The Sam Pepper situation just gets uglier and uglier. As YouTube sex educator Laci Green explains in the video above, Pepper, under fire for “prank” videos on YouTube that appear to show him sexually harassing numerous young women, is now facing serious accusations of sexual misconduct from numerous women – including, in one case, violent rape.
For those who haven’t been following the story as it’s developed over the past week: Sam Pepper is a former Big Brother UK cast member and YouTube personality best known for a series of unfunny “prank” videos which have often featured him sexually harassing women in various creepy ways.
Earlier this week, Pepper posted a video titled “Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank,” that featured him grabbing the asses of various women he encountered on the street with his real hand – the fake hand (arm, actually) was a bit of a misdirect to make it look as though it wasn’t really him doing the pinching.
This apparently was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. After a groundswell of complaints about the blatant sexual harassment in the video, YouTube took it down.
Pepper responded with a second video, in which a woman went around pinching men’s asses, and then a third, in which he claimed, bizarrely, that the whole thing had been staged with actors in an attempt to bring public attention to the issue of … sexual harassment against men.
This claim reeks of bullshit. Over the course of his less-than-illustrious career Pepper has put forth numerous videos that feature similar sexual harassment of women — oh, sorry, “pranks.” If you go through his YouTube uploads, you’ll find videos in which he literally handcuffs himself to unsuspecting and clearly uncomfortable women, promising to release them if they kiss him. In other videos he forces kisses on other unsuspecting women; in yet another he and an accomplice literally lasso women and claim them for their own.
Are all these videos fake, too? Are they all part of his grand plan to bring light to sexual harassment against … men?
Or are they what they appear to be, videos in which Pepper harasses women and calls it pranking?
And is his big “reveal” video a sincere attempt to bring attention to sexual harassment of men?
Or is it a desperate attempt to spin his way out of a scandal of his own making and rescue his sleazy but extremely lucrative YouTube career, which is now in danger of imploding?
The answers to these questions seem pretty obvious to me.
And now, as Laci Green points out in the video above, women are coming forward to tell of their own (alleged) encounters with Pepper. Their stories paint a picture of Pepper as an overentitled sexual predator who uses his internet fame – he’s got 2.4 million YouTube followers – as a tool to exploit and abuse young women – and teenage girls.
Below, I’ve posted a video from the woman who says Pepper raped her. It’s harrowing to watch — and a big TRIGGER WARNING for graphic description of the alleged rape. She has also provided a written account here, including screenshots of texts she allegedly exchanged with Pepper.
I say “alleged” because the case has not been proven in court. But I believe her.
You can find another video from an accuser here. Laci Green’s Open Letter to Pepper — written before the latest round of accusations — is here. Green has been getting threatening emails that seem to be coming from Pepper himself; Pepper, on Twitter, claims that his email address is being “spoofed” and that the threats aren’t coming from him. Buzzfeed, meanwhile, reports that Pepper is also being accused of soliciting nude photos from an underage girl. Another girl claims that Pepper sexually assaulted her when she was 15.
Follow Green on Twitter for updates as this develops. I suspect this is going to get even uglier still.
Laci’s video was so powerful…she’s my hero
Always happy to see a slimebag like this get some well-deserved backlash. Hopefully this is just the start of it.
Oh, every week just gets better and better. This is deeply shitty.
I love Laci.
And of course the abuser’s lobby weighs in to defend the abuser.
Disgusting. If this piece of shit was trying to raise awareness about male harassment victims, he would have done something like post a video of men telling their stories. How does harassing women help when women are already constantly the victims of harassment?
Not that I’m saying anything Mammotheers don’t know but just in case one of Pepper’s fans takes his sorry ass over here to claim it was really about male harassment victims and we’re misandering I thought I’d make a preemptive comment.
“It’s about double standards!”
–Virtually every MRA liar.
weirwoodtreehugger, his 2nd video (in the alleged 3 part series) featured a woman pinching men’s butts, and he claims he did this to show that people would be less mad about this than about his video in which he pinched women’s butts. It was all a social experiment, guize! But of course he put this out only after getting criticized, and after making countless videos in which he harasses women.
