Gender Equality, Feminism, and Sam Pepper | A Little Rant

Monday, September 22, 2014

A Little Rant on Gender Equality, Feminism, and Sam Pepper

Hello everyone! If you are as into YouTube, YouTubers, and Twitter as myself, you might have seen Sam Pepper's video; or at least heard about it. This post is going to be my thoughts on that and Emma Watson's speech at the UN on gender equality. I will also be posting a video with my thoughts on this topic tomorrow.
Before starting off this post, I would like to give a little background about myself. Before this year, I would have never dared to call myself a feminist. I didn't really know what feminism was, but I just knew I didn't want to be a part of it. Last semester, I took a course called Women's Studies, which really opened my eyes. The class made me realize that I was a feminist. The basic definition of feminism is equal rights for women. Now why just last year did I not want to be labeled as one, even though I believe in equal rights? It was because of the negative stigma that seems to be attached to that word. Feminists are seen as crazy man haters. Which I am definitely not.

Emma Watson gave a speech on gender equality at the UN the other day, which I very much agree with. I was fortunate enough to be born into a family that was happy that I was a girl. I was fortunate enough to go to the schools that I did and given the opportunities that I have. Now I'm not a famous actress like Emma, but I believe that every voice counts and I want to do my part

There was a video posted recently by Sam Pepper that I am beyond disgusted with. His 2 minute video shows him pinching girls' butts all in the name of pranking. If you have two eyes, you can clearly see that the girls are uncomfortable. Yes, they laugh; but it's an uncomfortable laugh. They should have never been put into that position. Women (and men) should be able to walk down the street without being touched sexually. I honestly have no idea what I would've done in that position, although, I hope that I would have stood up for myself. We also only saw him do this to a few different girls, but I'm pretty sure there were many other girls that he didn't show on the video.

This isn't the only video that he has sexually harassed women. There's one where he's lassoing girls to him, and another where he was getting girls to make out with him without their permission. I was never a huge fan of his to begin with, but I definitely know I will never be giving my support to him again. It's a very disgusting and vile thing to do. He's dehumanizing women and sexually harassing them, but getting no punishment. 

If you have yet to see the video, please don't look it up. All that does is make him money from views. He doesn't deserve to make money off of sexually harassing girls in public and calling it a prank. I am happy to say that Sam Pepper has now been uninvited from Vidcon and The Fine Bros. have tweeted that he will not be a part of YouTubers React. 
I hope this gives him a wake up call, but I doubt it will, seeing as he has a lot of supporters in the comment section of his video. Surprisingly enough, a bunch of them are women. I'm honestly disgusted and very worried about this generation and how they perceive sexual harassment and feminism.
*Update: I have just found out that Sam Pepper's video was taken down and his account suspended.
Please watch Emma Watson's video on gender quality.
Let me know in the comment section what your thoughts on this topic are. I would love to other opinions.

Thanks for reading.
xoxo

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