Sam Pepper Exposed (**trigger warning**)

[♥︎ SarahD ♥︎]

So yesterday a new video went up on Laci Green's channel which I think we all need to take a look at.  I put a trigger warning in the title of this topic because those of you who have suffered from sexual harassment/assault/rape may not want to watch this.

I wasn't sure quite where else to put this, so feel free to move this to somewhere more appropriate, but I thought I'd put it here in the gender studies section, given the distinct feminist thread running through this incident.

I'm curious to know what everyone here thinks of this - are Laci and other feminists over-reacting to an innocent prank? Or does the very fact that some people consider these violations of women's bodies and personal space as "just a prank" once again highlight that rape culture is in fact still very real?

My personal opinion?  I'm in the second camp.  I believe in gender equality (which goes both ways, obviously), and feminism has always stood for that so far as I see.  To me, it really doesn't seem like an unreasonable request to ask that we don't interfere with other people's bodies or personal space without their *explicit* consent.  It's really a matter of respect for their life as a fellow and equal human being.  I really don't get what's so difficult about that.. 

So was the footage from Sam Pepper's video's sexual assault?  I can't see that there's any doubt.
From Wikipedia:

Sexual assault, a form of sexual violence, is any involuntary sexual act in which a person is threatened, coerced, or forced to engage against their will, or any non-consensual sexual touching of a person. This includes rape (such as forced vaginal, anal or oral penetration or drug facilitated sexual assault), groping, forced kissing, child sexual abuse, or the torture of the victim in a sexual manner.[1][2][3]

The clips clearly and distinctly show the two acts highlighted above going on, and the women in the videos are very blatantly uncomfortable with it too (i.e. it was *non-consensual*).

As for the "oh, I only did it to raise awareness of sexual assault against men" that Sam Pepper claimed after outrage started to grow... really..?  How on earth would anyone think that sexually assaulting women would be a good way to raise awareness of men being sexually assaulted??  I mean, that doesn't even hold internal logical consistency.. am I just being really dense here?    And even *IF* (<< very big "if" ) that really was the case, why wait until people call you out on it before even making any kind of mention about men who are assaulted?  I call BS back-peddling in an attempt to try and wiggle out of trouble.

Anyway yeh, long story short I'm with Laci completely on this.  I know some of you may not agree (in whole or in part). I'll do my best to be respectful of that in my replies and I'll try to reign in my outrage and stick to logical facts as much as I'm capable of doing so.  This sort of stuff just makes me so furious so I'm sorry in advance if I get a little fiery.

With that in mind: <3 *hugs* <3 to you all regardless of your opinion, and extra <3 *hugs* <3 to those who have suffered from abuse themselves x

*♥*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*♥*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*♥*

EDIT / UPDATE:
Just thought I'd dump these here too in the interest of building up a complete picture.

First of all we have the twitter posts from both Sam and Laci.  I rolled them into one huge screenshot so it was easier to compare them side by side, plus just in case anyone decides to start going about deleting their tweets lol   I've kept them faithful to the original streams (practically verbatim - just dropped four of Laci's postings because they took up a lot of room and didn't add anything to the conversation.  Two of them were just re-tweets of her video and another was a pic of her on a plane saying the video would be coming soon, so you're not missing much lol ).  Here's a link to the image:

http://www.imageshost.eu/images/2014/09/26/LaciVsSam.png

Notice how it's not until the day after Laci writes the open letter to Sam that there's *suddenly* a "part 2" where he does it to guys (which YT took down you'll notice - we'll come back to that in a sec), and then the "reveal" was done the same day that "part 2" went up?  Also notice how in his "reveal" video description he claims to have taken the second video down again, but you can see from his Twitter that it's obviously been taken down by YT themselves for ToS violation.  More lies huh Sam?  If that isn't blatant damage control then I don't know what the hell is lmao!

Also, here's a link to the open letter from Laci to Sam.  I think we can all agree that her terms are quite reasonable:  http://lacigreen.tumblr.com/post/98083811325/an-open-letter-to-sam-pepper

Also for those interested.

[Jessica Merriman]

Atrocious behavior by those individuals. Every single thing they did was chargeable. I would forward the videos to the local District Attorney where they reside for charges. The evidence is the videos themselves. Appalling!!! 

