFFECTIVE
He tries to pass this off as a joke, but it’s really not; his techniques are clearly abusive.
I pointed out some of his bizarre gaslighting tricks in a post last year. But if anything he seems to have gotten worse since then.
Indeed, Julien recently Tweeted a picture of the Duluth Power and Control wheel, a tool used by anti-DV activists to highlight abusive behavior, declaring it to be a handy “checklist” of techniques to use to “MakeHerStay.” (Another sleazeball pickup guru I’ve written about a lot, Heartiste, also claims to have found inspiration in the Duluth wheel.)
And then there’s what Julien calls the “Choke Opener,” which he has documented in a series of pics showing him with his hand around the throats of assorted women, all of which he’s helpfully tagged with #ChokingGirlsAroundTheWorld.
As Julien sees it, these, er, pickup techniques enable men to, as he declares in all-caps on his site, to
DEVELOP PANTY-DROPPING MASCULINITY WITH THIS ROCK-SOLID STRUCTURE TO SELF-GENERATE THE POWERFUL EMOTIONS GIRLS CRAVE
Well, he’s generated some powerful emotions, all right, though I don’t think anger and disgust were the ones he was going for.
Let’s also not forget that if a Native American woman is assaulted on tribal lands by a non-Native man, the tribal police can’t do anything about it and the victim must rely on federal courts that are hundreds of miles away to take care of it.
Then there’s undocumented immigrant women who can’t report for fear she and/or her family will be deported.
Then there’s also women and girls (for example Elizabeth Smart) who are in a conservative religious culture that values purity above all else and are made to feel like damaged goods after an assault.
Just three examples of how patriarchal, racist and classist rape culture makes “just call the cops” not a viable solution. I wish it were that simple. It is not.
Trigger warning.
http://jezebel.com/why-reporting-to-police-isnt-the-solution-to-the-colleg-1578988324
The interesting part of this is that Kevin seems to mean well, and he doesn’t approve of men assaulting women. Those are good things! Nevertheless, his privilege-blindness has turned him into a victim-blamey douche, and he has a bad case of the mansplanations. A good example of why meaning well isn’t enough to make an ally.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/06/why_cops_don_t_believe_rape_victims_and_how_brain_science_can_solve_the.html
Here locally the police finally said they were sorry to the rape victim that they hounded and prosecuted and put in jail for a false allegation that was not false. Her description of events was not perfect, you see. And we all know that if you are going to accuse a man in the US your description of events needs to be perfect, impeccable, and unimpeachable. When the rapist continued to rape women in the area until he was finally caught and one of the rape trophy pictures was of the woman they refused to believe
they said sorry.
That’s right. They said sorry and gave her back the fine they had levied against her for failing to convince them that she had been raped. You might recognize that. It is called rape culture.
If he meant well, he’d be fucking listening and not accusing us of “whining” and “wallowing in victimhood”. He would recognize that being victimised isn’t actually enjoyable. He does not mean well.
In my opinion Kevin’s problem is that he is refusing to take no for an answer.
Alright, nevermind, I wanted to give Kevin the benefit of the doubt in case he had good intentions behind his wrongness, but no, he’s a boring-ass fuckwitted troll and just wants to blame the victims like every other boring-ass fuckwitted troll. Ugh. Sorry, all.
Shut up, Kevin.
It isn’t one experience, Kevin. It is history.
kirbywarp sez:
For real. And I, as a fairly privileged person, can’t trust them even when they’d probably be on “my” side. There’s a high probability they will do terrible, counterproductive things to protect not me me but my whiteness and my relative wealth and so on.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Policy of Madness sez:
Actually, I’d like an acknowledgement from the stupid fucker that I tried that and it didn’t really go my way.
Hear that, Kevin K? Even if you think I did something else wrong by not getting the police involved, you need to accept that kneeing my assaulter in the groin earned me a trip to the hospital even without him escalating.
