Sexist Julien Blanc: can we ban him from entering the UK? It led the country's immigration minister Scott Morrison to agree that "[Blanc] was putting forward abuse that was derogatory to women," and so he cancelled his visa mid-trip. Blanc was unable to finish his Australian tour. Brazil has now followed suit and said it will deny him a visa if he applies for one. Now he could end up in the UK, for the next leg of his odious tour, giving seminars to men, which begins on the 21st November. However a Change.org petition has sprung up asking the Home Office to "deny Julien Blanc a UK visa," and has more than 115,000 signatures at the time of writing. If it's successful, we could follow in Australia's footsteps and ban him from entry. Caroline Charles, who set it up, explains her rationale as this: "To allow this man into the UK legitimises sexual assault and predation, and sends a message that women are playthings or objects without agency. Australia has already taken a stand by revoking his visa; let us demonstrate that we feel the same way about his message. It's easy to simply nod and agree with the petition - why on earth would we want someone like Blanc in our country? He has been pictured with his hand around a woman's throat - now circulating the internet with a hashtag #ChokingGirlsAroundTheWorld. Should we deny Julien Blanc a visa? There is even a shocking video of him speaking to a group of men in Japan, saying: "At least in Tokyo, if you're a white male you can do what you want." He talks about a friend who tells him to "grab" girls on the street and put their heads on his genitals - and what happens when he does it: "I pull her in and she kind of laughs and giggles. All you have to do to take the pressure of is yell Pikachu or Pokemon or something. It's the happiest I've ever been. I'm just romping through the streets, just grabbing girls' heads, just like, head, pfft on the d***. Head, on the d***, yelling, 'pikachu,' with a pikachu shirt. His website also offers a last minute resistance (LMR) course "to help her that last extra step." He promises he'll help men get her to do "crazy sexual things... once she's in the trance of sex" and will teach men "how to pull a camera on her." It's clear that Blanc is a reprehensible excuse for a human being. But - and this is the crux of it - does that mean we should deny him entry into our country, thus cutting off his ability to share his views with British men? Can we take away his freedom of expression because of his misogynistic views? Legally, we can. Lawyer Aisha Choudhry of Lex Law explains that under paragraph 320 of the Immigration Rules, the Home Secretary can refuse any visa "on general grounds because of a person's background, behaviour, character, conduct or associations." A ban lies in Theresa May's hands In Blanc's case, he'd need a temporary working visa to give his seminars here, but it could be refused if Theresa May believes his exclusion to the UK would be "conducive to the public good." She must consider "the proportionality of the decision and impact of human rights and compassionate considerations," but is free to exercise her discretion and deny Blanc a visa. However, surely it's a balancing act. We have to take into account his freedom of speech. Do Blanc's actions warrant this sort of impingement on his human rights? Charles thinks so: "His freedom of speech isn't impinged upon by not being able to travel to the UK. Freedom of speech also isn't a magic wand to protect him from the negative responses borne from what he has to say. I don't believe he's a fit and proper person to be granted a visa. Even Yvette Cooper, the shadow Home Secretary has taken a similar view and written to May asking her to "urgently" review the evidence. "It is important that respect for the laws on sexual assault and violence are upheld and that we send a clear message from Britain about zero tolerance of violence against women and girls," she writes. But denying Blanc a visa would go against the infamous quote widely attributed to Voltaire: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." On top of that there's a danger that by banning him, we could turn him into "a martyr" as Christina Welch, professor of gender studies at Winchester University, suggests. She tells me she signed the petition earlier today, but then wondered if it was the right thing to do. "After signing it, I thought, surely it would be better for him to come here and talk, but have someone next to him educating the audience about what he's saying," she explains. I imagine if he behaves the way he talks about on stage, the audience would walk out. The other worry with is a ban is that it could start a precedent. Would it mean we then have to ban every pick-up artist with misogynistic views from coming here? What about our own resident sexists, like Dapper Laughs whose ITV2 show was cancelled this week because of his rape jokes. Should we kick them out? Dapper Laughs Sarah Green, of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, agrees there's a fine line. There's a lot of stuff that a lot of women's groups don't like that's not criminal. There's a line, but I believe Julien Blanc is over that line. We may find some sexist dating coach who we couldn't reasonably say is going to incite an assault. There wouldn't be a case for banning that. This guy crosses a line. Ultimately, that's why I can't help but support the call to deny Blanc his visa. As much as I'd rather sit down and educate Blanc - or his thousands of devotees - on equality and how to be a decent human being instead of denying him entry, we do have to take into account that Blanc is crossing a line. He isn't just spouting sexist, nasty views - he's teaching men how to assault women. We can try and educated some of those men, but the damage might already be done and that's not a risk we should take. In the same way that we refuse entry to people who preach against religious groups, we need to refuse entry to people who incite hate against women. Blanc's words could lead men to commit sexual assault crimes. When he teaches them to stop a woman's "last minute resistance," he's ignoring our laws around sexual consent, and his words could be interpreted as tips on how to commit rape. In 2012, the Home Office ruled that Zakir Naik, an Indian Muslim public speaker, had made statements that breached our "unacceptable behaviour policy," and excluded him from the UK. Naik's comments fell in support of terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden, but Blanc's comments are equally unacceptable. They may be about women rather than religion, but the same principle applies. The only real option for the Home Secretary is to take that on board, and rule that that Blanc should not be granted a visa. He isn't just 'another sexist man on the internet' - he's a man who could incite a serious crime against a woman. Just like Naik's comments, his are "unacceptable behaviour." And if May doesn't feel that his incitement of violence against women falls under that same section of the immigration policy, then maybe we need to review it.