[quote=spdrun]
People with the same interests tend to date, have sex, and occasionally even get married. Deal with it.
[/quote]
Perhaps I’ve been too cautious with my tone and too slow to get to my actual point. You say “deal with it” as though my problem is with people having sex and getting married. My problem is that people can’t have sex in some situations where maybe they should be able to.
[quote=spdrun]
American society is way too Puritanical about the whole thing. And the Puritanism coming from the left is as bad as that coming from the right.
[/quote]
I agree. And, in fact, the very point I’m trying to make is something similar to that. I don’t think puritanicalness is the problem so much as unreasonableness. I was trying to get to that point through discussion. What happened to Garrison Keillor is ridiculous (if his side of the story is true). And I think Al Franken got the shaft, too. Of course, what Harvey Weinstein did was terrible, and he deserves what he’s getting. My point (and I admit I was taking too long to get to it) is that all of a sudden we’re not even looking at the situation any more. If a woman says, “a man did this to me and I didn’t like it,” the man is immediately and completely guilty in the eyes of society, and receives severe repercussions. Granted, it has been almost the opposite for… forever. But this pendulum, even more violently than society’s pendulum generally tends to, has swing way past “reasonable.” All of a sudden what Al Franken did is as bad as what Harvey Weinstein did. That’s not reasonable. All of a sudden, if, as a man of power, you make any sexual advance toward a woman in your field, your career seems to be in danger. I’m questioning whether that’s reasonable.
[quote=spdrun]
(*) – same field is insane. That would mean that two lawyers or architects couldn’t date, even if working for different companies. But I don’t have a problem with dating even in the same company — what goes on outside of working hours is none of HR’s business. (And, in fact, dating policies have been ruled as illegal as a violation of privacy rights.)
[/quote]
Again, I’ve been unclear. I’m not questioning whether HR should police these things (when outside of work). I’m asking whether or how much society should. Louis CK and no doubt many others have lost their careers due to situations that didn’t happen necessarily happen within their companies.
