I think she's alluding that a lot of guys, when they see a mother breast feeding in public will roll their eyes in disgust, "does she really have to do that here?" Hence the big Facebook controversy a few months back - is it appropriate to post breast-feeding pics on the site?
I don't have an answer to that, but I understand how I might feel uncomfortable if I had to watch a presentation about breast-feeding for 30 minutes when I was expecting something on CouchDB. Swap that out for something potentially more inflammatory and you get the disaster we see now.
a lot of guys, when they see a mother breast feeding in public will roll their eyes in disgust, "does she really have to do that here?"
People who are disgusted by breastfeeding have no place in any society. Breastfeeding is just something women do naturally, unless they are part of the minority that doesn't have children. Hostility to breastfeeding is just a form of hostility to women, and it has the effect of making women second-class citizens: it forces women to choose between raising their children themselves and participating as full members in society.
These things are very culture-dependent. In Europe, most people don't care much about breast feeding in public, and don't see why Americans seem to raise such a fuss about Janet Jackson's breast.
Which means you don't want to use these themes to illustrate your presentation, unless you are deliberately trying to annoy or offend part of your audience.
>> "a lot of guys, when they see a mother breast feeding in public will roll their eyes in disgust"
Seriously? In US I assume?
I'm in the UK and have never had such an impression. Old people seem to sometimes get offended at such things, but certainly not the general population.
Yeah, it's a US thing and it happens exactly as quoted. And it actually gets the same reaction from both men and women.
The exceptions are men and women who have realized that it isn't easy to control infants and a good mother will do what has to be done. Not so disgusting from my point of view (and I'm a guy in my 20's with no kids).
Lots of things are natural that you wouldn't want to see.
I personally have no problems with breastfeeding, and I'm dubious of the "omg Americans flip out when they see it" implications above, but "naturalness" is not not really the reason something is ok to do in public or not.
Kinda, but I think it's more of a question of "tact" from a US'ians point of view. There's a high priority placed on politeness (real or not), service, and ultimately obedience. While this conservatism may have it's roots in religion, the attitude permeates through the rest of the culture.
The US is a country of immigrants, and if you look at the history - immigrant groups tend to be pretty dang religious. Pilgrims and Puritans, Africans embraced Christianity with zeal because of their circumstances. Later waves: Irish & Italian Catholics, German Protestants, European Jews; all very religious. And modern immigrant groups, Latin Americans, Koreans, Indians, etc. can all be quite conservative. Religion and culture intertwine because people tend to hang out with their own in the beginning - and the place to find them is usually at a church/temple/whatev. I guess it's like the old lunch table theory, you'll prefer to hang out with people that you think are more like you.
[edit] And to extrapolate this to the current topic, the presenter's greatest sin in the eyes of many US'ians is not his gratuitous use of sexual imagery to convey a point, but his complete lack of tact when doing so.
I don't have an answer to that, but I understand how I might feel uncomfortable if I had to watch a presentation about breast-feeding for 30 minutes when I was expecting something on CouchDB. Swap that out for something potentially more inflammatory and you get the disaster we see now.