Julien Blanc

On September 8, 2014, Blanc posted a video titled "White Aldiyar fucks Asian women in Tokyo (and the beautiful methods to it)" to his YouTube channel.[12] The video, which has since been removed, shows Blanc presenting a seminar to a roomful of men. In the seminar, Blanc describes his opinion that "sub-communication," not the use of words or methods, is all that matters. He justifies this with his past experience in approaching women in Tokyo.[13] Blanc comments that "in Tokyo, if you're a white male, you can do what you want" and “all you have to say to kinda like take the pressure off is just yell ‘Pikachu’ or ‘Pokemon’ or ‘Tamagotchi’ or something,”[2] as he describes himself in Tokyo "romping through the streets" and "grabbing women" whilst shoving their faces in his crotch, saying "Pikachu".[2][3][14][12]

In response to the video, Jennifer Li, an Asian-American woman living in Washington, D.C., initiated a campaign aimed at preventing Blanc from hosting further similar seminars,[3] using the hashtag "#TakeDownJulienBlanc" on social media in early November 2014.[2][12] Li initiated a petition on Change.org calling upon hotels and other venues to cancel his bookings and for webhosts to stop hosting Blanc's and Real Social Dynamics' websites.[2][12][15] In an article in the British newspaper, The Independent, Li asserted that Blanc's video and other content he had posted online taught men how to assault women and that his video taught that "Asian women are a 'free for all' for predatory men," thereby encouraging men to abuse Asian women. Li also reported Blanc's video to the Japanese embassy.[15]

Li's campaign spread quickly and led to wider criticism of Blanc's teachings.[12] Besides the Tokyo video, Blanc's critics have noted other issues which they allege prove that Blanc promotes and teaches domestic violence and emotional abuse as a form of seduction. On one occasion Blanc posted a "Power and Control Wheel" graphic associated with the Duluth model intended to illustrate ways in which women in abusive relationships are controlled and abused by their male partners. Blanc's posting of the graphic was accompanied by the description and hashtag "May as well be a checklist.... #HowToMakeHerStay".[16] Critics of Blanc have claimed that Blanc promotes rape and teaches men how to engage in sex with women by violating their consent and using psychological abuse and sexual violence,[17][18] that he promotes the view that he and his followers are "intellectual superiors" to whom it is the role of women to subordinate themselves,[19] and that his teachings encourage potential abusers to believe that abusive behavior towards women will not be taken seriously.[20]

By November 6, 2014, Li's social media campaign had led to Blanc's and Real Social Dynamics events in Melbourne, Brisbane, Austin, and Seattle being shut down and in online ticketing service Eventbrite removing all Real Social Dynamics events from its site.[15][21] Blanc's Instagram account was also closed, many of his YouTube videos were set to private, and some of the content from his Twitter account was removed.[21] Scheduled "boot camps" in Japan and also in Canada were canceled by Real Social Dynamics until further notice around November 13 out of a fear that their instructor's safety could not be guaranteed.[1]

In a November 17, 2014 interview on CNN, Blanc made a public apology and repudiated the accusations against him. He said that the videos were a "horrible, horrible attempt at humor" and taken out of context, denying accusations of promoting rape or of coaching clients to use domestic violence or abuse to seduce women.[4]

Critics denounced Blanc's photos published on the internet with the "#ChokingGirlsAroundTheWorld" hashtag showing him approaching women and clasping their throats as legitimizing violence and physical abuse as part of seducing women.[22] Blanc's response was that he did place his hand around their necks but "did not physically choke them", and that his intent in posting the photos in that way was merely to "provoke a shock", and was a "horrible attempt at humor."[4]

In response to criticism of Blanc's post of a graphic of ways in which women can be abused, Blanc denied that he used the graphic in his course or that he teaches it, instead saying "this is so far in the opposite direction of what I teach, that I stupidly thought, you know mocking it would be funny."[4] Blanc also asserts that he teaches when to "back off". Blanc stated that he was overwhelmed by the criticisms and that he was “reevaluating everything" that he publishes on the Internet.[4]

Real Social Dynamics co-founder Owen Cook, using the online nickname Tyler Durden, wrote on the RSD website, "I think Julien’s video was absolutely stupid," saying that the video was out of context and that Blanc had posted it for shock value, not realizing the full outcome the situation would lead to.[2]

Responding to Blanc’s interview, Jennifer Li's impression of the apology was that "he is sorry he got caught, not for what he has done.”[23]

