Good news, everyone! Futurama reference aside, this actually is good news: Julien Blanc, the creepy PUA who taches men how to “pick up” women by assaulting and gaslighting them, has been barred entry into the UK.
Here’s Newsweek with some of the details:
Controversial California ‘pick-up artist’ Julien Blanc has been denied entry to the UK, after a petition to prevent him hosting dating seminars in the country branding them “misogynistic”, amassed over 120,000 signatures.
The UK home secretary, Theresa May, has banned Blanc from entering the country on the grounds that his activities are “not conducive to the public good”, as the self-described “dating guru” was preparing to visit the UK in February as part of a world tour.
For more, see TheGuardian, The Telegraph, and The Daily Mail.
And watch the video above; it’s an interview he gave on CNN. The combination of his self-pity and his complete lack of self-awareness is astounding. Apparently he wants us to think that he’s a misunderstood dogooder who’s just trying to help socially awkward men find their future wives.
“I’m not going to be happy to feel like I’m the most hated man in the world,” he tells the interviewer. “I’m overwhelmed by the way people are responding.”
That I don’t doubt.
He also tells the interviewer that the pictures of him choking women were “a horrible attempt at humor. They were also taken out of context, in a way.”
Watch his body language as he says that last bit; he seems to deflate partway through, presumably realizing that no one is going to buy this obvious bullshit. But he rallies and keeps going, trying to excuse his behavior by saying “you can make anything look bad in a picture.”
These were, of course, pictures he proudly posted on Twitter with the hashtag #ChokingGirlsAllAroundTheWorld.
He now says he’s “reevaluating” the stuff he puts out. He might want to reevaluate his soul.
Check out the #TakeDownJulienBlanc hashtag on Twitter for the latest; there are still more countries he needs to be kept out of.
@schwadevivre lol, I probably need to join you in Tunbridge Wells. I suspect the BBC has a box file of my complaints about their sexism and victim blaming.
I was just wondering, has Julien Blanc been banned from Japan? Because I really don’t want him to ever go there again.
I’m not afraid to say that I read that in Farnsworth’s voice
Karl Rove has taught them well.
sorceressensorcelled:
This. I got into an ill-advised Facebook argument about this with a guy who kept banging on about “context”, and I kept asking “WHAT context?” and he kept side-stepping the question.
He then told me I shouldn’t “believe everything I read on the internet” and that we shouldn’t be vilifying this guy without doing “proper research”.
He then linked me to a blog post defending Julien Blanc, written by Julien Blanc’s assistant, and proceeded to mansplain why this was a more objective source than the “sensationalist” media.
At which point, I blocked hi. Because vomit.
And to be clear, I’m a big fan of context. Context is everything. All about the context. But the more context I gather about Julien Blanc, the more indefensible he and his entire career seem.
@tinyorc:
It’s so bizarre how they think that’s actually a defense. It was out of context or a joke? But they don’t say what he ACTUALLY meant by choking women and bragging about it. What possible explanation can they provide for it? It’s just… how stupid do they think normal people are?
Right? Like, even if the context was “Oh, it was actually postmodern deconstruction of Freud’s early work on dream theory”, IT IS STILL WRONG TO GO AROUND CHOKING STRANGE WOMEN.
And even if the whole thing was staged and all those women in the pictures totally consented to being choked, the overt message is still that it’s totally cool to randomly start choking unsuspecting women.
“Oh, don’t worry, I dumped a bucket of cow’s blood on you as a social experiment. You getting angry proved me right! Hey, what are you doing with that crowbar?”
Perhaps the context was “but I was trying to make money! It’s ok if it’s mercenary rather than personal!”
Can’t wait just ban him from the planet earth?
Oh, and for my suggestion of places that he can live… North Sentinel Island. It’s secluded island that almost nothing is known about because anytime anyone tries to research or explore it, they’re severely maimed if they get near the island or brutally killed instantly if they make it ashore by the tribe that lives there. They’ve made it perfectly clear that they don’t want anything to do with the outside world at all….and the outside world doesn’t want anything to do with Julien Blanc at all…..but I’m not advocating violence… That’s just taking what I said out of context.
I wonder what it would take get the US to exile him
Well they’ve got to get it right once in their miserable lives, I guess! 😀
Putting him on an uninhabited island sounds about right. But not one with rabbits. Why should the poor wild rabbits have to share their island with that scum?
Actually a floating rubbish island sounds about right. Something with no other form of life, unless it was sea birds who look at him and think “Dinner!”
He’s from California? Oh, divines.
I would like to apologize for my home state. We don’t want him here, either.
As was said above, what we need is for every country in the world to bar him – and then the US to deport him.
Same for all the MRAs, PUAs et al.
#ChokingGirlsAroundTheWorld totally out of context.
The Elephant’s Foot room at Chernobyl is deserted and contained (sort of). The two of them can compete for the title of Most Toxic To Humanity.
In the context that people that could offer something that could potentially make you happy owe you to, and that they’re not even people all the way anyway so them not wanting to doesn’t matter, it’s perfectly reasonable behaviour! THAT’s the context you all need to accept, or you’re being UNFAIR!
Funny, you mentioned his body language, David! Actually the first thing really popping in my mind, was: “oh! He is claiming, that many guys have invited him to their weddings and is shaking his head, while doind so. He’s lying!” And I’m pretty sure he indeed did lie about that and probably other stuff!
The thing he doesn’t seem to understand, (one of many) reasons we aren’t accepting his nonpology, is that the only way someone can call choking women “just a joke” is if they think violence against women, in and of itself, is funny.
Maybe one day the “just a joke” people will realize that we don’t like them or their “jokes” because the only reason they think it’s funny is because they’re bigots!
I was walking down the street two days ago, and I thought I saw him. Then I realised it was some guy that looks just like him. And then I felt sad for that guy.
I hope that guy’s haircut wasn’t as godawful as Blanc’s in that shot of him near the Opera House. Because if it was, he should sue his hairdresser.
True fact, rabbits were invented by God to punish all empire builders.
@pallygirl
I remember a year back walking through Bunbury and spotting a man who looked exactly like a somewhat pudgier Lucias Malfoy.
I nearly peed myself watching this. I don’t think you need to understand the language to get it.
(Does anyone recognize the language they are speaking?)