I am 42, so this all happened a long time ago.
When I was at uni I was a good student of the sort who "will clearly become an academic" so spent a lot of time from about 2nd year on hanging out with members of the relevant uni dept at the pub, at research seminars, etc. I got on well with several faculty members so it seemed reasonable to attend social gatherings at their houses, catch up for meals out when I returned to the area after leaving uni, host them when they visited where I was studying, and particularly, to ask them for references for scholarships and jobs.
One professor did far more of this kind of thing than the others. It seemed natural in that I was quite similar to his kids, we shared many research interests, and I went on to do postgrad and postdoc work at his old university, which he visited fairly frequently.
At some point when I was late 20s, the visits seemed to become more frequent, involved multiple meetings, always dinners out, and every time he met me he would give me hugs that were just a bit too tight, a bit too long, and a bit too revealing of his own level of interest. He continued to provide lots of academic contacts and references for jobs, grants, etc.
I tried to reduce contact a bit as the full-body hugs were unwelcome and I felt honestly a bit suffocated. He stepped it up a notch to trying to play footsies under the table in a restaurant, and putting his hand on my thigh whenever he happened to sit next to me - in front of other people. I felt really uncomfortable so stopped asking for references (despite still being in the academic hell-hole of needing them for the 20th, 30th, 40th applications for permanent jobs).
He met my parents socially and asked why I was avoiding him. My parents asked me, I said "he's a bit of a letch, I'm trying to avoid all the hugging and hand on thigh stuff". My parents scoffed at the idea that anyone would be so tasteless as to try that with someone like me.
All of a sudden anyone who knew this professor suddenly rejected job applications from me without shortlisting. People came up to me at conferences with hilarious tales of how I was this professor's stupidest ever dissertation student. People suddenly knew all the details of various boyfriends I'd had over the years, to whom this professor had been introduced; I was apparently a bit of a slut and never seen without a man in tow. Etc.
In the end I got a job without his references and haven't heard form him in years, thankfully. It's probably not coincidental that all email contact from him suddenly ceased when he wasn't invited to my wedding.
i think this kind of thing in my mother's generation would've been regarded as totally normal and I'd have been told to be thankful "he" got me scholarships and jobs "with his references", and be thankful anyone found me pretty. I look back and think "Idiot, but a lot worse could've happened."
The memory makes my skin crawl a bit though.