Patreon LogoYour support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)

Sam Pepper, Sexual Harassment, Public Pranks, & More!

Ms_Muffintops

Ms_Muffintops

Supernova
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Location
Drury Lane
So I'm sure a good chunk of people who have an opinion of the situation honestly didn't know much about Sam Pepper before the internet exploded into a war.

If you aren't aware, a pretty popular youtuber was recently called out via a public signed letter made by youtubers asking him to stop doing what he does because he made a prank video where he would grab a woman's ass and essentially pretend it wasn't him.

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S3dPZx0Sac[/video]

He also has other videos of similar nature such as coaxing people into making out with him which I found much more uncomfortable than this video.

He has since been removed from his network which managed and produces his videos, other youtube events have said he is no longer welcome, and youtube removed the prank video (the video I linked in the thread is a re-upload by someone else). He's essentially been rejected by an active part of the internet. He may as well have fucked up his youtube career minus any revenue he gets from his remaining views. But he can probably kiss sponsorship, partnerships with networks, and participating in official youtube events goodbye.

He attempted to redeem himself by uploading a clip of a woman doing the same thing he did in his video --- she was pinching the asses of men. He said it was a social experiment to show the world the double standard we have when it comes to genders and their behaviors. But for a lot of people this is still no excuse. He claims that the women in the video are in on it but one of them has since tweeted saying she was not in on it.

Ever since the public call out, a few alleged victims of sexual harassment and rape (by Sam Pepper) have come forth and shared their stories as well.

So I guess some questions I could ask to spark discussions is:

1. Do you think this is inappropriate?
2. Is this sexual harassment to you?
3. How would you react if someone did that to you?
4. Do you think he deserves what he got? Does he deserve worse?
5. What do you think of prank youtubers? Or public pranks in general?
6. What boundaries should these people stay in?
7. Are people overreacting to this and public prank youtubers?
 
Honestly, this is one of those fine line things. I really respect the strides women are taking to gain control and autonomy of their bodies and I do sometimes think they can go a little far or be extra sensitive about it. I'm also not a big fan of pranks to begin with; whenever I get pranked depending on the severity of the ruse, I get really caught up in the trauma of the ruse and have trouble letting go and laughing or being relieved afterwards.

Overall, I think this guy's prank is fairly harmless(from the video you linked; the forced kissing one is totally out of bounds) but I also do not feel these women deserve to be put in that position against their will. The first girl he did it to even told him "I do not like that; I did not like that" and he just laughs and hugs her. I've heard him say before that it was a "social experiment" but what observations are we supposed to be making? What theories is he testing? If that isn't clear or the message is obviously not a good one, then he's full of shit.

I think sexual harassment is a very personal thing. It is not my place to tell you what you should or should not be comfortable with and you have to be reasonable with your boundaries. I could not say for these women if this was a total violation for them but I know in their place, I'd shrug it off because his intentions are not ominous or predatory, in my opinion. Who's to say? Perception is everything on the internet, especially with videos and youtubers; who knows the interactions that happened before or after the camera started rolling. He could have turned his stalker/creep on and just edited those parts out.

I think he deserved what he got, especially with the history he has with this kind of behavior. But it's not witch-hunt material. It DOES set a bad precedent when we accept these kinds of videos as the norm, though, so, I am glad that it stops here. But if the next outrage is just over women getting pie shoved in their faces, then I'll have to tell people to tone it down a bit.
 
He was arrested last week on sodomy charges, but the woman chose not to testify so the charges were dropped. I think he's slimy, since until someone called him out, he then claimed it was a social experiment.
 
Rudolph Quin said:
Honestly, this is one of those fine line things. I really respect the strides women are taking to gain control and autonomy of their bodies and I do sometimes think they can go a little far or be extra sensitive about it. I'm also not a big fan of pranks to begin with; whenever I get pranked depending on the severity of the ruse, I get really caught up in the trauma of the ruse and have trouble letting go and laughing or being relieved afterwards.

Overall, I think this guy's prank is fairly harmless(from the video you linked; the forced kissing one is totally out of bounds) but I also do not feel these women deserve to be put in that position against their will. The first girl he did it to even told him "I do not like that; I did not like that" and he just laughs and hugs her. I've heard him say before that it was a "social experiment" but what observations are we supposed to be making? What theories is he testing? If that isn't clear or the message is obviously not a good one, then he's full of shit.

