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.
I am Team French Toast.
So was our cat Sweet Pea.
I’m still mad at her for that.
I’m nowhere near a good coffee house right now, and that sucks royally.
Oh, no! Shiraz, that truly saddens me.
::sends Shiraz excellent virtual organic fair trade coffee bean::
Crap, now I want ALL the breakfast food! I think I might do that for my birthday. Breakfast sushi (eggs, bacon, and caramelized onions), red velvet pancakes, and crepes with ham, cheese and lettuce. Possibly bacon. I’ll save the french toast for our annual Christmas breakfast – I make a mean french toast casserole that has a praline topping and is made of awesome.
Breakfast is my favorite meal. And honestly, it’s sometimes cheaper to make french toast roll ups with jam than an actual dinner. Even just a pile of scrambled eggs and a slice of toast is yummy.
French toast, waffles, crepes, bavon, and flavored coffee…mmmmm nom nom
Totally had the wrong thing for dinner
Pancakes, crepes and waffles are ok, though I think you’re overdoing the sweet additions, but what I truly love is real hash browns.
You don’t get them in Britain sadly, but when I was in the States I ate them constantly. Double hash browns with cheese, ham and onions served with steak and salad with golden dressing at a highway Waffle House..perfection!
I’m Team Museli and Hot Chocolate for breakfast. Breakfast out of the house is for when I’m at a hotel. 🙂
Yes, I had that for breakfast 🙂
thebewilderness sez:
Sponges which somehow make the sweetness of syrup disappear so you have to put ten times as much on them and give yourself diabetes.
Basically, pancakes are assholes.
Thanks, grumpyoldnurse! **sipping** Mmmmm.
If I had a penguin waffle iron my 5 year old would never allow me to make any other food ever again. Because penguins.
I am Ukrainian so crepes are stuffed with cottage cheese and b aked in cream and served with either a green onion and dill sauce (sour cream with salt, green onion, and dill) or jam. Although I do wrap the kids’ around strawberries and top with chocolate syrup. Otherwise I am a waffle person for taste (but only mine), then french toast, then pancake. For convenience it’s pancake all the way.
girlscientist I’m glad you liked it.
Mods and David thanks for getting rid of the asshat.
Whoever wrote the PUA ad (on my phone and can’t check without crashing), all the thanks plus not one, not three, but two internets.
*hopes screen door broke kevin’s ass on his way out*
Am I the only one not super fond of flavoured coffee? I take mine with copious quantities of cream. I *try* flavoured coffees but meh. About once a month ish I do a 7-11 English Toffee.
It seems Mr Blanc has deleted a bunch of his more confronting material and had a ton more cancellations in Australia and the US. Woohoo!
Jennifer Li has been fantastic and tireless in pushing the campaign. I wish her many happy snuggles with the cute creatures of her choice.
Shaun Day sez:
You can get a similar preparation in the US, but it’s considered Jewish food. They’re called cheese blintzes. I get this brand sometimes (because I’m too lazy to make my own) and eat them with jam.
I like the taste of coffee itself too much to flavor it. Besides, commercial flavorings are often sickeningly sweet.
~*~*~*~*~*~
strivingally sez:
I sure hope she’s equipped to handle all the sudden attention in a way that’s comfortable for her.
Sometimes I wish I wasn’t always right about these guys.
Kevin, we did give you a chance to back down, do some thinking, and start listening to women. The fact that you didn’t? That’s on you.
I love pancakes and waffles but am definitely a member of team French toast. I love the eggy goodness. My dad used to make French toast on Saturday or Sunday mornings when I was a kid so part of it is probably the nostalgia factor.
The only acceptable topping on all three is maple syrup. Blueberry syrup or fresh fruit is bullshit. Berries on their own, absolutely. Yum. But they make a piss poor substitute for delicious maple syrup.
Confession: I hate French toast.
The bread gets all soggy, and then I can’t tell if it’s squishy because bread or squishy because undercooked eggs and eggs were totally made to only be well done or solidly scrambled.
Yeah, French toast is right out. Irrational fear of undercooked eggs nipped it in the bud.
Yes, I occasionally consume raw cookie dough, so I know it’s silly. But undercooked egg on my bread!
Turkey bacon, bell pepper, and red onion scrambled with egg is delicious, too, it you can’t stand the deliciousness of pancake, banana, and syrup.
Can I please have the recipe for red velvet pancakes?
I like pancakes for sweet things and waffles for savoury. I own a pancake maker as I suck as flipping the bloody things, and the maker stops me making a gooey mess. And you can make four at once, once you have the first two onto their second side. 🙂
Must the enjoyment of maple syrup come at the detriment of fresh fruit? Can’t we accept both as different stripes of delicious topping?
I hated maple syrup as a kid and felt vindicated when I discovered that I’d never actually had maple syrup and had in fact been topping my pancakes (or rather, refusing to top my pancakes) with corn syrup and caramel color.
Team waffle reporting for duty! If we’re having pancakes I want the small thick ones rather than the large thin ones, and with jam on them.
I just want to say: I HATE BLOODY PEOPLE LETTING OFF GUY FAWKES FIREWORKS. Guy Fawkes night was last night, and yes they were let off, but they’ve been let off every night since they went on sale, and they’re being let off again tonight.
I wish we had banned the damn things apart from professional displays. I assume that tonight people will still be letting them off until 11.30pm.
There’s been a couple of online opinion pieces pro-banning them, from various perspectives, and the comments sections are all full of people who talk about their “rights” to let off fireworks. /facepalm A couple of these idiots have drawn negative parallels with gun control – even though we bloody have gun control in NZ. Other people, also idiots, are saying why don’t we ban cars as well. That’s right, because fireworks are so important as a means of transportation.
I can’t even. I need that For Dummies book.
I’m not sure I’ve ever had real maple syrup.
Crepes are bestest food ever, I get week in knees for a place that can do even above average savory and sweet crepes. Crushes everything else other than perfectly cooked french toast (I’m ignoring contrapangloss’s wrong-headed attack on french toast’s good name.)
I’m Canadian and dislike maple syrup. : I love faux-maple flavour and butter syrup but not real maple syrup.