Julien Blanc, the pick-up artist who advocates choking women and walking down the street pushing their heads onto his ‘dick’, did an interview with CNN and apologised. Which is great, yes, but we’re still vehemently against giving him a visa.
Of course we respect a man who can apologise, and at least he didn’t dress up like some sort of late ’90s priest-dad, a la Dapper Laughs, but this does smack a little bit of when you're 12 and you draw ‘I HATE MUM AND DAD’ all over the walls then apologise and get confused as to why people aren’t accepting your apology.
Julien went around teaching men how to abuse women by choking and harassing them, got paid for it, and only realised what he was doing was wrong when pretty much the entire world demonstrated its revulsion.
‘I 100 per cent take responsibility. I apologise 100 per cent for it. I’m extremely sorry,’ he told CNN host Chris Cuomo. ‘I feel horrible, I’m not going to be happy if I feel like I’m the most hated man in the world. I’m overwhelmed by the way people are responding.’
READ MORE: Meet The Woman Behind The Petition To Boot Julien Blanc Out Of The Country
Asked about the checklist he created for men wanting to pick up women, which involved strategies including ‘intimidation’ and ‘emotional abuse’, Julien said it wasn’t a part of his teaching and he ‘regret[ted] putting that out’. Again, probably don’t do it in the first place.
As it stands, a petition calling for him to be denied a visa into the UK has received over 156,000 signatures by both men and women who want to follow Australia’s lead. The country kicked him out following complaints that one of his seminars – and his videos – were regressive and misogynistic.
In case you haven’t heard about it yet, one of his videos that’s being especially criticised is of him speaking at a Japanese event and involves him saying, ‘At least in Tokyo, if you’re a white male, you can do what you want. I’m just romping through the streets, just grabbing girls’ heads, just like, head, pfft on the dick. Head, on the dick, yelling, “Pikachu!”’
What a gent. On the plus side, it’s heartening that this sort of shitty behaviour is being called out – regardless of whether the Home Secretary does ban him from the UK or not, he’s had to publicly apologise and been thoroughly shamed for his actions. Add to that the news that Dapper Laughs will no longer be gracing our TV screens with his totally stupid, 1950s-esque advice on ‘getting women’, and it's a huge step in the right direction, so well done world.
You can watch the video for yourself here and see what you think:
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.