Linus Tech Tips pauses production as controversy swirls | What started as criticism over errors in recent YouTube videos has escalated into allegations of sexual harassment, prompting the company t…::The YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips has halted production after controversies over ethics and accuracy in reporting, spurred further this morning by accusations of sexual harassment experienced at the company.

  • IceMan@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    The grabbing part is clear - but “calm your tits” and “stop being such a bitch”? At least where I live both are gender neutral, first one even used most often male to male. Am I missing something? Would it not have been sexual harassment but just toxic culture if it was another cuss? E.g. when you say “motherfucker” you don’t actually mean “somebody having sexual relations with one’s mother”. Can somebody with more knowledge about US legal system explain this to me?

    • virtualras@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You can make a distinction between gender when it comes to the phrases. To my male friends, yeah. Depending on the situation I can see myself saying both of those phrases. But to my female friends? They don’t mean the same thing.

      “Calm your tits” is a maybe depending on the circumstances and how close we are, but never in an aggressive tone.

      “Stop being such a bitch”, downright out. Never to those friends. So many better ways to phrase it depending on the circumstances.

      And finally, all of these were to my friends, NOT A FUCKING COWORKER. You never say these things to coworkers. The whole goal of team management is promoting teamwork, these phrase foster nothing but animosity. I try to say anything even remotely close to those phrases and my ass will be out of a job before lunch (and for good reason).

      In terms of legal, IANAL, but as far as I know you would have to present this to a jury or judge, and the bar that they’d have to pass in the US is “more likely than not”. In other words: “is it more likely than not that this comment was made to harass the individual based on their sex?” Pretty low bar to cross.

      Also, LTT is a Canadian company, so the above paragraph is kinda moot to the whole situation.

      TL;DR: those phrases are rude to women, LTT would likely have a rough time in court (if they were a US company)

      • IceMan@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        Ah okay, thank you for explanation! Also I (wrongly) thought they are from US - thanks again :)

    • fiah@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      If I said either of those things to any of the women I work with I’d likely get fired before the end of the week. And they really do not want to fire me

      • Mishmash2000@lemmy.nz
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        1 year ago

        Yikes, after reading that thread in its entirety I unsubbed from their channel. They will have to do a LOT to get me to ever come back. I’m not sure if that’s even possible?

    • Sonofliberty776@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It has to do with how the parties involved interpret it. Between friends I have said the same things, but not everyone will be comfortable with these things said to them and can even interpret them maliciously. They can be seen as workplace harassment for this reason.

    • GravityAce@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      In the US, the person experiencing the harrasment gets to define whether they felt it was sexual in nature.