This is largely self-aggrandizing bullshit.

I think one of the reasons people in academia are so obsessed with (usually small) power imbalances is because they have so little actual power.

In that exchange, literally every possible relationship is deemed a bad and invalid one because “if someone wants your approval…” there is a power imbalance, therefore it is an inappropriate relationship.

But I want the approval of my partner. I want the approval of my friends, and even of the young woman I mentored at a previous job. And whom I (evilly enough, apparently) consider a friend. If the measure of an abusive relationship is that someone wants the approval of someone else (which is apparently becoming the standard in the nearly-clinically insane liberal mind), then every relationship in history, nearly, was an abusive one.

Can these people even hear how fucking crazy they sound? I guess not, but damn they are far gone.

My advice is to date and form friendship with (non-minors) of all ages, for both men and women. You’ll learn more, have a lot more fun, and just generally be a better person for it.

Power imbalances aren’t actually (mostly) where delusional libs think they are found.