Gabriela Women’s Party denounced Pickup Artists Academy following recent testimonies from women online accusing the academy’s members of stalking them in public places.
The PUA’s online properties, its official website, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, were recently restored after months of being forced into deactivation amid a public outrage last April.
Its name, however, resurfaced last October when women shared incidents of being followed around by men they did not know.
Gabriela said the PUA’s “strategies to pick up” are misogynistic.
“Lessons at PUA academy are rife with misogyny, disrespect, and objectification of women and their practices have already victimized many,” the statement said.
“We stand with the women victims of PUA academy in their call for justice, and we encourage more women victims to rise up, speak out and stand against all forms of violence against women,” it added.
The women’s rights group had already called out the sketchy academy last April when a women’s organization called Youth against Sexual Harassment exposed its inner workings on Facebook.
For Gabriela, PUAA is a place “that packages itself as a “safe space” for lonely, single men to learn confidence and get dating advice, but in reality is simply a breeding ground for sexual predators and sex offenders.”
The academy, led by a certain Sein Meneses since 2008, was registered as a barangay-level business with the Department of Trade and Industry.
Looking into its website, it offered products such as free “tours” and seminars to demonstrate “dating techniques” in places where “beautiful women are found.”
Its YouTube channel also featured video clips showing men approaching random women in public places.