The 'F' word

So it seems that in the past few weeks, feminism has really come into the spotlight in terms of media coverage; Some good and some bad.

Emma Watson recently spoke at the UN women HeForShe campaign launch about feminism and how it’s always had a bad name and that people are made to feel ashamed for being a feminist. She was so passionate and emotive in everything that she said and I really agreed with everything that she spoke about. I think it's been so good for feminists everywhere that someone like Emma Watson has become an ambassador for this, there are a number of celebrities that are open about being feminists and I just find them extremely admirable. She also makes a perfect point that women are not the only ones suffering from gender stereotypes, men are just as much pushed to behave in a certain way.
 It is something especially close to my heart when she goes on to speak how men cannot talk freely about their feelings and emotions for fear of looking weak and 'feminine'; I lost a man I loved dearly because he felt that he could not be honest about his problems and had to take the burden on his shoulders alone and this is wrong, no human being should have to feel like that. I completely agree with the fact that being a feminist means that you 'hate men', it is being equal as Emma clearly states. I remember being at school and if you said you were a feminist, you were just a moaning and 'bitchy' woman. I remember whenever feminism was brought up people would sigh or laugh because they believed all feminists were extreme and that they were fighting a war against men; which isn't the case at all. I used to feel ashamed or embarrassed to call myself a feminist, but in recent years it has become apparent that the world needs more people who believe and fight for equality. This is why I admire Emma so much for what she is trying to help achieve and I hope that she does manage to make a change.

Now, onto the bad. As a lot of you will probably be aware YouTuber Sam Pepper has recently been in the news a lot for a new video he put up that encouraged sexual harassment in public.

If you haven’t seen it, what he does is go round pinching young women’s bums and then passes it off as a hilarious ‘prank’. When I first heard about this, I was honestly quite confused purely because
I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to actually be that ignorant and stupid. I then watched the video and read the comments that people were making and then I realised this was actually something
that had been posted on the internet for everyone to see. I was so mortified for these poor girls who had to be subjected to that; they were minding their business and then they suddenly have a stranger groping them completely off guard.

What gave him the right to think he could possibly get away with doing this all for a YouTube video?  These poor women then had to pretend that it was moderately okay, when you could clearly see how distressed and uncomfortable they were.

My heart really went out to these women because no one deserves to feel uncomfortable or backed into a corner because of another person. It’s really very sad.

The plus of this though, is that so many other YouTubers and bloggers, celebrities and social media users, EVERYONE called Sam Pepper out on this. They all said how horrible and vile he had been and how far across the line he had gone.

Unfortunately, there have been a small minority of people that have found it funny and said he’s done nothing wrong and told everyone to ‘lighten up’ because it was ‘just a prank’. Seriously, reevaluate your lives if you actually think for a second this is okay in any way,

Because sexual harassment is not a joke, not at all. If you have ever been sexually harassed which a lot of people have sadly experience, then you will know how degrading and awful it makes you feel. I have personally experienced sexual harassment a number of times and no matter the scale it is still upsetting and it is still wrong.

So the fact that there are some people actually standing up for what this boy did, is just unimaginable to me.

What shocked me more, is that not once did he write an apology on any of his social media outlets. He just carried on as if the whole world wasn't hating on him, which just made me think that the guy was more tapped than I initially thought.

He then went on to try and recover it by posting two more videos once the original video was removed (thank god!); the first was of bum pinching again but this time on men, which was equally bad and terrible and then a third video.

In the third video he explained that the videos were actually a ‘social experiment’ and he wanted to see how people reacted and that the people who were in the video were fully aware of the situation.

Now I’m sorry, but that is the biggest pile of rubbish I have ever heard: Sam Pepper has made controversial videos in the past when he has kissed strangers without their consent. Which is just as bad AND he did not apologies.

The only difference this time is that this video has seriously blown up in his face and he knows that it has, because the amount of people who have turned on him has made him realize he has truly messed up this time.

I think a lot of people are now divided on whether he is being sincere and it was actually a social experiment or whether he was just being an absolute idiot. I personally think it’s the second option.