This youtube comedian, Sam Pepper, made an awful little video of him startling women by pinching their butts (yeah, humor); the women look uncomfortable and unhappy with this inappropriate behavior, but Pepper giggles madly, so it was funny to someone. It was shocking, really, that he seemed to think distressing people was amusing.
So Laci Green wrote him an open letter — a very polite, too polite, letter describing what was objectionable, since he’s apparently not clever enough to see it himself, and asking him to stop (Ophelia linked to the letter yesterday).
You’ll never guess how Sam Pepper has responded.
Or maybe you will.
https://twitter.com/gogreen18/status/514772066709422080/photo/1
You’re a cunt and you need to STFU. Mind your own business.
https://twitter.com/gogreen18/status/514777598237233152/photo/1
I warned you, and now you’re making it worse for yourself aren’t you. I won’t say why, but you will regret this.
Ok. I haven’t read the article. I’m going to write down how I think he will respond, read the article, and see if my intuition is properly calibrated. My guess:
“With grace, humility, and a perspicacious articulation of what he did wrong.”
…Reads…
Yep. Nailed it.
What misogynistic douchebag!
“You’ll never guess.”
Wow. You must think we’re morons that we couldn’t guess that.
Huh. I thought he was going to go with the “gee, it was just a joke, what’s wrong with you Humorless Feminists anyway” response. I was actually a tiny bit startled when he managed to find something even worse.
Guys my brain imploded. The videos were fake….ish but the tweets woth the c word are what exactly?
Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank – THE REVEAL (part 3/3): http://youtu.be/Kf2beNubWj4
@Klaus-Dieter Fahnder, #5:
The guy said on twitter that someone is spoofing his email address… it seems to go with the video you linked to…
But I don’t really know, seems weird to make the video in the first place (I confess that I didn’t watch the first 2 videos and only watched the beginning of part 3 “The reveal”)…
It’s OK, everyone. All a big misunderstanding. Apparently it was a “social experiment” designed to “shine a light on abuse” of – wait for it – men! º_o
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/big-brothers-sam-pepper-reveals-4307431
A genuine mitigating factor – if true – is Pepper’s claim that all involved in the videos were actors. That doesn’t remotely excuse his emails to Laci (if they were indeed from him), but it puts a different light on the videos themselves.
The guy with videos of himself displaying problems minding his own business, wants others to mind their own business? That’s not how this works.
“mind your own business” And the unsolicited pinching of people and making them uncomfortable or upset also follows this same attitude?
My response to “mind your own business” is “keep your hands on your own ass.”
Why are you ragging on this comedian?…I mean, I punched this kid in the face last week and it was fucking HILARIOUS
Ah, yes, the vague threat. The last resort of somebody that has no credible defense and is also a fucking dirtbag.
See next post. It doesn’t even make sense to do this to protest discrimination against…men? What?
I never heard of the guy before, but his own words are persuading me that he’s an idiot.
funkyderek @ #7
Not necessarily. Green noted in her letter several instances of Pepper’s “comedy” relying on non-consensual interactions with women. Even if the latest does not apply, the remaining of Pepper’s body of work would.
Just because he “says” it was all consensual doesn’t mean we should believe him. If I knew where this took place, I would have emailed it to that police dept. If we saw him punching people or pickpocketing on vid, wouldn’t we alert the cops? Even if he said they signed releases? I would think the cops should verify that claim. Why has no one brought this option?
Oh, what a short fuse. A scary short fuse.
What the fuck? What a cowardly little MRA shit.
Making it…what? Some sort of Schroedinger’s Asshole Poe?
–
Sam Pepper was a contestant on the British version of Big Brother in 2010 or so.
Sickening. More of the same from entitled assholes. This reminds of me the time I had posted somewhere, telling Teh Menz to stop telling women to “Smile! Be Pretty!” The most memorable response was “I can’t stand joyless cunts like you.” Yup, women exist to please Teh Menz.
I kind of get what he’s doing, he’s taking the “Andy Kaufman” effect to an extreme where it doesn’t really work. When he gets older, he’ll probably figure out how to “protest” smarter than this.
Pepper is claiming that his e-mail was spoofed…
https://twitter.com/sampepper/status/514784332083257345
I’ll reserve judgement on that for now, but the whole ‘social experiment” thing , even if genuine, was a disaster. The guy’s whole “comedy” schtick appears to be pulling childish mean spirited “pranks”. Hard to take this latest as a serious attempt at social commentary…
What I hate most about these MRAs is that they take a legitimate point (yes, it *shouldn’t* be okay to sexually harrass men) but they’re just using it as an excuse to dismiss the issues of mysogyny, often with a thick-headed ignorance of context (Sam, your female fans probably feel okay pinching your butt because they recognize they don’t think they actually threaten you).
It’s become clear though that however much MRAs bray about how sexism legitimately effects men in a negative way, they’re not really interested in fixing the problem, and often they contribute to it. How many of these “it’s terrible how men have to bottle up their feelings” types would be the first to call a guy a “pussy” or a “faggot” given the excuse?
If that were true, he’d just have said so instead of blowing up in her face and basically quoting one of my middle-school bullies (“you’re dead next break” – nothing happened, as I expected).
QFT.
