Sam Pepper (& Why It's a Big Deal)

Hi!

So, you may have seen the whole hype recently of Amateur YouTube Prankster and Professional Ass, Sam Pepper, causing a rather large commotion.  If you haven't heard, have a summary.

Pepper uploaded a video of him "pinching girls' bums" without their consent. It wasn't hard to see that the girls were upset when they were saying "I don't like that. Don't do that." But, hey, he hugged them, so that's alright!  Obviously, after the news of Alex Day partaking in non-consensual activities with girls, the YouTube community have been very defensive of sexual harassment and misogyny within their culture.  So to no surprise, there was a huge uproar of viewers telling him how it was inappropriate.  Pepper then announced that it was all a social experiment to show that men's abuse is in the shade and nobody cares. I don't think I have to explain why that has fragility and suspicion written all over it. (If you want to watch the videos, they're all on Pepper's Facebook page.)

However, this wasn't the end.

Many girls began to come forward, especially to feminist YouTuber Laci Green, to announce that at conventions and meetups, Pepper had non-consensually touched and harassed them.  This was all seeming more and more disgusting, until there was the straw that broke the camel's back.  YouTuber thisbedottie very bravely made a video telling her story of Pepper's behaviour.  In summary, she went to his meetup and he found her attractive, so they went to the cinema the next day.  This was a perfectly innocent activity and very exciting for a 16 year old fan, but with a 23 year old male, he should have known better. It gets worse. He began to kiss her, touch her all over and make her touch him until she had to make excuses to leave. He promptly messaged her and blamed it on her.

This cannot be ignored! This cannot be "taken with a pinch of salt!" (I'm looking at you, KalelKitten.)  This man is influencing teenagers both male and female and whether his "prank" was scripted or not, he is showing his viewers that it is okay to touch people inappropriately and non-consensually.  He must have some idea how quickly things go viral, and if teenagers see a humorous viral video that they can try out themselves, they will. Think about planking, what even was that? I don't know, but I do know it went viral and the whole world was doing it, because anyone can lie down. 

What makes him think that he can spread the message that abuse goes unnoticed?  What makes him think that it's okay to influence our promising youth in this fashion? And pardon my French, but who the FUCK does he think he is that he can touch young girls at any given opportunity and then blame it on them for being so damn irresistible?

NO SIR.  You are a disgusting, paedophiliac, dangerous, harassing, infuriating excuse for a human being.  Case closed.