(gifs taken from http://gracehelbl0g.tumblr.com/)
Meet Sam Pepper. You might recall him from being on the UK’s Big Brother. You might recall him for his graffiti art. You might recall him for kinda looking like a creepy sad version of that guy from The 1975. You might recall him for being another one of those bland white indie guys who for some reasons attract millions of 13-year-old fans and no one had any idea why or how.
However, sadly, on the vlogging side of the web (which is seemingly becoming more and more creepy by the day), some guys are now having to recall him as their sexual harasser.
On September 20th, Peppers uploaded a new video. This video was entitled Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank- and do you even have to watch this to know it’s going to be absolutely disgusting? Of course not. The video shows the vlogger and general ‘almost celeb’ with one hoodie arm tucked into a pocket, as his real arm in left underneath it; he then stands close to random strangers (all women, of course), and pinches their behinds with his ‘Fake Hand’. Does that not sound like the most hilarious thing?! I bet those girls found it so hilarious! Funnily enough, no they did not, and neither did the vast majority of women who have been unfortunate enough to come across this online.
It’s always a nightmare to dissect these videos, as more often that not, the misogynistic vlogger in question has an army of young female fans who constantly scream “feminists don’t listen to women!!! i would find this really funny if something said/did this to me!!!!”. However, this time we have genuine proof that it is not just the Internet Feminists getting angry over nothing. I would expect (though this is a mere assumption) that if Pepper has had any issues with the women he sexually harassed making genuinely hurt/upset complaints, they would not have been shown in this video. But nonetheless, it is incredibly hard not to see how insulted and confused these women are, even if they aren’t kicking and screaming about it.
(gif shows girl no.1 being groped)
Starting with girl No. 1- Pepper walks up to her as she talks on the phone, invading her space immediately and asking where the apple store is. The girl barely looks at him, stating “I don’t know”, disinterested. Time to walk away for any normal human being, but the glorious Sam Pepper of course has some very important male privilege to attend to; grabbing this women’s ass. He does so, and immediately she turns around, uttering “what the hell? what the fuck?“. After attempting a hilarious “oooh I think it was that old lady“, Pepper reveals his hidden hand and laughs- que the women slowly backing off, putting on her best “you just harassed me and I have to be nice or this will get worse” kind of smile, and stating “I don’t like that“. As if that wasn’t enough, Pepper proceeds to give her the worlds most awkward hug as her fake smile stays on her face, and she walks away looking like she’s too stunned to even process it.
This “smile as wide as I can because I am freaked out” is remnant in the next few girls Pepper harasses, and is one of the saddest parts of the video. These moments will be the ones spat back to feminists as they complain- “but those girls were smiling? so they obviously weren’t annoyed?”- but every victim of any form of sexual harassment knows this smile all too well to believe that it’s a playful, encouraging one. As much as I think about this, and mutter “if that was me I’d kick him right in the balls”, I know for a fact that if it was me on that very same Sam Pepper vid I would have done exactly what those poor women did themselves. Just this week I was in a bar with my friends and, as I was walking to the toilets, a man slapped my arse amongst multitudes and giggles from his friends. I’m a really massive feminist activist. And did I kick and scream? No. And you can not expect other women to. People will say “so why didn’t they tell him to fuck off? why didn’t they shout?” and it’s for the same reason so many women don’t shout as they face street harassment. Because if you shout, there is a chance it will get worse. There is a chance harassers will get angry. If you don’t smile at “nice legs, darlin”, you’ll be crying at “whats your problem you fucking slut”. It’s easier to smile. It’s safer to smile. It’s horrible and it’s messed up and it’s still scary as hell, but it’s safer, and I for one will never ever blame women for trying their best to stay safe.
And so, in an open letter to Sam Pepper, we state;
A women’s smile as you harass her does not solve your guilt. It only means that she is scared of what you will do if she doesn’t smile.We, as women, should not have to put ourselves in danger in order to prove that you are being a disgusting sexist prat. Do not allow your 2 million followers to walk away from this thinking it is okay to harass strangers in the street. You have no idea how many young men will watch your videos and think this is acceptable, and how many young women will read the comments of “stfu feminist dykes, this is just banter” and create excuses for their own sexual assaults.
Here at Bitchtopia we cannot beg people enough with a high following count to use your online influence not to do as many stupid offence this as possible to become infamous, but to attempts to spread the word about these issues.
Report/dislike Peppers video here.
