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by throwwwaya2 4429 days ago
I would love to write "It’s Different for Boys", not as a rebuttal, but to explain how two-sided this problem is from a man's perspective.

That sexual harassment and the weirdly dysfunctional sexual culture of business is perpetuated on men as well as women.

I arrived on the scene in the Bay Area start-up culture ~5 years ago from a very different industry / cultural perspective.

I was in LOVE with the idea of the Bay Area tech-start-up culture - it's incredibly magnetic.

Within a month I'd closed a major deal with a new client - they'd just raised tens-of-millions in venture money from prominent VCs, the CEO was very visible in the SF bay start-up culture, etc.

I was living the dream - everything in their office was just as I imagined, the people were all hip and fresh and liberal-earthy-but-wise-and-techie just as I'd hoped.

Then the work day ended and I was invited out to drinks to celebrate our deal with the "boys" from the office.

Drinks led to more drinks, led to a strip club, led to the CEO literally going home with a hooker (and he was dating another prominent valley founder at the time no less).

And nobody batted an eye.

Like the author I don't quite know how to wind this up other than to say this is a two way street.

And the more time I spend with rich and powerful SV men, the more I see a "women as toys" culture perpetuated.

Yes, we're all human susceptible to our very human flaws and needs, but it's insane how completely acceptable sexualized behavior is behind the scenes.

4 comments

>And the more time I spend with rich and powerful SV men, the more I see a "women as toys" culture perpetuated. //

Isn't this "just" the distasteful behaviour of rich and powerful people. Don't rich and powerful people who engage in all types of sexual behaviours, of both sexes, objectify people.

When a rich and powerful woman goes to a strip club, or uses a prostitute or engages in drunken fornication do we demand that her industry sector be reformed?

What I mean to say is, is this issue really about men being obnoxious or is it about rich people being obnoxious and those rich people happen to be men?

[It's a question, not a supposition. I find all such behaviour to be abhorrent FWIW]

How is this a rebuttal? If anything, this furthers the author's case.

EDIT: nevermind, the language was fixed.

I don't see how that would be a rebuttal, but from what you say it could be interesting to read.
Good point, edited my first sentence.
If you do write this up, definitely avoid the false equivalence that one could read into your comments here. I agree that being around the CEO picking up a hooker could be uncomfortable, but Roizen's story involves much more career risk and personal impact.