Take down Julien Blanc: The world follows Australia's lead - Women's Agenda

Take down Julien Blanc: The world follows Australia’s lead

“Professional pick up artist” Julien Blanc has removed several dates from his world tour after an international backlash against his misogynistic “dating” tutorials.

Blanc, an “executive dating coach” with touring company Real Social Dynamics (RSD) was forced to leave Australia last week after protests shut down his workshops in Brisbane and Melbourne and after Immigration Minister Scott Morrison cancelled his visa.

“This guy wasn’t pushing forward political ideas, he was putting a view that was derogatory to women and that’s just something that our values abhor in this country,” Morrison told Sky News.

Blanc runs workshops advocating “pick up techniques” involving violence and abuse. In one of Blanc’s video tutorials, he suggests choking women as a “pick up opener”. In another, he tells men “In Tokyo, if you’re a white male, you can do what you want.” Both videos have since been removed from the internet.

Australia’s campaign against Blanc and RSD has sparked an overwhelming international response.

Blanc was scheduled to give workshops in Canada later this month, however the #takedownjulienblanc campaign has forced him to remove the Canadian dates from his website.

A chang.org petition to “keep Blanc out of Canada” has received 11,000 signatures in three days.

Canadian immigration minister Chris Alexander has also signaled he will consider cancelling Blanc’s visa to ensure he cannot enter the country.

The #takedownjulienblanc campaign has also spread to the UK, with a petition to cancel Blanc’s British visa receiving over 73,000 signatures.

“Australia has already taken a stand by revoking his visa, let us demonstrate that we feel the same way about his message,” said petition organiser Caroline Charles.

“Please help us stand with the women of Australia, the women of America, and women everywhere, and do not let the UK play host to events where men are being taught how to violate and harass women.”

A petition of over 36,000 signatures was submitted to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau this week demanding Blanc’s Japanese visa be cancelled.

The Bureau has signaled they have grounds to terminate his visa.

All workshop dates for both Japan and Canada have now been removed from Blanc’s website. With the UK and Brazil also under pressure to cancel his visa, Blanc may soon have no bookings left on his world tour.

Blanc has also been forced to shut down his personal Twitter account after a strong backlash against a series of tweets promoting violence and abuse.

Neither Blanc nor RSD have made any comment about #takedownjulienblanc campaign or the workshop cancellations.

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