I'm not convinced the cultural difference is necessarily all that large in practice. From the article he wrote, it isn't exactly a common thing there either bu

I'm not convinced the cultural difference is necessarily all that large in practice. From the article he wrote, it isn't exactly a common thing there either but a special event. Obviously there is some difference in theory, but there seems to be some suggestion that they might be somewhat embarrassed as well due to it being unusual. https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/22/world/enyokeni-royal-residence-journal-zulu-virgins-celebrate-their-bodies-themselves.html https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/22/world/enyokeni-royal-resi... It looks like he was 44 at the time of that article and 64 when he was in Peru. If you mean his "thought" process was likely embarassment -> make joke and nothing more, sure. But the reason it would be considered embarassing in the US is that women going topless is often considered sexual. And the joke he makes directly references that. He doesn't seem to be thinking much about the effect of his reaction on the people he is interviewing. Of course he is human and if sufficiently embarrased won't have a lot of thought prior to reaction (and it sounds like it could easily be the photographer intentionally provoking him knowing he won't react well), but he can still change how he reacts later and how or if he talks about the story later. I guess there are two basic (but not entirely different) reasons the teenagers in Peru could react negatively (maybe more). My guess is that they do not have the same cultural assumption as the reporter that being topless would necessarily be a sexual or embarrassing thing and find that assumption sexist. It sounds like your guess is that they do have a similar cultural assumption and are imagining this old reporter in a vaguely sexual situation with young women.