From the piece:
Not altogether unreasonable. He used actors, so no one was actually assaulted. He states up front in the last video that “it goes without saying” that we shouldn’t sexually assault people. The efforts are undermined by some of his previous videos, however,* not to mention those emails.
*His “kissing strangers” video and “lassoing women” video, to be specific; when you make vidoes harassing and restraining women, it’s rather difficult to take you seriously on the subject of sexual assault.
Thanks, Iyéska – it works again! ^_^
If he really did use actors, some of them should be willing to come forward and say so, right?
Big reveal video. Email spoofing. Guy’s got an excuse for everything. What’s his excuse for his earlier videos?
It’s terrible, and from what I can see entirely in keeping with this guy’s personality, but a screenshot of an email is pretty flimsy evidence. It’s possible that Green could have been taken in by a fake.
If I were going to do it, I’d set up an email account on some web service using Tor or some anonymous proxy server, create a throwaway alias with that address, quote the publically-available open letter, and respond in the vilest way possible.
Given the recent trollishness, I’d want more evidence before hanging the guy out to dry.
I don’t really think that it’s that mitigating. I can applaud the general idea of exposing how men and women are treated differently when it comes to harassment and I have a general respect for artistic projects that sometimes have to push boundaries. He is trying to address something important.
But context is important and his videos need to be able to point out places where men are treated differently without contributing to the problems for women. His twitter message suggests that he sees women as opponents and not possible allies in a system where everyone plays a role in making this crap happen. Gendered content-less insults and and an immediate threat are not good signs. It would have been better if he had contrasted with already existing examples of how woman are harassed and set up a dichotomy so that the differences were more clear. His choice to stage harassment of women is risky because those videos out of context risk being seen as simply videos celebrating harassment of women.
@ #23 – David
>If that were true, he’d just have said so instead of blowing up in her face and basically quoting one of my middle-school bullies (“you’re dead next break” – nothing happened, as I expected).
Well, it turns out that it seems he wanted to reveal it was a prank to all his detractors at once, so there *are* other reasons why he might not reveal it when he received her criticism.
None of this excuses his reply, and his overall attempt to make some sort of point was completely dumb. He clearly wanted to lash out at what he sees as an unfair focus on sexual assault towards women, while disguising it as an attack on sexual assault altogether (which he “accomplished” by portraying sexual assault as a harmless prank).
What a wanker.
If he wanted to make a video demonstrating how going up and touching a stranger without permission like that is not okay if the stranger is male, why not get some actors together and shoot a video of a woman going up to a strange man and touching him and then say, “If the genders were reversed, would this be acceptable?”
I’m attempting to apply logic to a situation not designed to accept it, aren’t I.
I’ve been on the internet for, oh, over 20 years. In that time, I have heard “my email was hacked/spoofed!” as an excuse a LOT of times.
And it holds just as much water now as it did then. That is to say, none.
Yeah, I’m reminded of Anthony Wiener’s “hacked” Twitter account excuse. That one held up for hours…
I remember playing stupid pranks like this. When I was, like, eight.
“My Twitter was hacked” is the new “The dog ate my homework”.
His email spoofing explanation is plausible. His assertion that his video was meant as a social experiment is not.
It seems clear to me that he simply thought it was a funny, and plus he got to grab some ass!
The way he laughed at the girls while they revolted and recoiled in horror was simply horrendous. I’m honestly surprised he wasn’t arrested. The packpeddling he is doing right now could supply the continental US with alternative energy for a year.
It would seem simply idiotic to actually send out those emails. However, the guy does appear to be a complete idiot, and so devoid of comedic ideas that he thought this was an acceptable comedy piece.
He’s probably too dumb to realize that people might call out his abusive emails, just as he is too dumb to realize that videotaping and broadcasting various sexual assaults on strangers under the guise of a “prank” is deplorable.
So yeah, he probably did send those emails too. Welcome to irrelevancy, Mr Pepper.
He apologized unconditionally; promised to be more considerate of others and immediately removed the video, while making a video explaining why his action were wrong.
Oh, he got defensive and acted like a misogynistic jerk. Predictable.
Jeff S, #37
More like a homecoming, isn’t it?
Seriously how many of us had heard of this dolt before this?
Does it matter that his ‘victims’ were actors when the video itself doesn’t say or even suggest it? From what I’ve understood it only suggests that sexually assaulting women is hilarious and that’s not an idea that should be spread.
Laci has posted a new video on the subject with some new information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9qVaMhnJB8
Ok so basically this guy isn’t just a serial sexual assaulter, he appears to be a serial rapist of his fans.
Many accounts of rape and abuse are coming out.
This survivor gives a horribly harrowing account of when Sam Pepper raped her.
TRIGGER WARNING: VIOLENT RAPE SCENARIO GRAPHICALLY DESCRIBED
PZ, you need to make a follow up post about this man. He belongs in jail.
More cases:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/youtube-star-sam-pepper-accused-of-soliciting-nude-photos-fr#3ubo18q
Pretty crass…
I do seriously wonder if the whole premise of ALL “hidden camera” prank shows is pretty much unsalvageable though. I’ve seen skits where some sap sits in a sauna at a ski lodge only for the entire wall to flip backwards dumping the poor soul into the snow. Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of pranks and promptly shut down anyone who thinks doing one to me would be funny. Are “pranks” ultimately the problem here? Is there any such thing as an “innocent” prank?