Trigger warning police brutality
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/25/victim-of-sex-assualt-sues-russell-williams-police-for-7-million/
I remember when I tried to report my superintendent for sexually harassing me. The only reason the NYPD didn’t label it a “domestic problem” was because I refused to go out on a date with him.
I suppose if I had caved to the dozens of texts, requests, gifts etc. it would just be a charming how we met story to the cops.
I still would call the cops if I needed help but I’m never that confident they’re going to help me out. In that last case all the detective did was call Miguel and told him to leave me be. I had to get him fired for that to *actually* happen.
Not long ago there was a discussion about panhandlers and how sometimes it doesn’t feel safe to blow them off. A dude there, whom I didn’t know well, presented the “just kick them in the balls if you feel threatened” advice, and lead with “I’m going to let you in on a secret about men.”
I’m afraid I wasn’t very kind to his feelings.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/09/15/new_york_times_on_the_laughable_tallahassee_police_response_to_sexual_assault.html
I notice that Kevin never bothered to address my “in fact I did report”. Guess his worldview won’t let him read words that mean he’s wrong.
Ok one more and I’m done giving Kevin a free education.
Content warning. http://thefreethoughtproject.com/400000-rape-kits-untested-police-drugs-tested-time/
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llfe2kZbTd1qackwxo1_400.gif
Really no point to talking to Kevin, is there? He has clearly established that he is going to keep repeating the same points no matter what everyone else thinks.
Nice links, Shaun!
If those links don’t convince you, Kevin K, here’s a personal anecdote: When I was the victim of a home invasion, the cops came, led the perp out of my house in handcuffs, threw him in the drunk tank, and let him go the next morning (I do not believe he was drunk, but had splashed booze on himself – excreted alcohol smells different than splashed on alcohol). They did not take statements from either myself or my partner. It wasn’t until the next day, when my head nurse asked her neighbour (the local RCMP detachment’s inspector), about the guy who broke into ‘her nurse’s’ house that the constable even came back to my house and took my statement. As far as I know, dude was never rearrested or charged.
Why were they so inept? Apparently, I was incoherent on the 911 call, and when the cops arrived, my husband was sweating and flustered. Do I need to add that it was 0250h and my oldest child was 9 months at the time? Of course I was incoherent. But, somehow, the responding officers assumed that we had been partying with the intruder.
The cops might be your friend, Kevin K, but they are not mine.
@Kevin
As side note, I don’t get how someone discussing the many situations where reporting assaults to cops has zero or even a negative effect has anything to do with the “false equivalency fallacy”. What things were WWTH falsely equating? It seems like you’re arguing that she’s over-generalizing, but you bolster that argument by explaining why she’s wrong rather than throwing out random fallacies.
A very minor point but it bugged me because I’m so very sick of “fallacy named, therefore you’re wrong and I win” internet debate strategy.
I can see that shit got serious in here with ‘splaining Kevin K and his general fuckery, but I need some advice about further activism in a particular situation now:
So in the UK there is the Metro newspaper. It’s a standard free newspaper you can get at any train station, it’s mostly neither good nor evil.
Anyway someone thought it would be a good idea to make James Blunt an ‘Agony Aunt’ for the Metro newspaper. Maybe because he has a tour, maybe because all the good celebrities were taken, who knows.
Today he comes out with this magnificent bullshit in answer to a relationship question about someone’s sex life:
“Dear James,
My girlfriend and I are going through a bit of a dry patch. We’ve been together for just over two years and used to make love every day. Now I’m lucky if I get any action once a month. She says she is happy and loves me but is always too tired for sex. What can I do to spice up our sex life?
Josh, Kingston
Dear Josh,
A dry patch… Hehe! Mate – dump her. We’ve got to send a message to girls worldwide that this is just not acceptable.”
This is, I suspect, supposed to be some kind of joke. It is hard to tell because Blunt lacks both humour and the ability to be more engaging than your basic handful of dryer-lint.
