Here’s a scenario that may sound familiar: someone not generally considered to be in a position of power – a student, say, and female – propositions someone who technically does have power. A male lecturer, for example.
The proposition? That he join her for a threesome somewhere exotic. She likes him and she wants to get to know him on an intimate level, with everything that implies. The message is clear.
Is that sexual harassment, or do the unusual, “reverse” power dynamics make it a case apart? Speaking more broadly, is emailing someone in your organisation with a sexual proposition manipulative and self serving, or simply forward and adventurous?