Meridian Magazine is holding an LDS themed “Celebrate Alaska” something or other. But their publicity needs some serious work, as it is rather insulting to a significant section of the potential audience.
Okay, as I am in Alaska for the summer, and Meridian seems to be using official church channels to publicize what is, in the end, a money making venture (they even have pass along cards – [ http://www.celebratemeridian.com/PassAlongCards.pdf ]for the event), which is why I know about this.
Anyway, the flyer that was handed out in Relief Society made my wife rather upset, and she showed it to me. It was rather awful, and it bears the name of Scott Proctor, the guy in charge of the whole thing.
Here’s the offending paragraph:
“This event will not include nursing mothers. We love our nursing mothers, but feel that this time should allow each woman in the audience to concentrate on the beautiful sessions with our speakers and entertainers.”
Now, a simple “Please, no nursing infants” or “No children under 5 please” (or similar brief statement) would have worked. But this example shows exactly what we in rhetoric talk about when the speaker/writer’s intentions are ruined/distorted so that the audience gets the exact wrong impression.
As a rhetorician, I’ll just do quick semi-close reading to show exactly what is wrong with this paragraph:
1. “This event will not include nursing mothers.”
– This has a definitional problem, in that it is Way Too Vague. Makes it sound like, even if you leave the kids at home, you’re not welcome as long as your breasts are full of milk. The term “nursing mothers” makes it seem as though it’s the “mothers” who aren’t welcome, as opposed to the inevitably disruptive infants. I get that it may not be a good idea to bring a nursing infant to the conference – but why use terms that make it seem like it’s the mothers that aren’t welcome?
2. “We love our nursing mothers,”
– Again, this centers the focus on the mothers, and this phrase is rather condescending. No matter how nice it’s meant, it puts the “mothers” in an inferior position, making them objects to be loved but excluded.
3. “but feel that this time should allow each woman in the audience to concentrate on the beautiful sessions with our speakers and entertainers.”
– This (unintentionally, I’m sure) sets up a duality – “beautiful sessions” on one side, “nursing mothers” on the other. It’s hard to avoid the implication that while nursing mothers are loved, they just ain’t purty enough for such enlightened conferencing among the beautiful people.
All of this would have been avoided by a simple “Please, no children” or some similar statement. Yes, there would still be people offended, but no matter what they would have said, it would offend someone somewhere. By trying to write a paragraph that would supposedly offend no one, they’ve managed to be even more offensive.
Let that be a case study. Simple statements are often the best, and often attempts to avoid offense will result in more offense. I know at least half a dozen women (my wife is nursing, the others aren’t though) who found the paragraph quite odd, out of place, and offensive.
And no, I don’t hate Meridian. I quite enjoy the website most of the time, when I get around to visiting it. But in this one case, they choose (their words) poorly.