Even if this were a joke it is still fucking offensive because it has a grain of truth: men feel entitled to sex and sexual attentions from women. This is why we have rape culture, this is why we have those catcalling videos going around now, this is why we have repulsive PUA’s spreading their borderline (and not-so-borderline) abusive crap among male audiences telling them how to manipulate women into having sex with them, and to insult them when they won’t (“You’re not pretty enough to turn me down”).
And THAT is what is not acceptable: that we still have a culture that says that people are entitled to sex, that it is not a thing to be given freely but something to which people have a right, something they can demand of others.
I feel like someone needs to clarify for him that if you are in a relationship you do not automatically have sex-rights for the use of someone else’s body. This is not some fundamental right being denied you, and your sad boner is far less important than someone’s right to their own bodily autonomy and sexual freedom.
So screw James Blunt. He has actually managed to be even worse than just the boring waste of airtime he used to be: now he’s a total dickhead.
What can I do about it? I have sent critical ‘letters to the editor’ -type messages to the Metro before (unrelated to this incident) but they never publish them. Who would even listen to me? Who can I tell? This needs to be spoken out against because it is fucking poisonous, but I don’t know where to start.
I know Australia has Destroy the Joint for this, but what about the UK?
original link: https://metro.co.uk/2014/11/05/exclusive-a-dry-patch-dump-her-james-blunt-tackles-metro-readers-problems-in-his-to-be-blunt-column-4935652/
@ saphy – That’s gross. I don’t know that there is much you can do, TBH. But maybe spread the column around and get some people behind it? If they get one outraged letter, they can write it off, but if they get a few, they might listen.
Besides, it’s inefficient. It’s blunt pain, easily dulled by adrenaline and without any impacts on vital organs or actual mobility. Sure, it hurts, but unless you can apply enough force with your attack to liquefy certain spherical elements of the general male anatomy, it’s also almost useless and only serves to make someone angry. What you really want to do is to hit someone in the throat, kidney, solar plexus, ear, nose, knee or foot. Those are fragile and connected to several nerve hotspots, plus, mostly involved in reception of sensory stimuli.
So not only is it wrong advice, it’s incorrect advice given for a wrong reason, liable to lead to more pain for you than the guy you’re kicking. It’s a cornucopia of wrong!
Oh, look. I do martial arts. I go to the gym. I sometimes fight with actual swords wearing actual plate armor, and I enjoy all that. I find it fun. In the quiet parts of my brain that I try to avoid using as much as possible, I guess I kind of think of myself as at least capable of defending myself.
But, reader, to steal a smug, condescending phrase: “Here’s a tip about people” – if their first advice upon you saying: “Someone grabbed me” is to tell you to respond with violence, then those people are fucking wrong and atrociously idiotic, plus, jesus christ, the kind of people who freely and happily think assault is a viable, reasonable response to a given activity. Who does that? Who goes straight to “Disable and hurt”?! What the fuck?
How about starting with: “say: “Hey, don’t do that”” or “My advice: Survive, then go find people and safety” or “Run away very fast!”.
Going straight for the violent option indicates a certain lack of respect for the basic rights of other people, a too broad willingness to use pain, an inconsiderate approach to others (My 60 year old mother is badass, but I bloody well doubt she can just kick a guy with her back being the way it is) and a fucking atrocious conflict resolution mechanism in the first place.
Grrr!
Fibi, right there with you.
After teaching the standard self defense moves, my Taekwondo instructor would have us attempt to make up some of our own. He only really had two rules:
First Rule: Get out of arms reach (or) break their hold.
Second Rule: Run like hell.
Disabling them was a third priority ONLY IF those two rules weren’t an option, i.e. weapon, ridiculously strong hold, other stuff.
While groin attacks can be effective, he generally cautioned against them. Getting an effective strike against the groin is ridiculously hard when half the population is wearing Carharts…