So in case you weren’t aware, over the weekend Sam Pepper, a popular YouTube “pranker” received a very negative response of touching/grabbing women’s asses. I found out about the video because Jack Howard tweeted not to watch it due to the fact that it was offensive, and views are essentially part of Sam’s paycheck. I took his advice and did not watch the video because I did not want to contribute to Sam’s “success” with an inappropriate video. I was never actually subscribed, but I have seen some of his videos, I don’t think this was his first offense at sexually harassing women in the streets.

Sexual harassment is not taken seriously enough, our culture has recently been defined as a “rape culture” which is essentially a culture in which rape doesn’t affect us like it should because it is seen as a normality, while I don’t think this is quite true, it is far too common and is often shrugged off and made a joke, when it’s not remotely funny. Sexual harassment can be as simple as saying something inappropriate in a sexual manner towards a MALE or FEMALE. I think a lot of people fail to realize that sexual harassment can happen to males as well as females, and that’s just something important that should point out as well. What Sam Pepper did was sexual harassment, unless the women gave their consent (which they really can’t when a stranger walks up to you and grabs your butt) and people can support him, because he has potential to be genuinely funny, however he made a career mistake.

This little stunt that Sam pulled, again, isn’t in my beliefs his first case of video captured sexual harassment that have titles such as “Instawhore Prank”, “Licking Strangers”, “Fingering Strangers”, “How to Make Out with Strangers” and “How to Pick Up Cougars” I think just capture the type of person Sam is. While he may make interesting content otherwise (not that I would know) these titles really just put me off, and it makes me even more upset that most of his audience (like most YouTubers) is teenaged girls, this is not what they should be seeing as acceptable behavior, it’s not. No girl should see this and think that it’s okay for a guy she doesn’t know to sexualize and touch her, because it’s not.

Those in support of Sam point out things like “he uses a fake hand/finger” that doesn’t make it okay, he is still controlling the fake object. If you put a knife in a fake hand and use it to stab someone, you will still be charged with murder, and if someone wanted to press charges they would still go against Sam, not the fake hand.

Let’s think about our actions towards others, and let’s not give our time and support to someone who sexualizes women he sees on the streets. Let’s find people who take a stand against these actions, this isn’t appropriate and no one should view it as appropriate. Thankfully Hank Green has released that he will not be invited to VidCon, however, let’s see if he sticks to it. His video has also been removed from YouTube, he has yet to release any kind of statement, and rumor had it his channel was suspended, but that was either not true or was only temporary. It’s sad to see someone supported through this, he was the one in the wrong, I guess we can only help that he changes his way. Only time will tell.