When there is a significant power differential, can the victim effectively say no? Can they say no at all? It is pretty clear that some victims can't bring th

When there is a significant power differential, can the victim effectively say no? Can they say no at all? It is pretty clear that some victims can't bring themselves to or don't think they can, and that some offenders understand that and depend on it to get away with their offenses. I have no idea if that is what happened here, naturally, so I won't comment on that. > Are we going to now require contracts before going into any relationship that might involve a power dynamic? In many enterprises (universities included) there is a blanket prohibition on sexual relationships between persons whose organizational power differs. In those cases the answer to your question is "no, you're not allowed to engage in such a relationship at all, contract or no contract". Consent isn't always sufficient. It is very important to forbid sexual relationships between professors and their students, for otherwise a) professors are arguably taking advantage of their students with whom they engage in sex (even if the students don't think so), and b) other students are put at a (real or perceived) disadvantage and/or encouraged to do the same to get similar (real or perceived) benefits to those who are already engaging in sexual relationships with their professors. Similarly, it is important that managers not have sexual relationships with the people they manage. This applies to military organizations as well, not just private enterprise, and it should apply to civilian government organizations. People who find themselves wanting to be in such relationships have choices besides violating applicable regulations: don't do it, move elsewhere in the organization (e.g., switch classes) or quit it altogether in order to be free to engage in a relationship with the other person. Many people actually make those choices, often happily. This has not been a controversial position in decades. There are controversies in this topic area, such as how Title IX should be interpreted and enforced, but regulation of power-asymmetrical relationships is not controversial.