Sam Pepper, a twenty-five year old YouTuber famous for public pranks and social experiments, recently uploaded a video in which he brazenly violates and harasses innocent women on the streets of Los Angeles. His careless and disrespectful public gestures tested the entire YouTube community and led them to reconsider what they choose to watch, celebrate, and receive as socially acceptable and comedic.
Pepper’s video received over 1,000,000 views before it was taken down. In it, he pinches random women’s backsides without their permission, and films their reactions to feed his popularity on the mainstream video site. His YouTube channel is filled with additional videos of him pulling different public stunts, all involving the violation or harassment of women, causing some to go as far as accusing him of sexual assault. His videos and their popularity not only highlight the side effects of the YouTube culture that rules social interactions in modern society, but also reveal the larger issue of sexual harassment and general disrespect of women on a global scale.
Sagal Alisalad ‘15 noted that “his other videos weren’t particularly misogynistic; they were just stupid like ‘oh let me go out into public and pull pranks’ on people but… he was just being a jerk and that’s not funny at all; this last video [is] where it got particularly offensive.”
Antonella Ubierna ‘15, who was a fan of Sam Pepper and his videos for a long time, changed opinions very quickly when the video of him grabbing women’s backsides surfaced on the Internet. Pepper pushed his friends and fans, such as Antonella, to reevaluate their respect for him. Soon after the video started getting worldwide attention, multiple women came forward about their negative experiences of harassment and even assault from Sam Pepper.
YouTuber Laci Green and others immediately began to raise awareness for these girls and their stories, while some of Sam Peppers’ fans verbally attacked the victims. As Ubierna ‘15 shared, “the girls who are coming out now about being sexually assaulted have come out before. His fans believe they have a genuine connection with him and think they know everything about him and that it’s not possible that something like this could happen, so they attack the victim.” This idea of victim blaming is ever-present in modern society, but in the past few years it’s been particularly prevalent in the YouTube community.
YouTube is currently in an ongoing cycle of controversy, particularly involving the contributors Alex Day and Nash Grier. In December of 2013, Nash Grier, 16, uploaded a video dictating what he looked for in a girlfriend and naming certain physical requirements girls must have in order to impress him. He described and criticized girls that don’t shave their legs, armpits or upper lip in front of his entire fan base, which consists primarily of 12 to 18-year-old girls. This video highlighted the immense pressure and impossible standards forced upon girls today and acted as a catalyst for a reevaluation of popular YouTubers and the kind of detrimental behavior they can promote through their videos. In the spring of 2014, famous YouTuber Alex Day was charged with multiple accounts of sexual assault, including raping an underage fan. Day soon lost his record deal with John and Hank Green’s company, as well as his YouTube friends and a large portion of his fan base.
Because Nash Grier, Alex Day, and Sam Pepper are all young men encouraging sexist and dangerous behavior, there can be dire socio-cultural consequences. Young boys may watch such videos and think that disregarding women’s personal choices, ignoring the vital concept of consent, and initiating public assault are acceptable, even comedic, practices. In turn, young girls may assume that being slapped on their backsides on a public street is normal and that being yelled at to shave their legs by teenage boys is perfectly reasonable.
The culture of online harassment must be talked about in real life in order to spread awareness and search for a solution. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that every year more than ten million women and men will experience physical violence from their partner, almost two million women will be raped, and over seven million women and men will be stalked.
Although many of these YouTubers and their videos are problematic, viewers reactions to these videos prove there is a silver lining. Many YouTubers such as Laci Green and the “Vlogbrothers” signed a petition asking for Sam Pepper’s videos to be removed. YouTube management immediately blocked and deleted many of Sam Pepper’s videos. This speedy response could be a sign of hope for a brighter future where full equality and respect for women are implemented in professional, daily, and cyber life.
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