Blanc's Australian tour, which had begun in Sydney on October 29, 2014,[24] was cut short by cancellations prompted by petitions and protests,[25] including a protest of a seminar led by Blanc's assistant Maximilian Berger[26] on a Melbourne River Cruises boat moored on the Yarra River in Southbank, Melbourne. The boat company cancelled the seminar booking mid-event, and local police were called in to restore order.[27][28] Protesters also petitioned to have Blanc deported from Australia.[29] Blanc's Australian visa was revoked on November 6, 2014,[3][30][31] and the following day Victoria police confirmed that he had left Australia overnight,[28][30][31] with his assistant scheduled to follow.[28] Australia's Immigration minister Scott Morrison told Sky News: "This guy wasn’t putting forward political ideas, he was putting forward abuse that was derogatory to women ... those are values abhorred in this country."[30]

An online petition to deny Blanc entry to the United Kingdom was also initiated in November.[17] Blanc had reportedly already given a series of seminars in London during September 2014,[32] and was scheduled for two return visits to London in late 2014 and early 2015.[14][32] Alleging that permitting Blanc into the country “legitimises sexual assault and predation” and that his pick-up techniques “directly exploit vulnerable men who buy into rape culture and end up believing that this is an appropriate way to behave,” shadow home secretary (Labour) Yvette Cooper called upon Home Secretary Theresa May to deny Blanc entry to the country.[33] Under paragraph 320 of the Immigration Rules, the Home Secretary can refuse any visa "on general grounds because of a person’s background, behaviour, character, conduct or associations."[34] The UK denied Blanc a visa on November 19, 2014.[5] Following the visa denial, the BBC interviewed documentary maker Tim Samuels about his perceptions of the seminar taught by Blanc featured in Samuels' documentary "The Hunt for Real Men" broadcast the previous June. Samuels said he and his team had seen nothing that "crossed the line," but that the videos and photos which later came to light had "cast a shadow" over what had seemed an essentially harmless enterprise.[11]

An online petition campaign in Singapore[35] resulted in a joint statement on November 26 by the Singapore's Immigration & Checkpoints Authority and its Ministry of Social and Family Development that Blanc would not be allowed into Singapore, which he had been scheduled to visit during a tour in late 2014.[6]

Online petitions seeking to cancel seminars conducted by Blanc or other RSD coaches, or to deny entry into specific nations or cities have been launched in several other countries, including Japan,[36][37] Canada,[1][38] the city of Amsterdam (Netherlands),[39] Argentina,[40] Iceland,[41][42] Ireland,[43] Germany,[44] Denmark,[45] Sweden[46] and New Zealand.[47][48] In Japan, customs officials raised the concern that Blanc had not had a proper work permit on his earlier visit to Tokyo. They stated that the crime kyōsei waisetsu, translated literally as "forcible indecency", appeared to be committed in the video but that such charges require a victim's testimony.[36] In Germany, a press spokesman with the Green Party expressed doubt that Blanc could be prevented from entering the country, but believed that Blanc's scheduled December 2014 seminar in Munich would probably take place at a secret location.[44] Blanc will not be blocked from entering Denmark, according to Socialdemokraterne justice spokesperson Trine Bramsen, who said that to be denied entry he "must have committed a crime or have no legal business in Denmark."[49]

In some cases, immigration authorities have indicated an intent to deny Blanc entry into their countries apparently without having been petitioned. The Brazilian Foreign Ministry indicated that Brazil would deny him a visa if he applied for one, in spite of planned seminars in January 2015.[50][51] Though Blanc was reportedly scheduled for a visit to South Korea in December 2014, the Border Control Division of the Korea Immigration Service said that Blanc would be unlikely to gain entry to the country, with an anonymous official telling South Korean journalist Lee Tae-hoon that Blanc's activities ran against the "morals and customs" of the country.[52]

The controversy surrounding Blanc has given rise to criticism and debates on various aspects of the social media campaign against him. Several commentators have charged that petitions calling for Blanc to be refused entry to various countries amounts to censorship and violation of free speech,[19][53][54] or that the serious measure of denying Blanc a visa, rather than investigating his alleged crimes, is ineffective and out of proportion to the issues for which he has been criticized.[55][56] Observers have also argued that the social media campaigns have been repressive and counterproductive in relation to more important feminist goals for achievement of women's equality, such as changing laws and funding women's services,[57][58] or that they amount to futile attacks on the culture of young adult men such as (in the United Kingdom), laddism,[59][60]

Critics of the social media campaigns against Blanc have initiated a counterpetition in his support[1][44] urging nations not to deny his freedom of speech and asserting that "Denying him a visa would be an incredible injustice to a man who has committed no crimes".[44] One of Blanc's personal assistants spoke to Newsbeat (a BBC Radio 1 programme) on November 20, 2014 asserting that Blanc's content had been misinterpreted by the media, supporting Blanc's earlier claims that his coaching content had been taken out of context.[61]