Sexual Harassment of YouTube

As YouTube progresses I’m becoming more and more accustomed to the dodgy things the big YouTubers do to make money. Some of them are fairly harmless, others are just plain old scams but then there’s one that’s just downright degrading.

Sam Pepper was once that annoying kid on Big Brother who you kind of felt sorry for. As far as I was concerned he was harmless and I never paid any attention to him again after he left the Big Brother house. I’ve never subscribed to his YouTube channel and have only ever heard of his YouTube videos through Twitter. I’ve never had the desire to watch any of his content and, after the one video of his I did decide to watch, I have no intention of doing it again.

For some unknown reason (aside from perhaps idiocy and a major ego) Sam Pepper decided to make a video where he pinched the butt of unsuspecting girls and tried to pass it off as a prank. As a female it’s not the first time I’ve heard a guy trying to say they groped a girl for a joke. I’ve lost count as to how many times guys have said it to me after grabbing my ass or breasts in a bar but what they fail to realise is that does not make it ok. It is not a joke to grope anyone against their will and it is definitely not appropriate to do it to entertain the internet.

The majority of comments on Sam Pepper’s “Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank” point out how disgusting both he and his actions are but then there are the people who are defending him. I’ve seen comment after comment stating that the girls in the video all laughed and were clearly cool with what happened. Other comments are attacking feminism and some are even saying grabbing someone without their permission is perfectly fine.

It’s incredibly obvious that the girls shown in the video are uncomfortable with what happened and don’t quite know how to react. The first girl repeats that she doesn’t like what happened and looks awkward and confused. The other 2 girls shown nervously laugh it off before quickly walking away. Sam Pepper on the other-hand continues to laugh like an obnoxious hyena and tries to hug them. He is either too moronic to read their obvious body language or just genuinely doesn’t care.

Supporting what Sam Pepper did or even saying that people are offended by the video are overreacting is worrying to me. I would like to believe that in this day and age we would all realise that we are not entitled to someone else’s body but alas, that isn’t the case. Women and men alike are subject to sexual harassment and abuse on a regular basis and the blasé attitude some people have just shows we as a human race have a long way to go before it all ends.

I would love to say it’s just immature idiots on the internet who think it’s funny to do these kind of things to innocent passer-bys but unfortunately it’s not. In the past 2 weeks I’ve been made to feel uncomfortable by someone who should really know better (although judging by the fact they’re a homophobe, racist and sexist they’re clearly too stupid to know better), I’ve been catcalled a few times and have dealt with many perverted stares while walking down the street – I even gained a few leers while on my way to vote on Thursday morning. All of this is bad enough but let’s be honest, I do not look a day over 16 and the majority of guys doing it are at least in their 40s. That in itself just proves that as soon as you develop breasts you’re automatically subject to perverted comment, looks and the occasional grope.

At the time of writing this post the video sits on 716,328 views and has 70,000 thumbs down, the comments calling Sam out on his actions are rolling in thick and fast as are the tweets but somehow the video is still live. I highly doubt he’ll face any dire consequences for this video and I’m actually doubting YouTube will take the video completely down (they benefit from the revenue its generating too after all) but it would be nice if for once, the disgusting idiot who thinks groping people for a joke got what was coming to them.