Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment

They definitely do this WAY more in the music and entertainment industries. The women are probably just less empowered in that industry. The stories of men in power sleeping with young upstarts in the music industry is abundant. If I remember correctly, one of Lana Del Rey's songs (or maybe it was an interview), talked about kissing record label producer or executive or something.. and in her case she didn't have a problem with it specifically.

Here's a testimony on John F. Kennedy's sexism and drug use:

"The dark side of the man she calls "the Great Compartmentaliser", and who would identify himself on the telephone as "Michael Carter", was never far away. One day in the swimming pool, he decided that Dave Powers was looking "tense", and coerced Alford into giving the first friend a blow job. "I don't think the president thought I'd do it, but I'm ashamed to say that I did. The president silently watched." With sex, came drugs. Alford claims she was "the guinea pig" for the president's fascination with amyl nitrate – poppers."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/10/affair-jfk-ken...

Martin Luther King Jr was also a known womanizer.

"Aside, and not meant at you specifically, but: Next time you hear "a constant murmur" of harassment, racism, or other bad behaviour, _believe it_."

If there's a constant murmer, don't believe it: it may just be a cultural or group narrative they push without evidence. I hear constant murmers that totally contradict each other with cherry-picked, source material from esp liberals and conservatives all the time. My favorite is obviously structural racism since I experienced it in mostly black school, town, and government. The blacks had it so much better off than us in those environments with ostracism, shouting down, and beat downs keeping whites anxious and some got really messed up in the head. However, the murmers in media say black people are always disadvantaged and white people never experience structural oppression. (cough) bullshit! (cough)

I figured out where that one started since I grew up with them from a young age hearing students and parents in both races. Essentially, they repeated what their parents taught them with amount of motivation to operate in their circumstances also usually based on parents teachings. There'd be some elements of truth like someone's experience or racial studies but it became a story that applied to everyone whose repetition made it self-fulfilling. Then, the echo chamber took over for most with small percentage breaking out to any degree. Facebooks study of spread of bad information within in-groups confirms this at a large scale. Lots of those were murmurs about political topics. All bullshit.

I'm lucky to have made it out. I said smart before but I got caught in quite a few in life. So, I was just lucky to see counter-evidence to both side's murmuring of bullshit.

> Where are you working that you can reasonably imagine this happening?

I'm working at a place where I can't imagine this happening because they, while taking harassment complaints very seriously, also take personnel actions very seriously and investigate before imposing permanent consequences, using other means to prevent furthering a problem during the investigation.

> The risks of someone making this claim are so, so high

If the company establishes a practice of firing without investigation, and the events are hard to disprove in a way which would sustain a defamation complaint by the falsely accused, the risks are near zero.

Wow. Is this satirical? This is disgusting - you are part and parcel of the rampant sexism the women in the article are speaking out against.

> That she might use sex appeal to her advantage is believable since many hard-working artists do. Just use every natural or acquired gift you have.

You're evaluating whether or not you think somebody's claim of harassment is true based on whether or not you think they are attractive. Does that mean that you would disregard allegations by somebody you found homely? We should assess claims of harassment based on the testimony provided not your personal assessment of somebody's attractiveness.

> That said, I'd probably not do it as a venture capitalist helping her get funding just because of the liability. I might end up in a news article or something.

The reason to avoid making women seeking funding feel uncomfortable is to avoid making women seeking funding feel uncomfortable. It's not so that you avoid bad PR.

> If I did it, there'd be a brick wall between the two with me testing her interest up front. She can tell me what she's comfortable with taking me up on personal/professional interests anywhere from zero (dont work with me) to both.

There should be zero personal or romantic engagement by the part of a VC with an entrepreneur where the first interaction is skewed by the power dynamic. A consensual and equal relationship is impossible when one party controls the financial and social prospects of the other.

> Then, there seems to be an expectation that successful or professional men never show interest in any women who are skilled professionals or founders in favor of... lesser women in clubs, churches, or something?

It's possible for men to interact with women in social contexts, not just in professional ones.

> Telling me I must sacrifice all potential for a date or resulting relationship with such incredible women just because they're founders or something with nothing in return... while they can mostly do whatever they want... seems a bit arbitrary, unfair and lots of missed potential.

Women do not exist in the world solely for you to date. Again, if there exists an asymmetrical power dynamic there is no possibility of a consensual equal relationship. If somebody asked you out while holding a gun to your head would you feel comfortable turning them down? You might protest at the metaphor, but being able to deny somebody resources they desperately need can be just as threatening.

> Also, every one I've heard from reported witnessing a varying chunk of those women would hit on or flit with men they liked who were professionals doing their job. They said that was OK since they initiated.

Are you sure that in every instance the women are expressing romantic interest? Or are they merely being friendly, and being misinterpreted. That is a trope that comes up often - men think they are being hit on but nothing of the sort is happening.

The groping is probably illegal independent of workplace context, the stuff done in hiring is as illegal as if it was done during employment, much of rest is probably not illegal.