All-round great guy, ex-Big Brother housemate and tasteful prankster Sam Pepper got into hot water a couple of days ago after releasing a video of him asking girls for directions while pinching their bums when they weren't looking. The reaction was, understandably, one of unanimous uproar and, after releasing a second video of women pinching men's bums, he's gone on to release a third to reveal it was all a social experiment to see how much angrier we all get when it's the men doing it to women, rather than the other way around. Sure.
Fellow YouTubers and Tweeters angrily accused him of sexual assault, so Pepper responded that the women were 'in on it'. This makes sense when you watch the video of the confused, distressed women – one of them saying she 'doesn't like it'. Sounds really consensual.
READ MORE: Can We Just Remember That Pinching Someone's Bum Isn't A Joke?
Both videos have now been removed by YouTube, but his explanation is still posted, where he explains that the experiment began because his friend was in an abusive marriage, and he himself had been sexually assaulted by fans in this way. 'At multiple events, some of my viewers will grab my bum and giggle about it among their friends,' he says. 'I don't like it. And if the roles were reversed would people think it was OK to pinch a female celebrity? I wanted to do something that would highlight the difference between abuse towards a woman and abuse towards a man in a social experiment with you as unwitting participants at the heart of the experiment.'
We'd love to buy this, but considering some of his other videos are called things like 'Easiest Way To Get A Number' and 'How to Pick Up Girls With A Lasso', it smacks of back-tracking. And what has this social experiment proven? Of course, there was less uproar around the men getting their bum pinched: not only was it the second video, so the reaction was diluted, but women getting smacked on the arse is a practise that's been normalised for decades. It's only just becoming clear that no, it's not cheeky. And no, it's not OK. It's also not cool that Pepper gets pinched by his fans, but there are different ways to explore it than going out and doing it to women, calling it a 'prank' then changing his mind and declaring it a 'social experiment'. Just... don't do it at all. Simple.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.