[NathanielM]

This is so disgusting Yes, this is sexual assault, and I'm really sorry I'm going to put it this harsh but anyone who says it isn't is blind or ignorant. It doesn't matter WHY he did it, really! Even if he were raising money for cute little puppydogs this would be wrongwrongwrong. I can't believe people are defending his actions (I don't know him so I'm not going to judge his person).

Edit: and eww I read the comments (clearly I'm a complete idiot) and I've lost my faith in the world completely now. Excuse me as I go cry in a corner.

[Bombadil]

Honestly, this is part of why I am struggling so much this week. I couldn't make it through all through Laci's video, too triggering.

There was a second video by this guy, that Laci Greene didn't mention where he grabs men's ass. He claimed that people would be less upset by that video and then he did his "big reveal" to highlight the difference in response.

I hate that there are people defending him.

[Dread_Faery]

I'm glad that she's standing up to him, it's disgusting and it's not overreacting. Rape culture is all about (usually) men feeling entitled to women's bodies.

[Shantel]

Sick bastards all, and so unbelievably unconscionable!

[suzifrommd]

If someone did that to me, they'd be be talking with the police. All the things in the video are assaults, and can and should be prosecuted as crimes.

[Taka]

i won't watch the video. first of all because i don't have good enough connection to watch atm, but also because as much as i enjoy the fantasy of a whole range of what would be considered sexual assault, seeing it happen in reality triggers some serious rage and rather murderous moods. of all criminality, the only type that i seriously can't deal with in any rational manner is sexual assault, i know way too many who've ben hurt by it in irrepairable ways. just an "innocent" grope on someone's butt, could trigger feeling in a person that are way worse than just uncomfortable. and it is totally overstepping the boundaries of a person's privacy and right to decide what happens to their own body.

i should probably stop writing while i'm still only thinking of killing someone...

[♥︎ SarahD ♥︎]

...

*♥*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*♥*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*♥*

EDIT / UPDATE:
Just thought I'd dump these here too in the interest of building up a complete picture.

First of all we have the twitter posts from both Sam and Laci.  I rolled them into one huge screenshot so it was easier to compare them side by side, plus just in case anyone decides to start going about deleting their tweets lol   I've kept them faithful to the original streams (practically verbatim - just dropped four of Laci's postings because they took up a lot of room and didn't add anything to the conversation.  Two of them were just re-tweets of her video and another was a pic of her on a plane saying the video would be coming soon, so you're not missing much lol ).  Here's a link to the image:

http://www.imageshost.eu/images/2014/09/26/LaciVsSam.png

Notice how it's not until the day after Laci writes the open letter to Sam that there's *suddenly* a "part 2" where he does it to guys (which YT took down you'll notice - we'll come back to that in a sec), and then the "reveal" was done the same day that "part 2" went up?  Also notice how in his "reveal" video description he claims to have taken the second video down again, but you can see from his Twitter that it's obviously been taken down by YT themselves for ToS violation.  More lies huh Sam?  If that isn't blatant damage control then I don't know what the hell is lmao!

Also, here's a link to the open letter from Laci to Sam.  I think we can all agree that her terms are quite reasonable:  http://lacigreen.tumblr.com/post/98083811325/an-open-letter-to-sam-pepper

Also for those interested.

Just updated the OP with a couple of bits of extra info you may all find interesting.  Gotta love those emails Sam sent to Laci, huh? 

As for your comments - phew!  I'm so glad it isn't just me who feels outraged at Sam's actions!  And yeh, I hope the little twerp gets the freakin book thrown at him tbh 

...Edit: and eww I read the comments (clearly I'm a complete idiot) and I've lost my faith in the world completely now. Excuse me as I go cry in a corner.

Oh crikey, yeh sorry hunni that was my bad.  I probably should have warned you all - never look at the comments section of a YT video that has anything even remotely to do with feminism.  Doing so is always one quick and easy way to loose any and all faith in humanity.. And the worst part is those comments are pretty tame compared to what she usually gets 

On the plus side though, Sam is getting it far worse on his "reveal" video, so maybe the internet just hates everything lol

<3 *hugs* <3

[kira21 ♡♡♡]

The good ones are few and far between I think. Its absolutely sick but people don't seem to care. Maybe that's why if you get sexually assaulted, people don't seem to care or help you. :-/ it sucks. I already learnt that. If you want to count on help, you need to have friends around you, always.