Julien Blanc, self-described pick-up artist who promotes choking women, leaves Australia and has visa cancelled

Updated

A self-proclaimed pick-up artist who promotes choking women has left the country and had his visa cancelled by the Federal Government.

Julien Blanc, 25, was due to give a talk at Melbourne's Como Hotel on Wednesday night advising men how to "pick up women from open to close".

His tactics, which include choking women and pulling them into his crotch, were criticised online as misogynistic and abusive.

After outrage on social media and an online petition attracting thousands of signatures, the hotel cancelled his event.

Mr Blanc, from US-based group Real Social Dynamics (RSD), was forced to hold his event on a boat on Melbourne's Yarra River on Thursday night.

He was also due to deliver a seminar in Brisbane next week.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has told Sky News he decided to cancel Mr Blanc's 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," he said.

Victoria's Chief Police Commissioner, Ken Lay, labelled Mr Blanc as "disturbing and offensive" and said he was relieved Victorians had taken a stand against him.

"Labelling women as objects and actively promoting the abuse of women degrades the dignity of our whole community," he said.

"We want to assure everyone that we have been paying close attention to this issue and appreciate that so many community members have expressed concern."

Victoria Police confirmed on social media that Mr Blanc had left Australia.

Jenna Price, the founder of feminist group Destroy The Joint and a lecturer at the University of Technology in Sydney, said Mr Blanc's departure was a victory for common sense.

"He expressly suggested techniques which abused women and which harmed women and I think that really frightened women," she said.

"We were able to see in writing his idea that you should try and isolate women, that you should keep them frightened, you should make sure that they don't have access to money.

"Now these are the kinds of things which are directly in line with men who perpetrate violence against women."

Students should not be judged, dating coach says

Mr Blanc is one of several prominent figures in a subculture of young men who share techniques and methods for picking up women.

But supporters on internet forums have defended him, accusing his critics of selectively highlighting sections of his lessons.

Damien Diecke, a Sydney-based dating coach for School Of Attraction, said he was not a fan of Mr Blanc and believed the social media campaign against him was warranted.

"It's a bad thing in the short term that everyone assumed that everyone who does dating coaching behaves in that way or teaches that kind of material," he said.

"But I think it's a good thing that people in Australia, as we hear about this business, we're learning, we're teaching or we're educating guys what is and isn't OK.

"This whole how-to-meet-women thing is very covered up, it's not really talked about a lot, and so men find coaches like ... the RSD work and they think this is how it's done, that this is the only way to meet and be attractive to women."

Mr Diecke said while anger at Mr Blanc was appropriate, the young men who attend his seminars should not be judged as harshly.

"The guys who enter are not bad guys, most of them are quite smart guys, quite intelligent ... a lot of them are actually quite successful," he said.

"They've put a lot of work into other parts of their lives, not the social part. Now they want to work on this and there's nowhere else for them to turn."

Topics: social-media, community-and-society, police, women, men, melbourne-3000, brisbane-4000

First posted