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Julien Blanc may be gone but looks who’s here. Matthew Berryman on the rise and influence of pick-up culture in Australia

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Australian pick-up artist accused of sexual harassing, exposing himself to women: I reported him to Crimestoppers

 

By Dr Matthew Berryman

Following the online campaign started by Jennifer Li to #takedownjulienblanc, I’ve started looking into the world of “Real Social Dynamics” (RSD), the company  Blanc is a part of, and I’m highly disturbed by what I have found. I’m sympathetic to young men who need confidence building and dating tips. I was a shy nerdy young man too. But there’s a massive world of difference between genuine advice and what RSD has to offer. It goes well beyond one video of Blanc doing his infamous “head on dick” sexual assault of Japanese women.

It includes everything from a culture of objectification of women through to making fun of people with disabilities (‘retarded’ in RSD language)  to pick up.

The co-founder of RSD is Owen Cook, known as RSD Tyler. Here he appears to admit to raping a woman.

Here he is making a racist slur in a nightclub.

Here he is joking about killing a cat and then sexually assaulting its corpse.

Rape culture is part of the forum, from discussion of rape vans  through to this comment on their forum – a sick attempt to justify rape.

text for blog

“They dream about this. They wanna be tied up and fully succumb to your aggressive masculinity. They want you to push them against the wall, rip their clothes off, put her in a submissive position and call her bitch, slut, whore until their skull can’t take it anymore…”

“See as much as women wanna be raped, they also want to be made feel beautiful.”

It’s deeply disturbing how many members that RSD have, and their influence. Last I checked, their insider Facebook groups (now made private) had over 300 members for Brisbane and over 1000 for Sydney. RSD Tyler’s YouTube channel has over 95,000 subscribers, and RSD Julien’s over 43,000.
rsdtyler
rsdjulien
RSD Alex is an RSD trainer on the Gold Coast. One of his associates is Adrian James Holt, aka Adrian Van Oyen, a candid camera/prank ‘comedian’ with a history of harassing people on trains. Julien Blanc may have been deported but Holt and other Australian men continue to foment and spread pick-up culture activities here.

Some people must find this amusing as he has over a million subscribers. His method has since been adopted as a pick-up tactic by RSD members. Following his train videos video, Lipton decided for a reason I cannot fathom, to pay Holt, who they describe as a “hilarious YouTube sensation” for an advertisement for iced tea.

Shortly after that, in November 2013, Holt released this video where he tries to use sexual assault as a ‘pick-up’ strategy.

Not only is this totally unacceptable and unempathetic, it’s also a crime.  I have alerted Queensland Crimestoppers to this with a report made yesterday. Astoundingly, the original copy of this video has had over 2.8 million views.

pickingupgirlsnaked

 

 

I’m not the only one who finds this disturbing. Only two months ago he was accused of “exposing his penis to distressed-looking women in public.”

This whole misogynist “pick-up” agency material doesn’t just lessen women, but it lessens men, and it has to stop. I’m not saying this because I am of the “extreme left” (as one RSD troll said)—I’m just slightly left of centre, and this transcends politics, anyway. Nor is it because I’m pretending to be a nice guy in order to get laid—I’m happily married—it is important to respect others anyway, which may indeed get you noticed by women, but that’s besides the point. Nor is this about’ group think’, I’ve obviously thought about these issues on my own and then decided to campaign. This is all about respect and consent. It’s not hard to understand.

If you are a young man seeking advice, then don’t get it from Real Social Dynamics. There are proper counselling services out there, if you can’t get good advice from mates, or asking your mum (yes, put embarrassment aside for a few minutes, she has advice for you), or even a girl who you are just friends with. Yes guys can be just friends with a girl, and it’s how I got some of my best dating tips.

 

matthewpic

Dr Matthew Berryman is a loving husband and a dad to two daughters who he adores. By day he works in IT, at night he campaigns to make the world a better place.

 

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November 11th, 2014  
Tags: #takedownjulienblanc, activism, Adrian James Holt, Adrian Van Oyen, Change.org, collective shout, CrimeStoppers, exposure, flashing, Jennifer Li, Julien Blanc, Matthew Berryman, objectification, Owen Cook, P*rnography, pick-up artists, rape, rape culture, Real Social Dynamics, RSD, RSD Tyler, sexism, sexual assault, sexual harassment, status of women, violence against women, You Tube

52 Responses to “Julien Blanc may be gone but looks who’s here. Matthew Berryman on the rise and influence of pick-up culture in Australia”

  1. Lyn
    November 29th, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    I want to say something quickly about women “laughing” while being harassed – now I don’t know if the women in the video were genuinely amused or if they were doing this:
    Many women laugh when harassed or assaulted because it’s safer. We don’t know what you’re planning, we don’t know what you might do to us, so to placate you and keep the situation safe, we smile and laugh. We don’t want to make this random, worrying, scary man angry because we don’t know if it’s safe to do so. Is it safe to get up and walk away? Maybe, maybe not. It’s a risk.
    Laughter is also a known nervous reaction.

    What I’m saying is the women in the video who are laughing and smiling aren’t necessarily amused or enjoying themselves, they may be having a nervous or fear reaction.


  2. Dr Matthew Berryman
    December 3rd, 2014 at 10:24 am

    @Anonymous – I recommend you find a qualified, trained counsellor (not a PUA, but a counsellor). Not knowing where you live, I can only suggest that your local university may be an option (and they’re often provided free to students).


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