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This is an easy trap to fall into. Try to think from the victim's perspective. Countless women had to suffer mental and emotional distress due to Lasseter. Who

This is an easy trap to fall into. Try to think from the victim's perspective. Countless women had to suffer mental and emotional distress due to Lasseter. Who knows, without such stress, some of these women could have been even bigger than Lasseter himself. The ends never justify the means.

standupstandup 9y ago
I don't believe any mental or emotional distress was suffered. I also don't believe there were any "victims". Being hugged does not make you a victim, sorry. These people who are complaining need to toughen up. I mean where does this end? Accidental contact in a corridor as two people pass each other ends careers? That sort of thing now seems entirely thinkable. Who knows, without such stress, some of these women could have been even bigger than Lasseter himself. Someone who can't tolerate the "stress" of being hugged is never going to be able to pull together Toy Story.
- s73ver_ 9y ago
  So again, you're of the opinion that unwanted physical contact from your superior is not a problem?
- ncallaway 9y ago
  > I don't believe any mental or emotional distress was suffered I don't believe a grown up adult human being with an ounce of empathy could hold the beliefs that you hold. And yet, you exist and hold those beliefs. I presume you're an adult human and that you do have empathy for others. Sometimes things happen that challenge our beliefs. Maybe a better approach would be to ask why your beliefs don't seem to line up to reality, instead of ignoring the evidence in front of you. If you keep denying this social change, you're going to sound exactly like the old family member at Thanksgiving that says racist things. Society will have moved on and left you behind.
- jeffjose 9y ago
  > Someone who can't tolerate the "stress" of being hugged is never going to be able to pull together Toy Story. As someone who worked in Hollywood, you cannot be farther from the truth. Movies are not produced by aliens. They are done by people like you and I. Similar to people who work at Uber, or Google, or Goldman Sachs. Or at your employer. There isnt a "hollywood" type.
- sctb 9y ago
  You're violating the guidelines by commenting like this. If you won't start posting civilly and substantively we'll ban the account. That means—especially on controversial topics—cleaving to the subject at hand and not fighting some secondary ideological battle. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
empath75 9y ago
I think it’s probably an exaggeration to say that ‘countless’ women were personally harassed by Lassiter personally, but countless women have been harassed by people like him and continue to be today. I think people are focusing too much on individuals and missing a very important question: Why are we relying on journalists for this? Presumably all of these people work at corporations with HR departments. Why weren’t there consequences sooner? Something is fundamentally broken with the incentives around harassment in the work place — HR departments exist to protect the company and its executives from lawsuits. They don’t exist to protect employees from the company. Until there are serious financial consequences for failing to act on harassment complaints sooner, nothing is going to change. Every newspaper on earth can’t exclusively commit itself to uncover sexual harassment. Eventually this is going to die down— and then what? If Jane Engineer is harassed by Joe Manager today— where does she go? The media only cares about celebrities. Are HR departments changing their policies to stop the ongoing harassment today? I seriously suspect not. In another ten years we’ll be seeing another round of these stories.

standupstandup 9y ago

I don't believe any mental or emotional distress was suffered. I also don't believe there were any "victims". Being hugged does not make you a victim, sorry. These people who are complaining need to toughen up. I mean where does this end? Accidental contact in a corridor as two people pass each other ends careers? That sort of thing now seems entirely thinkable. Who knows, without such stress, some of these women could have been even bigger than Lasseter himself. Someone who can't tolerate the "stress" of being hugged is never going to be able to pull together Toy Story.

s73ver_ 9y ago
So again, you're of the opinion that unwanted physical contact from your superior is not a problem?
ncallaway 9y ago
> I don't believe any mental or emotional distress was suffered I don't believe a grown up adult human being with an ounce of empathy could hold the beliefs that you hold. And yet, you exist and hold those beliefs. I presume you're an adult human and that you do have empathy for others. Sometimes things happen that challenge our beliefs. Maybe a better approach would be to ask why your beliefs don't seem to line up to reality, instead of ignoring the evidence in front of you. If you keep denying this social change, you're going to sound exactly like the old family member at Thanksgiving that says racist things. Society will have moved on and left you behind.
jeffjose 9y ago
> Someone who can't tolerate the "stress" of being hugged is never going to be able to pull together Toy Story. As someone who worked in Hollywood, you cannot be farther from the truth. Movies are not produced by aliens. They are done by people like you and I. Similar to people who work at Uber, or Google, or Goldman Sachs. Or at your employer. There isnt a "hollywood" type.
sctb 9y ago
You're violating the guidelines by commenting like this. If you won't start posting civilly and substantively we'll ban the account. That means—especially on controversial topics—cleaving to the subject at hand and not fighting some secondary ideological battle. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

empath75 9y ago

I think it’s probably an exaggeration to say that ‘countless’ women were personally harassed by Lassiter personally, but countless women have been harassed by people like him and continue to be today. I think people are focusing too much on individuals and missing a very important question: Why are we relying on journalists for this? Presumably all of these people work at corporations with HR departments. Why weren’t there consequences sooner? Something is fundamentally broken with the incentives around harassment in the work place — HR departments exist to protect the company and its executives from lawsuits. They don’t exist to protect employees from the company. Until there are serious financial consequences for failing to act on harassment complaints sooner, nothing is going to change. Every newspaper on earth can’t exclusively commit itself to uncover sexual harassment. Eventually this is going to die down— and then what? If Jane Engineer is harassed by Joe Manager today— where does she go? The media only cares about celebrities. Are HR departments changing their policies to stop the ongoing harassment today? I seriously suspect not. In another ten years we’ll be seeing another round of these stories.