I have often heard people on one of my mailing lists (it's called the big EC list) talking about how they received raised eyebrows and "Are you crazy?" looks whenever they mentioned that they have been gently potty training their babies. Some have even been rudely told off and ordered to shut-up.
In Singapore, if you talk about this, you will most likely get surprise, along the lines of, "Oh, is it possible? My mom told me she did this for me but I didn't really believe this can be done."
Part of this has to do with culture. Singapore (and other countries in this region) have a lot of Chinese, Malays and other ethnic minorities. People of generations past didn't have (much) access to disposables and probably couldn't afford to pay for them anyway. And they were smart. They didn't want to wash so many cloth diapers. They'd figured out that the best way is just to bring the baby to somewhere to do their business, after that clean up and move on.
What I am shocked about is why "mainstream" people in the West would go so far as to really be so negative about something they don't know about.
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