Brooke Nevels

It's called tonic immobility.

And we go back and we blame ourselves for that.

Why did I just freeze?

Why didn't I say anything?

Why was I so complacent?

Why was I being so deferential?

Well, you're doing that as a way of trying to maintain control.

I mean, the term affair, you know, an affair is something that happens between two equals.

You know, both people are equally empowered to participate.

That is not what happens in a, quote, relationship between a subordinate and someone with power over them.

And to your point, yes, I refer to it as an affair because I had no idea what else to call it.

A powerful person having an affair with an underling during this time was—

And they didn't think it was a very big deal because they had heard rumors.

Right.

And if you went around saying something shocking like, oh, I was exploited, oh, this was incredibly degrading, that is not a safe thing to say in an environment where you need to remain employed, where this person still has tremendous power.

But

Consent and agreement are not synonymous.

And that's when Matt Lauer, when he uses the word consensual, well, when...

One person has power over the other.

It's not really consent.