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I find it hard to believe that such behavior was socially acceptable; I mean was there really no way at the time to complain about advances like this? I mean I was born in 1970 but that was never part of my experience.



I expect one could complain and it seems apparent at least some did, but in the context of the environment it would have seemed out of place, it's very hard to apply contemporary moral values to historical times, morality is not a fixed thing, our lives are entwined with social convention that for the most part is invisible until viewed from the future. Try and consider now, what things we do that in the future could be seen as abhorrent, it's hard, eating meat maybe, not including externalized costs in commercial endeavours, but, history shows, it's probably true that something we do now will fall 'out of time' and be viewed as a moral deviation in the 'new contemporary'.


FWIW I don't think Asimov's behavior would have been broadly accepted in "historic times" in general. If you think that groping another man's wife in public has generally been acceptable in the past, see "thou shalt not covet" and the Sermon on the Mount. Of course men, especially powerful men, have often ignored such restraints, but the sexual revolution of the 20th century gave them a lot more license.


That's not my point, my point is about the agency any particular individual has in any particular situation to take action against something they find offensive needs to be taken in the context of that time. Without that context, 'offensive' is hard to define.


'Out of place' means they would not have followed up on a complaint. Isn't it?


Exactly.


Things haven't changed much. For example, look at the response Christine Blasey Ford got when she testified against Brett Kavanaugh.


Not so very long ago the New Yorker was routinely running cartoons showing an executive chasing his secretary around a desk. It was socially acceptable, at least on some level.




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