Julien Blanc

Julien Blanc, also known as "JulienHimself", is a motivational speaker on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter.

He is a former executive coach for the Los Angeles–based company Real Social Dynamics (RSD).

According to an article published by Time, he described himself as an "international leader in dating advice".

A seminar led by Blanc in Miami was featured in a TV documentary, The Hunt for Real Men, by the British documentary maker Tim Samuels broadcast on the Bio channel on June 27, 2014.

In a later interview with BBC, Samuels described the seminar as being "in a classroom, in a hotel, with a hundred, two hundred guys who start making notes, with Blanc at the front as the kind of rock star guru, people hanging on every word, and generally getting fairly practical pop psychology tips on how to approach women, what sort of conversation to make, how to project your alpha male, and a sense of self confidence."

The company, however, had, in some instances, been criticised.

Van Badham wrote that the company taught men, "strategies and techniques to deceive and manipulate women into sex, using both force and emotional abuse."

In November 2014, Blanc became the subject of a social media campaign alleging that his old dating advice could encourage sexual violence, involving multiple petitions on those grounds to deny him entry to several nations.

This included video evidence of Blanc sexually harassing multiple women.

On November 17, Blanc made an appearance on CNN denying these accusations, stating that his comments were "a horrible attempt at humour" taken out of context.

Sarah Green from the End Violence Against Women Coalition, however, said that there was a strong legal case for denying Blanc a temporary work visa for the United Kingdom.

She stated that, "Some of the behaviour Blanc demonstrates in his videos amounts to sexual harassment and sexual assault."

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.

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.

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 'Pokémon' or 'Tamagotchi' or something," as he describes himself in Tokyo "romping through the streets" and "grabbing women" whilst shoving their faces in his crotch, saying "Pikachu".

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, using the hashtag "#TakeDownJulienBlanc" on social media in early November 2014.

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.

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.

Li's campaign spread quickly and led to wider criticism of Blanc's teachings.

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".

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, that he promotes the view that he and his followers are "intellectual superiors" to whom it is the role of women to subordinate themselves, and that his teachings encourage potential abusers to believe that abusive behavior towards women will not be taken seriously.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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."

Blanc 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.

Real Social Dynamics co-founder, 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.

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."

In 2015, Julien started his own YouTube channel and is touring the world with self-help seminars.

Blanc used to be an instructor employed by Real Social Dynamics, a U.S.-based company which offered seminars throughout the world to men seeking advice on how to find their ideal partner.