Ah, Sam Pepper. First, you were just a guy who harassed women for YouTube views. Then, you were a guy who allegedly harassed women just because. Now, you’re being accused of raping a girl the last time you were in Toronto. Next time, some advice you may want to consider: don’t sexually assault people for any reason. Just a thought.
For those of you who need a quick backgrounder, the story goes something like this. Sam Pepper is an ex-Big Brother contestant and YouTuber who racked up views in videos where he sexually harassed women, by doing things like pinching their butts or lassoing them on the street. Pepper, attempting to save his public image (such as it was) attempted to pass off his most recent stunt as a “social experiment” to raise awareness for domestic violence against men. Since this was patently untrue, Pepper’s network dropped him – especially once brave women started popping up across the internet, willing to share their stories of how Pepper allegedly personally sexually assaulted them (many of them while they were underage).
Now, because things weren’t already horrible enough, a Toronto woman is stepping forward and accusing Pepper of raping her. The entire account, which you can read over at BuzzFeed News, is from a 20-year-old woman, who asked to have her name withheld. She says she met Pepper through Twitter, and they began communicating before his Toronto concert back in April on Facebook.
BuzzFeed has logs of the (alleged, I guess) Facebook chats, and they’re pretty brutally self-explanatory; Pepper essentially pressures her into meeting him at his hotel room before the concert, at which point he forces her to perform oral sex on him. After the concert (behind spoiler tags for those who might be triggered by sexual assault):
In light of this accusation, BuzzFeed says Pepper deleted his Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr accounts. Pepper’s Twitter account is active, but he hasn’t tweeted since the day before these new allegations surfaced. [Updated: We originally erroneously reported that Pepper had deleted his Twitter, instead of Facebook. Apologies!].
Of course, this woman isn’t the only one to have accused Pepper of assault in the recent weeks. SEX+ YouTuber Laci Green posted a video recounting the tales she’s heard from women recently, some of whom are planning on pressing charges. That’s in addition to this video from YouTuber thisisdottie, this video from an anonymous woman, this blog post by Shirley J, these tweets from Bryony Harris, and this account from Abbey McEnroe, all of whom have similar accusations against Pepper of sexual assault.
I feel like I’ve said everything I have to say about Pepper, so I can only leave you with these persistent messages: don’t watch his videos. Don’t support his work. Don’t watch or support the videos of anyone who posts similar types of sexual harassment masquerading as “pranks.” Report anything you find. Speak out against it when you feel it is safe for you to do so.
And equally as importantly: never victim blame. Listen to and support survivors, and we can all make the world a slightly better place, in spite of guys like Sam Pepper.
(via Jezebel)
- First, he harassed women on YouTube
- Then, he tried to call it a “social experiment”
- Then he was dropped from his network amidst assault allegations
- “MURDER PRANK!!!” is the perfect send-up of it all
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