Hollowood

a reply to: Blue Shift

Unless it's an obvious illegal rape, then it's all a choice. Quid pro quo is a choice. Sure some people regret it, and want to lighten their hearts by going public with it. But it's personal. If it didn't happen to you, how can you be absolutely sure what someone's motivations were? A bit of sex for a chance to get a role in a hit movie that could make you a huge, world-famous movie star? That's something that would almost be worth giving yourself a roofie.

I remember the guys on the Howard Stern show a long time ago talking about whether or not they'd give oral sex to another man for a million dollars. The answer across the board was, "A million bucks buys a lot of mouthwash."

Paying money for sex is one thing, but dangling someone's career over their heads is a step too far. That's pressure and intimidation. That's coercion.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
Paying money for sex is one thing, but dangling someone's career over their heads is a step too far. That's pressure and intimidation. That's coercion.

In this case, it's only pressure if you desperately NEED to be a movie star or a TV star. I can't really imagine a situation where that applies.

a reply to: Blue Shift

In this case, it's only pressure if you desperately NEED to be a movie star or a TV star. I can't really imagine a situation where that applies.

It's unjust, if justice still means anything anymore.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

It's not that easy though. If we consume the employers products, we're in turn giving them more power to abuse employees. When money and power intersect, abuses happen.

The world of the stage is even worse than movies. As long as we support these creeps by buying their products, victims lose their leverage in coming forward. I don't think it's particularly realistic to expect consumers to know/care about the morality of what they support though. So it will continue.

Fashion
Theater
Film
TV
Music
Politics (at least on a federal level)

Some of those are worse than others, but they're all corrupt. I've heard rumors of some of the tech firms in and around Silicon Valley being just as bad too, though with the exception of Uber nothing has really made the news (and to their credit, the major companies are all pretty upstanding). Which is really just another example of what happens when money and power collide.

To be perfectly honest, I'm kind of surprised that Wall Street is so clean when it comes to sexual abuse. I wonder why that institution hasn't fell to this too.

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
Paying money for sex is one thing, but dangling someone's career over their heads is a step too far. That's pressure and intimidation. That's coercion.

In this case, it's only pressure if you desperately NEED to be a movie star or a TV star. I can't really imagine a situation where that applies.

It happens to far more than movie and tv stars. Fashion, Music, Modeling, Politics, and more. Then you just have ordinary individuals, at the small business level who want to force some new job duties on their secretary.

a reply to: Blue Shift

So basically, you are a moral relativist and you implicitly allow for what Weinstein did because you refuse to judge and take a moral stand. You will say it's wrong, but since you won't take a judgment on it, you might as well be complicit.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: Blue Shift

In this case, it's only pressure if you desperately NEED to be a movie star or a TV star. I can't really imagine a situation where that applies.

It's unjust, if justice still means anything anymore.

To a moral relativist, it does not.