Rob, you seem to think coercion falls into two distinct camps. Let us suppose that I have a lovely in a small room with me, which lovely I propose to have some sort of physical encounter with. I could communicate, verbally or non-verbally, a variety of things:
- If you attempt to leave, I will shoot you and your family
- If you attempt to leave, I will punch you in the face
- If you attempt to leave, I will destroy your career
- If you attempt to leave, I will make it more difficult for you to get the good gigs
- If you attempt to leave, this gig is over and you will not be paid
- If you attempt to leave, I will be very upset and sad, why do you want to HURT me?!!!
- If you attempt to leave, I will do nothing whatsoever, no harm, no foul
Everything except the last one is coercive to one degree or another. Even in the first case, the young lovely could certainly make a break for the door and see what happens. It's not even that there is a line somewhere in here between rape/not-rape, the whole damn scenario is lines.
ETA: And, notably, the young lovely has a choice in every scenario.
Chuck in there a few other possibles, like maybe the young lovely is 14 years old, or she barely speaks english, or perhaps we've been doing what *I* think is flirting like mad for the last three days, but what *she* thinks is just being polite to the photographer? Or vice versa?
These are infernally complicated situations, and to pretend that it's simple is flat-out insulting to everyone. The possibilities for horrendous missteps and horrendous abuse are rife. Given that we're often talking about vulnerable young women (young, under-educated, wildly eager for success) and older wiser staff, it's pretty clear that it's incumbent on the older and wiser staff to a) keep their pants zipped up and b) watch out for the kids.
You may have thought of it as just a bunch of pros working together in a sexually exciting environment. But realistically, it also has a lot in common with a high school full of beautiful girls and male teachers.
It's patently clear that there are plenty of fellows who neither watched out for the kids, nor kept their pants zipped up. They were bad, bad, teachers.