more sexual harassment reading, i'm afraid

An op-ed of serious truths from Marin Cogan from the Times this weekend — “When You Are Replaceable And He Will Never Be — on why, especially when it comes to hugely competitive and creative industries (like say, Hollywood — and mainstream media), the prevalence of sexual harassment should unfortunately come at no surprise.

Tl;dr, Got a lot of young (and especially female) talent at the mercy of older (usually male) decision-makers? That’s a power imbalance just waiting to detonate — and all the more reason to make sure the power brokers in your company/industry is as representative and diverse as possible.

Writes Cogan:

“When a young woman is in a workplace where she feels replaceable, it is particularly dangerous for her to work with someone who is treated as utterly irreplaceable. Politics, like the arts, is full of men like this — so powerful that they become both synonymous with institutions and above them. In that kind of environment, it is not surprising that a man might feel entitled to take advantage, and a woman might feel there’s no recourse.”

Like Deez Links? Forward to the power imbalance.