It’s Not a Prank, It’s Sexual Assault

I want to share the story of Sam Pepper and the recent controversy he’s stirred up in the YouTube community. Sam is a YouTuber who has risen to fame largely through his pranking videos and has over 2 million subscribers. Recently, he posted a video entitled “Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank” that involved him approaching young women in the street, grabbing their butts when they weren’t paying attention, and recording their reactions. It was disgusting to watch him violate these women and saddening to see them awkwardly trying to laugh off this situation that clearly made them uncomfortable. A commenter on the video even pointed out that the first woman he pulled this stunt on replied with, “I don’t like that.” What Pepper did was assault these women, plain and simple. And as if that in itself wasn’t enough, to call this a “prank” to his viewers is incredibly damaging. Jokes and pranks are meant to be funny, but I don’t find it humorous to grab women inappropriately without their consent. And to call this act a prank normalizes this kind of behaviour toward women. YouTube has become a powerful way to spread information and since vlogging has been popularized, there are many people who have developed a great influence over millions of people through their videos. Sam Pepper is one of these people and with this video he is saying, to his 2 million subscribers, that it’s humorous to violate women’s bodies and that it’s okay to sexually assault women for “entertainment” and beyond.

Fortunately, most people reacted in the exact way they should have. Many influential members of the YouTube community publicly denounced his behaviour, taking to Twitter and Tumblr to express their outrage. Laci Green, a sex education activist and vlogger, wrote an open letter to Sam Pepper on her blog that has received nearly 90,000 notes on Tumblr and several notable co-signers (Hannah Hart, Grace Helbig, and Wil Wheaton to name a few); John Green, NYT bestselling author and vlogger, responded publicly to an anonymous ask on his personal blog; Tyler Oakley, a vlogger and LGBTQ advocate, tweeted about the occurrence to his 3 million followers; The Fine Brothers, online producers and creators of the popular React series on YouTube, have said that they will not collaborate with “creators who partake in that behaviour”; and Hank Green, vlogger and co-creator of the world’s largest online convention, stated that Sam Pepper will no longer be welcome at VidCon. There was also a #ReportSamPepper trend that quickly became popular on Twitter and many campaigns on different Social Media outlets to have the video removed. As disturbing as Pepper’s video was, it was encouraging to see how people from around the world came together to call out this video for what it was: a blatant display of sexism and assault. And given how often sexual assault is ignored in our society and how often perpetrators avoid punishment, this is really important to recognize and appreciate. One creator may have used his online influence to make light of violating women’s bodies, but several others used theirs to educate, raise awareness, and fight against sexual assault. Now, thanks to the combined efforts of people from all around the Internet, the original video has been removed from YouTube and more people are aware and better educated about the subject.

We can all make a difference and contribute to the end of sexual assault in our society. Learn more + get involved: City of Calgary: Resources ; National Sexual Violence Resource Centre ; Not Alone: Together Against Sexual Assault ; Where is Your Line? ; It’s On Us ; No More