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Is exploiting a sex imbalance to get power morally wrong? Yet women do this all the time, and there are no laws against it, in fact in some ways our culture cel

Is exploiting a sex imbalance to get power morally wrong? Yet women do this all the time, and there are no laws against it, in fact in some ways our culture celebrates it. I think you have to be very very careful when you start labelling things as moral or otherwise.

foldr 9y ago
>Is exploiting a sex imbalance to get power morally wrong? Not to nearly the same extent, no. If someone has power over you and you refuse them sex, they could potentially do you all kinds of harm. If someone is very sexually attractive but has no power over you, then the worst that they can do is leave you a bit sexually frustrated. In other words, being offered sex with strings by an attractive person is hardly as bad as being threatened by a powerful person. >I think you have to be very very careful when you start labelling things as moral or otherwise. Behavior that is clearly wrong is clearly wrong. The danger lies in not calling it out and allowing it to become normalized.
- Boothroid 9y ago
  Ah but come now, sexual attractiveness is a form of power! And in fact one of the greatest; men will fight and die for sex with women they desire. On the question of morality I stick to my guns: I think we are all tempted from time to time to ascend to our high horse and start declaiming of our righteousness, but my question to you would be: are you really so pure of morals that there are none that might find fault with you, given the chance? I'm also struck by the stridency of some of the statements I'm reading on HN. I wonder if this is a cultural thing as to my British ears they sound almost comically absolutist. Perhaps in Europe this kind of forceful speech is less fashionable?
  - foldr 9y ago
    >Ah but come now, sexual attractiveness is a form of power! Sure, in a sense. But as I said previously, your sexual attractiveness to a person is not something that you can use to threaten them or ruin their life. On the one hand, you have situations where an attractive woman tries to get what she wants by offering sex. On the other, you have situations where a powerful man threatens a woman who refuses his sexual advances. You only have to think of it from a first-person perspective. Would you rather be coerced into sex, or offered sex in return for a favor? >to my British ears they sound almost comically absolutist. I am also British.
    - Boothroid 9y ago
      In a sense?! Sexual power can be used to bring someone to their knees; to control, to humiliate; I think you do women a disservice if you diminish this fact, and what's more - and in the spirit of bombast - you are arguing against one of the timeless truths of human existence, and a theme that pervades human culture since time immemorial.
      - foldr 9y ago
        You can't control or humiliate someone merely by offering them sex. They can just say "no thanks". If they end up getting controlled and humiliated, it's because they were foolish enough not to do that. If you are someone's boss, you can control and humiliate them by, say, having them fired. You can't say "no thanks" if your boss fires you. That is the distinction that I was drawing.
        Boothroid 9y ago
        You certainly can control someone by offering them sex - it's a well understood and successful tool used in espionage.
        foldr 9y ago
        It only works if they accept the offer.
        drunkenmonkey 9y ago
        Espionage is a human science and has developed applied human sciences above and beyond what popular American culture has the maturity and insight to comprehend. Much of this information, if released publicly, would be dismissed out-of-hand as incorrect to anyone who is an upright and decent person. To the poster below me, the offer of sex can be used as control regardless of acceptance. If a wealthy and attractive person offers you sex, and you are unaware of an ulterior motive, the mere act of offering does factually impact your psychology and changes your cognitive biases. If the changing in these biases is directed, you are being controlled. I recommend brushing up on your espionage knowledge. This isn't magic, it's intellectual honesty.
deleted 9y ago
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foldr 9y ago

>Is exploiting a sex imbalance to get power morally wrong? Not to nearly the same extent, no. If someone has power over you and you refuse them sex, they could potentially do you all kinds of harm. If someone is very sexually attractive but has no power over you, then the worst that they can do is leave you a bit sexually frustrated. In other words, being offered sex with strings by an attractive person is hardly as bad as being threatened by a powerful person. >I think you have to be very very careful when you start labelling things as moral or otherwise. Behavior that is clearly wrong is clearly wrong. The danger lies in not calling it out and allowing it to become normalized.

Boothroid 9y ago
Ah but come now, sexual attractiveness is a form of power! And in fact one of the greatest; men will fight and die for sex with women they desire. On the question of morality I stick to my guns: I think we are all tempted from time to time to ascend to our high horse and start declaiming of our righteousness, but my question to you would be: are you really so pure of morals that there are none that might find fault with you, given the chance? I'm also struck by the stridency of some of the statements I'm reading on HN. I wonder if this is a cultural thing as to my British ears they sound almost comically absolutist. Perhaps in Europe this kind of forceful speech is less fashionable?
- foldr 9y ago
  >Ah but come now, sexual attractiveness is a form of power! Sure, in a sense. But as I said previously, your sexual attractiveness to a person is not something that you can use to threaten them or ruin their life. On the one hand, you have situations where an attractive woman tries to get what she wants by offering sex. On the other, you have situations where a powerful man threatens a woman who refuses his sexual advances. You only have to think of it from a first-person perspective. Would you rather be coerced into sex, or offered sex in return for a favor? >to my British ears they sound almost comically absolutist. I am also British.
  - Boothroid 9y ago
    In a sense?! Sexual power can be used to bring someone to their knees; to control, to humiliate; I think you do women a disservice if you diminish this fact, and what's more - and in the spirit of bombast - you are arguing against one of the timeless truths of human existence, and a theme that pervades human culture since time immemorial.
    - foldr 9y ago
      You can't control or humiliate someone merely by offering them sex. They can just say "no thanks". If they end up getting controlled and humiliated, it's because they were foolish enough not to do that. If you are someone's boss, you can control and humiliate them by, say, having them fired. You can't say "no thanks" if your boss fires you. That is the distinction that I was drawing.
      - Boothroid 9y ago
        You certainly can control someone by offering them sex - it's a well understood and successful tool used in espionage.
        foldr 9y ago
        It only works if they accept the offer.
        drunkenmonkey 9y ago
        Espionage is a human science and has developed applied human sciences above and beyond what popular American culture has the maturity and insight to comprehend. Much of this information, if released publicly, would be dismissed out-of-hand as incorrect to anyone who is an upright and decent person. To the poster below me, the offer of sex can be used as control regardless of acceptance. If a wealthy and attractive person offers you sex, and you are unaware of an ulterior motive, the mere act of offering does factually impact your psychology and changes your cognitive biases. If the changing in these biases is directed, you are being controlled. I recommend brushing up on your espionage knowledge. This isn't magic, it's intellectual honesty.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]