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Comment by JohnBooty | Hacker News Reader

From one heterosexual man to another, surely we can see that we're in a different situation than this woman was. Also,

  > Young associate worked for this partner

I don't know how the legal profession works. But:

1. It's quite likely that leaving firm as a young associate carries a huge negative connotation. In other words, her choices might not have been "give a blowjob" or "quit and find another job." It might have been more like "give a blowjob" or "quit and find another job, and maybe not find another job because there's this huge negative on her resume."

2. The law profession has a reputation for being quite chummy. If she had quit over this harassment, even if she filed no charges then it's quite possible that this partner would have gone on the offensive to discredit her character to other influential people.

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In the US, if she was at Biglaw, then my impression is that leaving is basically unheard of. You're intended to work for a firm for 2-4 years and move on, or stay at the firm on a partner track.

Once you're out, it's very hard to get back in. So in practice firms have quite a bit of leverage to demand things like work 100 hours in a week, staying until 2am, cancel plans with family on short notice, etc.

Edit: I mean unheard of to leave with no new job and try to get another one in Biglaw.

Its not that unheard of to leave. In fact probably 50% do by year 3. Though quitting without a job is really damn dangerous.

From one heterosexual man to another, surely we can see that we're in a different situation than this woman was.

I am genuinely curious about this point. Why are men in a different situation? Couldn't a homosexual boss want to coerce blowjobs from male subordinates?

  > I am genuinely curious about this point. Why are men 
  > in a different situation? Couldn't a homosexual boss
  > want to coerce blowjobs from male subordinates?

Absolutely, and of course that would also be quite wrong. And I am sure that's a thing that happens sometimes, unfortunately.

I only mentioned it because the poster I responded to had said, "I'm sure that as a heterosexual man, regardless of my financial circumstances, no one could coerce me into giving blowjobs" and I thought it important to say that there are different dynamics involved there.

If a male boss tried to coerce a male employee into sex, the male victim would be much more likely to respond with physical force, so it's less likely to happen in the first place. The male victim would also be more likely to be viewed as unambiguously victimized, whereas in a male-on-female situation there's likely to be a lot of well, she probably wanted it type speculation and/or congratulation of the male aggressor.

In some senses it might even be more difficult for a male victim. A male victim might be viewed as "weak" for letting it happen in the first place. Whatever the case I'm sure we can agree that it's quite a different dynamic, so the original poster's well, as a man, I'd never let this happen to meeee is not really a useful road to travel down.

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