I Walked In On My Colleague Defiling a Precious Piece of Art. Now His Fate Is in My Hands.

"The next day, Franz sent me a text profusely apologizing. He explained that he is in a sexless marriage, but as a feminist he didn't feel right watching porn, and thought using the art in the studio for this purpose was a harmless alternative. He promised to stop and begged me not to tell the other members of the collective."

"There wasn't harm done here. If you had come away feeling violated, OK, I can understand why you might want to warn others. But Franz jerked off in the open during after-hours, when he assumed that no one would see. It was an unwise calculation, but that's different than intentionally putting himself on display to an unwilling audience. He was caught and apologized. I think it's OK to take him at his word here."

A tenant encountered a fellow artist masturbating with a nude sculpture in a shared studio after hours. The artist, Franz, fled, then apologized by text, explaining a sexless marriage and a refusal to watch porn; he described using the sculpture as a harmless alternative and begged for secrecy. The tenant feels violated but uncertain whether to inform the collective. The response advises that while the act was ill-conceived and violated boundaries, an apology and promise to stop justify temporary trust unless this fits a broader pattern of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Read at Slate Magazine