
The TED talks empire has been grappling with sexual harassment - denzil_correa
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-ted-talks-empire-has-been-grappling-with-sexual-harassment-interviews-and-internal-emails-show/2017/11/17/39f9374a-cae7-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html
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SirensOfTitan
The Atlantic published an interesting piece a couple months ago titled "Power
Causes Brain Damage":
[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/power-c...](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/power-
causes-brain-damage/528711/)

It purports that Henry Adams wasn't so off the mark when he proclaimed that
power is "a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies." The
breakout quote here:

"Subjects under the influence of power, [Dacher Keltner, a psychology
professor at UC Berkeley] found in studies spanning two decades, acted as if
they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-
aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point
of view."

The high profile cases surrounding sexual abuse recently seem to indicate that
the problem is systemic. It represents an illness of society, humanity, or a
factor of both that we can only insulate against by understanding the root of
what is causing the issue and how to work against it. It's not as simple as:
Louis CK, Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein and crew are evil.

~~~
jdavis703
It's also not as simple as the perpetrators are "ill." There is a society
that's setup to encourage this behaviour. Now I suppose the question is, do
you put more emphasis on training people on what sexual harassment and assault
is (I don't just mean boring corporate compliance seminars, but training from
the time you're in pre-K to graduating college). Or do you view it in general
as a problem with power, and realize that society needs to be organized in a
less hierarchal manner?

~~~
StillBored
"There is society that's setup to encourage this behavior."

Is that accurate or is it the opposite? It seems to me that much of this
behavior is the animalistic mating strategies of males. Thus society is
discouraging this behavior..

Strangely, while males harassing females is strongly discouraged, in western
(as apposed to say Islam) female preening behavior which is basically the
female equivalent of "sexual harassment" is perfectly acceptable.

~~~
timthelion
Arg. The alt-right trolls have poisoned conversation to the point where I
almost reflexively down-voted your comment, but I think that what you say is
somewhat reasonable. Do you think that merely "preening" is sexual harassment?
I know that it is considered sexual harassment if a man "moons" a female, so I
guess by that same logic, much of the clothing woman wear and or don't wear
could be considered "sexual harassment". I don't feel harassed simply by the
looks of others, however. Do you?

Wikipedia defines sexual harassment as "Sexual harassment is bullying or
coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of
rewards in exchange for sexual favors." [1] This is an ironic definition to me
as a male. The times I have felt sexually harassed were when I felt that a
woman asked for a reward in a sexual way, for example, asking for help using
sexualized mannerisms, voice, body-movements. Exactly the opposite dynamic to
the sexual harassment defined by wikipedia.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_harassment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_harassment)

~~~
itronitron
A big aspect of sexual harassment is whether there is an asymmetry of power in
the relationship, so if those women asking for help in a sexualized way were
your boss then that could be categorized as harassment. If you were random
strangers then they probably feel they have to act that way to get your
attention, which could be either insulting or flattering depending on the
situation.

~~~
timthelion
There is no indication that the TED attendees were taking advantage of a power
differential. So it would appear that we are working with multiple
definitions.

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strictfp
Breaking news: people who like attention and power also like to abuse their
power.

~~~
jabretti
The question is: who are the ones abusing their power? The alleged perps, or
those who are claiming to be victims?

~~~
aaron-lebo
Is that an honest question given the revelations of the last month?

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devdad
That this post is flagged is a shame. It's a shame that speaking about sexism
is still being treated as a political stance by many.

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adamnemecek
Idk how to feel that it's Gretchen Carlson of all people driving this.

~~~
aaron-lebo
These sexual predators have been operating and been enabled by others for a
long time, seems like you need all the help you can get to expose that.

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xkcd-sucks
Finally, a type of celebrity scandal that appeals to the current generation

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aphextron
Mass Hysteria

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randyrand
I thought HN had rules about not allowing flame-topic political posts.

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anarchy8
This isn't really a political post.

~~~
Buldak
It's telling that some think it is.

