The main reason I disagree voted your story is the way that it frames women—as helpless children, with a character so weak and insubstantial that having a few other people imply a certain belief about whether a relationship would be appropriate or not is enough to render them helpless and unable to determine their own preferences. If Jen can be convinced that she is wrong to reject a male suitor because nobody else in the community thinks that there is anything wrong with him propositioning her, how can she possibly consent to any sexual activity that takes place in human society? If your story is accurate, you aren’t making a case for better norms around understanding power dynamics—you’re making the case that women are manifestly unsuitable for the workplace. If the mere inference that a business/community thinks that a sexual approach is not by itself improper is enough to render a woman utterly unable to consent, then how can they meaningfully interact in a business environment, where they will be expected to interact with people of wildly differing status on a regular basis? How can a woman being paid to perform a job meaningfully consent to being given work to do by her manager? In the world you’ve presented in your story, they quite simply cannot.
This post is a few days old, but sure!
The main reason I disagree voted your story is the way that it frames women—as helpless children, with a character so weak and insubstantial that having a few other people imply a certain belief about whether a relationship would be appropriate or not is enough to render them helpless and unable to determine their own preferences. If Jen can be convinced that she is wrong to reject a male suitor because nobody else in the community thinks that there is anything wrong with him propositioning her, how can she possibly consent to any sexual activity that takes place in human society? If your story is accurate, you aren’t making a case for better norms around understanding power dynamics—you’re making the case that women are manifestly unsuitable for the workplace. If the mere inference that a business/community thinks that a sexual approach is not by itself improper is enough to render a woman utterly unable to consent, then how can they meaningfully interact in a business environment, where they will be expected to interact with people of wildly differing status on a regular basis? How can a woman being paid to perform a job meaningfully consent to being given work to do by her manager? In the world you’ve presented in your story, they quite simply cannot.