I'm supposed to be sleeping but instead I'm lying in bed thinking about the anons trying to convince hyadamsfoster that Lena didn't cheat. And as well as I have been doing at staying away from the show, I just can't seem to ignore this. First of all, I need to say that yes. Absolutely, Monte kissing Lena is inappropriate. It is sexual harassment because Monte is her boss and under no circumstances should she have kissed Lena. So don't come at me with that because, about that, you are all absolutely right. Now, that being said, this idea of Lena being naive is ridiculous. Optimism and believing the best in people is not the same thing as being naive. Someone can hope for the best out of situations and still understand how the world works. Along with her optimism, Lena has always been very intuitive so her having no idea that something might be happening beneath the surface is a poor attempt at an excuse to me. The thing about the power imbalance is that while yes, it's there, that isn't the story they gave us. Aside from the thing with Timothy, we never saw Monte asserting her power in a way that came across as abusive. We didn't see her wielding her power around, making Lena uncomfortable. In fact, we were shown them to be near equals since Monte first came into the picture. We saw them forming a friendship that was not entirely inappropriate except for a few moments that felt too personal, too fast. But I think most of us have met a person or two with whom we have instantly clicked and let our guard down right away. So aside from the fact that she wasn't also telling those things to Stef (who wasn't listening. Not looking to absolve her of any guilt here and she's got plenty at her feet) we don't see a relationship being formed that has a power imbalance. If you remove Monte's position and make them equals, what we have is two women forming a bond that comes across as shared equally between them. It doesn't feel like sexual harassment because there was no indication that it ever was. What if feels like from the perspective of the audience is a friendship that is moving into romantic territory with fully willing participants. That's the way they set it up. Because Lena is doing and saying all of the things to Monte that she should be saying to Stef and up until Monte kissed her, Monte didn't do anything that would be considered inappropriate for a boss to do. Lena is an adult who, from as far as we were ever shown, was not put in a position where she felt she had to go along with something she was uncomfortable with. So the idea that she has been manipulated into this is going to be a hard sell to me and comes completely from the fans. There is no evidence of it in the show. It feels to me like that kid in class who always tries to find a loophole around the rules on a half-assed technicality. It doesn't sit well with me and feels like a way to excuse the writer's choice to bring in cheating.