Cloudian, I like that the Redditor who posted that says that “if this does go to trial and Sam is found innocent then Laci should face serious repercussions.”
Really?! Do they actually think it’s illegal to say you think someone’s a rapist if they’re later found not guilty in court? Should I be prosecuted for saying publicly that I think OJ and George Zimmerman are guilty of murder?
If Sam Pepper has any concept of reality, he’ll make himself very invisible, very soon. I just hope that anyone who has been victimized by him can get any and all support, including legal, that they deserve.
Oddly enough, two days ago they were more skeptical about Sam Pepper’s story. (That poster does not seem to be a r/mr regular.
@cloudiah
That’s standards MensRights behavior triggering. Once any feminists raise a concern, it suddenly becomes the most important thing in the universe to prove them wrong.
As long as the hated, evil, feminists, who are out to destroy MANkind aren’t involved, there’s at least a pretense of approaching things critically.
Even /r/videos, which is usually filled with bigots, appears to recognize that Pepper is a piece of shit. Normally, posting a video by a feminist about anything would cause /r/videos to fly into a frothing rage about feminists, so I don’t know why Pepper is reviled there.
I couldn’t find this on AVfWhinyEntitledAsshats, does anyone know if it’s real? Because it’s kind of glorious (and by glorious I mean even below their usual limbo standards).
http://misandry-mermaid.tumblr.com/post/44870412330/lol-wut
http://youtu.be/b3DtUuy4KvI
Video of Sam Pepper on Big Brother harassing a housemate…and then laughing about it. He’s a deviant.
Here is John Scalzi with some brain bleach (I really should read one of his books some day).
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/09/25/an-anti-feminist-walks-into-a-bar-a-play-in-five-acts/
Shaun
his books are really good. He does a great takedown of the Heinlein-ian military sf genre.
Also, Redshirts is hilarious. (See my blog)
What the..
I just..
This…
I shouldn’t read this while having lunch on my desk.
Whahappened with those double dots??
Well, hat makes 7 ou of 9. Not bad.
Luzbelitx, as long as it’s not a fedora…
*couldn’t resist*
Hahaaha thanks Shaun!
I think my keyboard is most definitely up to something.
@David
https://ia802307.us.archive.org/13/items/gov.uscourts.ord.115658/gov.uscourts.ord.115658.docket.html
The background: a woman (Plunkett, the defendant) reported to the police that she had been raped and strangled by her soon-to-be-ex-husband (now ex, the plaintiff Schwern). She also told some friends. The authorities did not bring charges. The friends put some stuff on Twitter and on a couple of websites about how this dude is now persona non grata in their circle and why. They are both active in a couple of organizations so more than just a small group of people saw the posts.
Schwern is now suing Plunkett for bunches of money on the grounds that she ruined his reputation. Plunkett’s defense is that this is a SLAPP designed to intimidate and infringe her right to, y’know, go to the police and talk to her friends about something that happened to her.
The current status is that Plunkett’s lawyer has been asking for the case to be dismissed on the grounds of SLAPP legislation, and Schwen’s lawyer is fighting this and trying to discover Plunkett into bankruptcy.
So, not illegal exactly, but this line of reasoning definitely says that you should be sued into the ground if you say someone is a rapist and they aren’t convicted of rape.
Obviously this is bullshit, and it’s absolutely stunning to me that getting this suit dismissed is turning out to be so difficult for Plunkett’s lawyer.
It’s a misandrist keyboard. Mocking hats is MISANDRY!
I’m pretty sure, because everything else is misandry.
From the link to the article the victim wrote, which included the screenshots:
This is making me see red. Rape victims are often in shock for days after the trauma. The notion that they can’t ask for the evidence-preserving exam until after they’ve made up their mind whether or not to come forward for the arduous process of filing a charge is vile and disgusting. It might make sense not to process the kit contents until charges are filed–the labs are already hideously backed up, anyway. But to not do the kit at all?
Seriously, fuck every last fuckhead involved with making that fucking fuckheaded policy.