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Comment by kolbe | Hacker News Reader

In the event of sexual harassment, you may be right. Certainly, female sexual rights have been a moral point of interest for a century or so, and it's not one that shared by all cultures today. And it was shared by almost none in pre-industrial societies. So, I'm not sure there's the level of proof that it's a "fundamental human right" in the way that liberty has been proven in political philosophy.

But praveenbeatle is referring to the idealistic drive to be a part of a societal change by making up events to exploit for political gain.

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Praveenbeatle has been downvoted, but they made a good point. It seems like this stuff has become so politically charged that it's almost impossible to have a non-toxic conversation about it.

Of course it's true (sadly) that sexual harassment happens. It's also true that some women are almost comically hypersensitive about this stuff (like the "dongle" incident at that Python conference).

Why pick out women? I know men who are hypersensitive about this stuff.

I'm trying just to be argumentative, but try not to turn this into a men Vs women argument, that is a lot of the problem.

its pretty difficult to argue that female sexual rights are not fundamental human rights when youve already established that liberty itself is "proven by political philosophy".

"liberty is a fundamental human right unless youre born the wrong sex and want to govern your private parts"

On the surface, yeah. I certainly think that reproductive rights and protection from assault fall under liberty.

But I don't think the right to not listen to guys talk how much they like big tits in the office necessarily falls under the classification of a "fundamental human right." My statement was about the claim that the legal definition of sexual harassment doesn't have a very robust argument for why it's a fundamental human right.

well, i was talking about sexual harassment. not hurt feelings.

this whole freedom from discomfort movement is going to blow up some day when nobody can say a word anymore because its going to offend someone.

but i do believe in certain topics not belonging in certain places. that includes both "locker room talk" and "extreme feminism".

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