I think sexual harassment is a very personal thing. It is not my place to tell you what you should or should not be comfortable with and you have to be reasonable with your boundaries. I could not say for these women if this was a total violation for them but I know in their place, I'd shrug it off because his intentions are not ominous or predatory, in my opinion. Who's to say? Perception is everything on the internet, especially with videos and youtubers; who knows the interactions that happened before or after the camera started rolling. He could have turned his stalker/creep on and just edited those parts out.

I think he deserved what he got, especially with the history he has with this kind of behavior. But it's not witch-hunt material. It DOES set a bad precedent when we accept these kinds of videos as the norm, though, so, I am glad that it stops here. But if the next outrage is just over women getting pie shoved in their faces, then I'll have to tell people to tone it down a bit.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think by definition it could be considered sexual harassment based off of some of the girls reactions. Like when they turn around and say "What the hell?" But it isn't the worse case scenario. I suppose I'm in the middle ground. Some people are acting like these girls were raped, while other's are like "Get over it." Both of which I don't entirely agree with.

I've always disliked prank youtubers, mostly because a lot of them go off of scare factor which is risky. Some people may not be able to handle it, they could have a panic attack, act out violently, and what not. I especially hate Ed Bassmaster. I was watching a vlog featuring him and as a 'prank' he started chasing down a mall security cop in his truck and was pretending he was trying to ram him.

I suppose if I could give anyone a rule for public pranks, it's don't try to scare them, that's not funny for anyone but yourself, and don't touch them.
 
Ms_Muffintops said:
Yeah I think by definition it could be considered sexual harassment based off of some of the girls reactions. Like when they turn around and say "What the hell?" But it isn't the worse case scenario. I suppose I'm in the middle ground. Some people are acting like these girls were raped, while other's are like "Get over it." Both of which I don't entirely agree with.

I've always disliked prank youtubers, mostly because a lot of them go off of scare factor which is risky. Some people may not be able to handle it, they could have a panic attack, act out violently, and what not. I especially hate Ed Bassmaster. I was watching a vlog featuring him and as a 'prank' he started chasing down a mall security cop in his truck and was pretending he was trying to ram him.

I suppose if I could give anyone a rule for public pranks, it's don't try to scare them, that's not funny for anyone but yourself, and don't touch them.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I do not think he was being predatory in the situations in this particular video but the one with him forcing women to kiss him he definitely is. Whether it is sexual harassment or not, I do not think it is constructive to tell these women to just "get over it". He randomly groped them. Just because he had a camera on and said "I'm just joking around" doesn't make them any less uncomfortable.

Jesus, how is that even a prank? What happened to old school ingenuity? I remember Howie Mandel used to have a prank show where he went around with a video camera on his sunglasses or his hat and did silly things. One time, he went into a professional, collectors Barbie/doll shop and asked the elderly woman behind the counter to help him pick out a doll that would "turn his son gay". Totally straight-facing it, allowing her to help him with this endeavor. XD THAT kinda harmless stuff is a prank! Where you set up a ruse and allow someone to believe it.
 
I'm of the 'do unto others' mindset, which is probably while I dislike pranks and pranksters in general. So I'm not exactly impartial on this, but I'll weigh in. The whole 'ass pinching' thing is exceedingly douchey, whether you're doing it to a man or a woman. I wouldn't call it rape (Which seems to be the buzzword of modern 'feminists' over the most minor of things) but it's still very unpleasant and violates a persons personal space, and just saying "lol jk" doesn't make it any better.

The whole 'forcing someone to kiss him' video that Rudloph mentioned, yeah now that's pretty fucked. That's... that's not even a prank really, that's just... yeah, that's just vile.

Ultimately if these allegations of sexual assault are true then the guy got what he deserved and a problem was nipped in the bud. Reading it gave me eerie flashbacks to the Jimmy Saville scandal, and if he hadn't gotten caught out like this then he probably would have gone on to become much worse.
 
I just personally hope it doesn't turn out to be a similar case to Michael Jackson, with people making claims against them for a quick cash-in regardless of whether they were actually traumatized by the events, or even questioning whether or not they even happened to begin with. Whether this Sam Pepper is genuinely immoral or not, once someone has been branded as such, it's easy to jump onto the bandwagon, make a little story of how you were affected, and have the public just eat it up without question.

In this day and age, I tend to look less at the general culprit being put on the hot seat and more towards those looking to make a profit out of the situation at hand. Gives you another perspective to think about; see just how cutthroat the world can be.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom