The Art Of Committing Sexual Assault Through Dating - Why Has This Been Kept In The Dark?

Yes, every man is in search of a woman, but not all are masters of that trade. While seeking the usual counselling or a friend’s advise is perfectly normal, one man has been getting away with using brutally cruel tactics to “woo” women, and proudly sharing them as part of his profession as a so-called “pickup artist” too.

Claiming to be a love guru, Julien Blanc describes himself as “an executive coach for Real Social Dynamics or RSD (a company that conducts approach boot camps in 250 cities worldwide as well as offer online dating advise), the international leader in dating advise” on his twitter account @RSDJulien. Photo: Facebook

His instructional courses cost from RM660 ($197) for 23 instructional videos to RM1,700 ($497) for the videos plus a ticket to a live event and access to Blanc’s Facebook page. Blanc teaches men to use physical force in his tutorials which instruct men to “Make Girls Beg To Sleep With You After Short-Circuiting Their Emotional And Logical Mind” and develop “Panty-Dropping Masculinity With This Rock-Solid Structure To Self-Generate The Powerful Emotions Girls Crave”, amongst others like “How To Control Women,” and “How To Make Her Stay” using physical and sexual violence. 

A Whole Lot Of Women Taking Down One Man

After watching a video of Blanc grabbing women and shoving their faces into his crotch in Japan, Jennifer Li, an activist from Washington, D.C. started the hashtag #TakeDownJulienBlanc and petition which has already gathered over 40,000 on change.org. Twitter has also recently been flooded with messages that include the #KeepJulienBlancOutOfCanada hashtag.

Women around the globe are picking up the call and urging their governments to deny Blanc’s entry to conduct his seminars. His visa was also cancelled and he was forced to cut short his Australian tour after protests. The next leg of Julian’s seminars were to be held in Asia including Japan, Singapore and Korea, South America, North America, United Kingdom and Europe.

NGOs in Malaysia have also shared their concern and are constantly on the lookout to raise awareness to the government to carry out national campaigns against sexual assault towards women. In our interview with Ivy Josiah, the Executive Director of Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) in Malaysia, she expresses her resentment over the Blanc issue and suggests how society can come together in curbing sexual assault in the country.

“Blanc and his crew are creating a “rape culture”, turning it into a lifestyle, making it seem OK for men to commit such acts to humiliate women.

“I would like to call out to all the good men out there; I strongly urge you to reach out to other men to condemn such sexual intimidation towards women. We have campaigns all-year round to make a difference and end violence against women, and we need the support of the government to raise awareness through national campaigns too in local institutions, military and police camps to educate men to be respectful towards women,” she told us.

Racial Discrimination

As captured in the footage, Blanc boasts in his seminar to a room full of men about how he went walking in the streets of Tokyo, grabbing women and thrusting their heads into his crotch.

“If you’re a white male, you can do what you want,” Blanc boasted.

Mike Burke, an English man living in Japan, also one of the three administrators of Take Down Julien Blanc Facebook page tells Malaysian Digest how he felt responsible to make a stand against Blanc.

"I am really disgusted by Julien's video, the sexual harassment, the misogyny, the racism against Asians and the fact that he felt that he somehow represented white males living in Tokyo. He does not and he never will. Felt it was my responsibility to make a stand against this bloke."

More and more Asian women are becoming the victim of sexual assault around the world. Could it be that Asian women are easy targets, especially to white men, or do they just willingly love to be physically swooned by them?

Halida Mohamad Ali, President of Perak Women For Women Society told us, "Not all perpetrators are white men. It can be any men, anywhere, any city, town or country  regardless of race, age, colour, culture, profession and  income. Gender based violence is about power and control. It is about perception of men on women as the weaker sex." 

Research in Ethnic Differences In Sexual Victimisation and Health Risk Behaviour shows that there is a higher risk of sexual assault towards Asian women, characterising them as the significantly weaker and more vulnerable race, that they are often treated with less respect.

However, according to Sexual Assault & Women Of Colour, sexual assault is never the victim's fault. Most women who experience sexual assault were threatened, forced or harmed. The challenge lies in changing the racist and sexist beliefs that society holds.

What Do Malaysian Netizens Have To Say?

Women everywhere around the world are getting annihilated, choked, assaulted and emotionally manipulated. Thanks to the internet, not only keyboard warriors are born, but activists who are “warriors” in fighting such causes like ‘Take Down of Julien Blanc’ and his gang are born too.

Malaysians are seen flooding their Facebook and Twitter timelines with furious comments reposting stories of this recently disturbing issue. Malaysian Digest caught up with former stewardess, Fazlin Ramli who was faced with sexual assault during her tenure and is utterly repulsed by Blanc’s “cheap” and “disrespectful” acts that she has been actively supportive of the #TakeDownJulienBlanc cause.

She tells us, “Julien Blanc is disgusting, and the sad reality is that there are many of these attention-seeking people around us looking for cheap thrills and manipulating women with their filthy tactics. The problem is, no one speaks up.

“Sexual assault is a humiliating experience especially for the victim. Without proper support and help, the victim will continue to feel embarrassed about themselves.  Women have to take action and not be vulnerable to predators like Blanc,” she adds, speaking from a victim’s point of view.

Fazlin strongly recommends victims to use social media as a platform to connect on such issues, “To sexual assault victims, social media is a good avenue to reach out to others, get support and let your voices be heard.”

Photo: Facebook

With the heavy trending of #TakeDownJulienBlanc hashtag on Twitter, we also caught up with popular Twitter icon in Malaysia, Faliq Fahmie (@faliqfahmie) regarding his views on sexual assault towards women, and the power of hashtags as a tool of awareness in spreading such causes. Photo: Twitter

“What Blanc did was an insult to men who are genuinely sincere in searching for the right companion or even a lifetime partner. It was completely uncalled for, unethical, and indeed racist.

“I am happy to say that the hashtags have always been a powerful tool to create awareness not only locally but globally, and needless to say that is why this cause has now gone global. To act upon this as a social media enthusiast, I will definitely ride on the #TakeDownJulienBlanc hashtag to create further awareness about sexual assaults in Malaysia,” he added.

This Is Your Wake Up Call

Other responsible Malaysians have also gone the extra mile in spreading awareness about sexual violence in the heat of this issue to their families and friends. Jessie from Selangor is amongst them who strongly hopes for fair treatment to all human beings, regardless of gender.

“As a woman, I hope society acknowledges that both women and men are equally human beings. If both genders can accept this fact, respect can be established and sexual assaults may be prevented. Both genders have equal rights to make choices in their lives,” she expressed.

The question to ask ourselves: Is society creating more sexual predators and encouraging more men to feel like it is perfectly normal for them to create a “rape culture” by sexually abusing women? Scary to think that sexual predators like Blanc is still on the loose around us all.

So, society, it’s time to keep these animals locked in cages, if not already featured as circus acts.

 

To sign the petition to #TakeDownJulienBlanc, go here: http://chn.ge/1xbXtDI

If you are a victim of sexual assault and have been suffering in silence, besides the WAO, you may seek help from Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (EMPOWER), All Women’s Action Society Malaysia (AWAM), Perak Women For Women Society (PWW) and Women’s Crisis Centre Penang.

 

 

-mD