> The girl was in a vulnerable position (far from home, first time attending, relatively poor) and coming from a different culture
I'll grant you young (although as far as I can gather that was 21 years, so 5 years older than mature and sensible enough to vote in the UK), but how do any of the others contribute to this vague "vulnerability"? How does not knowing the geography, or being at a conference the first time (a tech conference is not like a jungle expedition where experience is key...), or being of modest means, make it harder to discriminate sexual partners? This "vulnerable" only applies to someone like a spy that has to deftly navigate the city and social interactions to complete a mission, not a regular attendee.
> from a higher rank male of a female
You know this wasn't the army, right? He wasn't even her employer.
Definitely agree with you. It might be my wording due to being a foreigner.
In the distant past and in a different situation I almost abused a girl with the same 'vibe' as Jon. Definitely it's not a crime. But it opens the can of worms if the other party does not like it and it might escalate. It should have stopped for him at the stage of public berating (again the wording)
I wouldn't say she was in a vulnerable position at all. Like Jon, she was already a conference speaker and a Scala group organiser. Really, she wasn't below Jon in any hierarchy.
In her blog post she makes out as if she was naive and fresh to the Scala ecosystem, as a non-native English speaker. I don't buy it at all, given this is her in 2018 giving a confident Scala talk in perfect English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq9YbTeOkjA
I'll grant you young (although as far as I can gather that was 21 years, so 5 years older than mature and sensible enough to vote in the UK), but how do any of the others contribute to this vague "vulnerability"? How does not knowing the geography, or being at a conference the first time (a tech conference is not like a jungle expedition where experience is key...), or being of modest means, make it harder to discriminate sexual partners? This "vulnerable" only applies to someone like a spy that has to deftly navigate the city and social interactions to complete a mission, not a regular attendee.
> from a higher rank male of a female
You know this wasn't the army, right? He wasn't even her employer.