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.
Excuse me, please, while I find my lower jaw. It dropped and scuttled away into a dark corner.
I haven’t even seen the text, yet. Just that video.
Ugh, Kevin, stop it with the “this is what you should do when this happens, ladies”. Consider the following facts – women aren’t idiots, whatever idea you’re having we’ve probably already had ourselves, and we are far more aware of what the potential consequences of that action might be than you are.
There’s also the difference in socialization to deal with, and shock, but really, the most important thing here is stop assuming that women are such dumbasses that perfectly obvious things have never occurred to us and thus we need them splained by someone who’s probably never had to deal with the kind of situation he’s splaining himself and probably never will.
Looks like he’s taken down the choking pictures from his twitter btw
It is very depressing that in bars all over the world grabbing a woman by the throat is apparently completely unworthy of attention.
The grimaces I have seen scream ‘woman extremely uncomfortable, but has to play along because this man is already showing he is prepared to use violence’. It is like seeing a submissive chimpanzee trying not to get beaten up. THAT in his sick sad world is what passes for ‘picking up’.
Hubby and I just voted in this very very red state! It was off the chain! Woo hoo.
Also, I can see how this guy’s tactics would work on women the way we’re socialized. It’s evidence that we are socialized in to all kinds of awful.
So…speaking of creepy dudesn today, on public transit, dude has loud conversation with his drug dealer and opens a beer. Driver does nothing. Dude hits on me, I ignore. Dude grabs my leg, I look up, say “no”. We get to dudes stop he empties his beer on my leg and jumps out. I fucking hate the planet. I want to light a match on my way out the door today.
And it was almost empty but ffs really pour beer on women who say no? I can’t fucking imagine how you’re still single. Because that really does seem like your just peeing on the trees you walk past. So alpha! Ugh
@barnburner:
I was thinking “nah, aren’t they supposed to be staying away from women?” and then I realized that you’re probably right, since that goal seems to involve them getting into even more situations that involve women…
Oh my goodness. Panty-dropping masculinity? No.
If these women are giving in to him, sexually, it’s because they are afraid of what he will do to them if they don’t. He’s willing to choke women as a PRELUDE to sex? What will do if they refuse? Outright kill them?
That’s not pickup artistry. It’s a rape how-to.
That’s pretty much the message from Jordan Chase in Season 5 of Dexter.
And the Japanese women giggling? That’s their defense mechanism. They are performing femininity, in the hopes that you will perform masculinity and PROTECT them. Or at least stop hurting them.
They aren’t giggling because they like it. They are giggling because they are afraid.
OK, I’m going to read the comments, now, and see how many times I’ve been ninja’d.
Also, on the video as evidence of a crime thing? I’m pretty sure that this guy didn’t inform the victims that they were being filmed and that they therefore had video evidence that could be used to convict him, since “tamogotchi pikachu!” is not how you say “could you sign this release form?” in Japanese and those appear to be the only Japanese words he knows. Seriously, please engage the brain prior to splaining, it will make life easier for all of us.
Smiling and laughing are nervous reactions and should be read as “WTF is this guy doing argh someone please make it stop” rather than “she wants me, dude!”. And would be read as such by anyone who hadn’t already decided to assault them for shits and giggles.
That eventbrite link in David’s update says they event is currently unavailable. Hopefully, that means whatever venue this asshat rescheduled to has now cancelled him as well.
@cassandrakitty
As much as he doesn’t understand about the details, I don’t think Kevin’s trying to insinuate that he thinks we’re idiots or deliberately mansplaining; I think he’s just pissed off and ranting to let off steam.
@Electra – Thank goodness you escaped! So sorry you were triggered?
IN THE HOSPITAL?!?!
I have no words for this.
I don’t care whether or not he knows that he’s mansplaing, he still needs to stop. His rant was unhelpful and frankly more than a little insulting.
Shaun, it’s things like that I wish were caught on cam and gone viral. I’m very sorry that happened to you.
Shaun’s situation is a perfect illustration of why dudely “just hit him back, ladies!” advice isn’t very helpful. If she had retaliated the guy might have run off with his tail between his legs, or he might have escalated and really hurt her. It’s hard to know until it happens, and the best person to make that call as far as how to respond is the person who’s actually in the situation observing the assailant’s behavior. Random dudes backseat driving after the fact is not helpful in this scenario, and may be actively unhelpful.
I think it’s hard for men to understand sometimes that women have to be much more circumspect about self-defense than men, simply because rapey douchebags perceive pushback from men differently than they do from women. Coming from a man, physical retaliation is expected and understandable. Coming from a woman, it’s an outrage and the ultimate in humiliation. A woman assaulting a sexual predator in any way is likely to trigger a firestorm of white-hot wounded ego rage, which is far more dangerous than the average shoving match between guys.
Just look at the difference in how critics of misogyny online are treated. Women are hounded, harrassed, doxxed, and driven out of their homes for the most mild statements. Men may get called “mangina” and receive a few putdowns or threats, but the level of vitriol isn’t nearly the same. There isn’t the extra burning fixation on putting them back in their place once and for all.
Unfortunately, there’s no obvious, one-size-fits-all answer to how to react to these guys. It’s not as simple as a swift kick or a loud verbal rejection. Coming from a woman, that could easily escalate things beyond her capacity to get out of the situation safely.
I once pushed back against a man who’d groped me – literally just put my hands on his chest and pushed him away – and he punched me. Another one poured a drink over my head for the same offense, and then followed me around every time he saw me afterwards, all “this bitch pushed me!”.
So no, dude, it’s not as simple as just show that man that you won’t take it and he’ll back off and everything will be fine. Which you’d already know if you listened to women when we talk about this stuff.
On a GamerGate-related note: AHAHAHAHAHA.
http://www.dailydot.com/politics/gamergate-mackenzie-kelly-clickhole-plagiarizing/
Also, anyone who thinks that this guy, in particular, would back off if a man pushed back? Is an idiot. This guy would escalate, you can pretty much bet on it.
If a woman pushed back, I mean. If another man pushed back he actually might back off, depending on whether or not his buddies were watching.
Policy of Madness sez:
Or is it that non-reaction is interpreted differently depending on the expectations people have of the race or nationality of the person in question? Because I’ve seen plenty of women of all races and nationalities “fail” to react to harassment in the US. Only, it’s not a failure; it’s a deliberate tactic. If someone is trying to provoke you into doing something for their own amusement, sometimes the best (ie. least counterproductive) option is to ignore them. You don’t want to dignify their nonsense or give them any opportunity to say you condoned it.
And I know for a fact that a lot of foreigners in Japan, especially whites, like to try to get a rise out of Japanese people with provocative, inappropriate shenanigans (rather like street harassers do to women in general). But there’s this whole stereotype about Japanese being inscrutable that serves to mystify what is (to me, at least) a reasonable strategy for dealing with idiots and assholes.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Ellesar sez:
If he’s laid hands on them, then he’s not prepared to use violence, he already is using violence.
Also consider the fact that what appears to be a lack of reaction may in fact be the same kind of appalled silence that you might get if you were behaving badly in, say, certain circles in the UK. (One of my friends is Japanese and, other than the fact that I’d add a “really?” we react pretty similarly to people acting like complete fools in public.) If what we’re talking about is the kind of racist bullying and mockery that white people pull a lot in Asia then attempting to ignore it probably is the best option, since like most bullies the people doing it will tend to interpret any response as a win for them and a sign that they’ve gotten to you.