#TakeDownJulienBlanc

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On November 1 2014, I started #TakeDownJulienBlanc, a viral global campaign against a racist and misogynistic pick-up artist. The hashtag #TakeDownJulienBlanc trended globally on Twitter, and was used over 50,000 times the first week I created it.

A self-coined “international leader in dating advice,” Julien Blanc (and his company, Real Social Dynamics)’s advice consisted of gold nuggets such as emotionally abusing and choking women, and forcing their faces into his crotch. He charged men thousands of dollars to attend his pick-up “seminars.” Ironically, the #TakeDownJulienBlanc campaign may have been the most attention the pick-up artist has ever received from such a large amount of women.

You can view my original Change.org petition here. It rapidly inspired dozens of other petitions, started by women in other countries like the UK, Denmark, Australia, Singapore, Japan, and others, to bar Julien Blanc and his pick-up “seminars.” All those petitions (that I know of/ can count) total to 333,519 signatures. One would think that when women organize en masse to keep you from even setting foot on their countries, that you might not be doing the lady-courting business the right way.

Through the #TakeDownJulienBlanc campaign, his was visa revoked and/or denied from Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. 10 venues and online platforms also pulled from hosting the him and his pick-up company, Real Social Dynamics.  I couldn’t have done this without the support of so many people across the world, with allies ranging from Destroy the Joint in Australia, to Jake Adelstein, a reporter from Japan, to hacktivist collective Anonymous. There are too many names to list, but the movement wouldn’t have grown without each and every person that got involved with this campaign.

#TakeDownJulienBlanc was covered by many news outlets. You can read more about it below.

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