Last night a bunch of would be Julien Blanc clones – unable to find a venue on land which would host them – went all-aboard the SS Sexual Assault, RSD pimps having fooled the Melbourne cruise company into thinking this was something other than a ‘My Dick Rules’ training session. But their floating boot camp, run by Max the Menace (Julien Blanc apparently in hiding somewhere – certainly not the Bayview Hotel which had thrown him out after this warning went around ) was ‘sunk’ by protesters. It was a great night to be an on-line activist. I barely left my desk, glued to the live streaming twitter action led by those at the protest (special thanks to my youngest daughter who brought me food and hot tea – yes darling, you can have anything you want).
Max, no last name, described as Julien’s ‘assistant’, was quoted: “We were actually fearing our safety and that’s not cool”. A number of us acknowledged the irony of that – given the training sessions impart anti-women propaganda which makes women feel unsafe. (Excellent summary of the events of last night at Buzzfeed and backstory to the on-going protest at Junkie)
The focus now turns to upcoming events. Blanc already got away with an earlier session at Sydney Masonic Centre (note future conference organisers – boycott SMC). Future venues will be targeted (thanks to Mercure Brisbane for cancelling RSD’s choke-hold booking there). But, if Immigration Minister Scott Morrison were to actually believe in Section 501 of the Migration Act, then venues would become a moot point.
Under the character test in Australian law, you can have your visa cancelled if: “there is a significant risk that you will engage in criminal conduct in Australia; or harass, molest, intimidate or stalk another person in Australia; or vilify a segment of the Australian community; or incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community; or represent a danger to the Australian community or to a segment of that community.” (highlighting mine).
Harassment, molestation, intimidation and stalking are all stock in trade for Julien and his gang! They are part of the tool kit. As Victorian Police Commission Ken Lay said today: “Actively promoting the abuse of women degrades the dignity of our whole community”.
How much more evidence does Morrison need before he does something? To make it easy, here’s some of the worst.
In this Tumblr ‘Tinder’s Finest Bachelors’, in a post titled ‘His Mother Must be Proud’, a ’20-something’ blogger exposes the methods and tactics of ‘dating coach’ aka entitled white male Blanc and his ‘stop waiting for permission to take what’s yours’ ideology. It is deeply disturbing but so revelatory I’m re-printing the bulk of it (trigger warning). See Blanc’s contempt for women in this text roll call of horrors in which he even pretends his father has just died and, later, that his sister has been raped, to elicit sympathy.
Then there’s the infamous Toyko abuse video which shows Blanc grabbing the heads of women and pulling them to his crotch, along with the Instagram flow chart of using intimidation and coercion to #makeherstay and the #chocking girlsaroundtheworld hashtag in which Blanc posts images of him putting his hands around women’s necks in a choke-hold while ‘sshhhing’ her. The original choking video was removed. Junkee provides another choking video here ). RSD also tried to delete ‘RSDJeffy’ teaching men how fake being ‘retarded’ before revealing the trick and asking her for a drink. However Matthew Berryman captured it before it was taken down.
I appeared on SBS ‘The Feed’ Wednesday with Jennifer Li, The American woman who initiated the original Change.org petition against venues hosting Blanc (now with almost 30,000 signatures) to talk about the #takedownjulienblanc campaign. I called on Morrison to revoke the visa.
Domestic violence campaigners and others concerned about the epidemic of violence against women in this country are calling on Morrison to expel Blanc. Our Government has a National Plan of Action to Address Violence Against Women at the same time as handing out visas to men to profit from promoting it.
Please sign and share the petition urgently.
And make your views known to:
The Hon. Scott Morrison: Telephone: 02 6277 7860 Fax: 02 6273 4144 Email: minister@immi.gov.au
The Hon. Tony Abbott MP: Telephone: 02 9977 6411 Fax: 02 9977 8715 Contact
