Men are always thinking of one thing: hard-learned truth, or destructive gender stereotype? Discuss.

[eclectic_boy]

"the consequences of this widespread belief that boys and men are constantly addled to the point of harm, is, of course, to punish girls and women"

And, because I ought to start with my own thoughts, I'm trying to weigh the unfairness to both the dentist and the dental assistant. What protected-class status should be given to looks? Should the dentist's attraction be considered a disability, and what accommodations are appropriate for ameliorating such a disability? Relatedly, when I think about the argument for telling the dentist to just control himself and deal with it, I get strong resonances with the notion of telling someone with depression to "just cheer up".

Comments

[sildra.livejournal.com]

This is all based on what someone (several someones?) were afraid might happen. While avoiding having an affair is certainly something to encourage, it all seems a bit theoretical. It's sort of like how people try to refuse to hire someone with a disability because they might need too many sick days, or might be too hard for customers to understand or might increase safety risks on the factory floor. And you aren't allowed to do that. At least, you aren't allowed to do that without credible evidence that the person's disability really does mean those things.

Of course, regardless of what his attraction "disability" means, fearing/assuming the possibility of an affair also takes all agency away from the woman.

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

That too.

There's a pretty big difference between "man harrasses woman" or "man is afraid he will harrass woman" or "man's wife is afraid he will harrass woman" which are about the power imbalance and "man and woman have affair."

Although if the man is the employer of the woman, the line between affair and harrassment would be - well I'm not sure where it would be.