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> The power differential involved makes it automatically wrong. To be fair, though, that's a relatively recent perception (one I hasten to add that I agree wit

by zeveb 10y ago

> The power differential involved makes it automatically wrong. To be fair, though, that's a relatively recent perception (one I hasten to add that I agree with!). Up until fairly recently no-one saw anything particularly wrong with a man marrying his secretary (or a professor his student, or similar situations), or just found it a bit off-colour rather than 'automatically wrong.' As a product of our generation, I have a knee-jerk, 'no no no heck no!' reaction to subordinate-superior relationships, but that's just my culture; there are others in both space & time.

hackuser 10y ago
>> The power differential involved makes it automatically wrong. > To be fair, though, that's a relatively recent perception ... That doesn't make it any less important or wrong. On the historical timescale, democracy and the evil of slavery are recent perceptions, yet we don't say that's just my culture; there are others in both space & time.
mikestew 10y ago
Up until fairly recently no-one saw anything particularly wrong with a man marrying his secretary (or a professor his student, or similar situations), or just found it a bit off-colour rather than 'automatically wrong.' The odds are pretty good that I'm older than you, and I do not recall a time that someone running off with their secretary or student, married or not, was not cast in a negative light. Maybe the secretary would be okay under the right circumstances, but student-professor has always been creepy. It's "wrong" now that we've codified that creepy feeling into law. EDIT: it came to mind that I haven't heard the phrase "sleeping her way to the top" in a long time. It used to be used commonly amongst those around me. IOW, manager-subordinate relationships were often not viewed positively. Of course now that we "just don't do that", I haven't heard the phrase in ages.

by zeveb 10y ago

hackuser 10y ago

>> The power differential involved makes it automatically wrong. > To be fair, though, that's a relatively recent perception ... That doesn't make it any less important or wrong. On the historical timescale, democracy and the evil of slavery are recent perceptions, yet we don't say that's just my culture; there are others in both space & time.

mikestew 10y ago

Up until fairly recently no-one saw anything particularly wrong with a man marrying his secretary (or a professor his student, or similar situations), or just found it a bit off-colour rather than 'automatically wrong.' The odds are pretty good that I'm older than you, and I do not recall a time that someone running off with their secretary or student, married or not, was not cast in a negative light. Maybe the secretary would be okay under the right circumstances, but student-professor has always been creepy. It's "wrong" now that we've codified that creepy feeling into law. EDIT: it came to mind that I haven't heard the phrase "sleeping her way to the top" in a long time. It used to be used commonly amongst those around me. IOW, manager-subordinate relationships were often not viewed positively. Of course now that we "just don't do that", I haven't heard the phrase in ages.