Apologize?

In the MBA business communications class on Wednesday, a student challenged me on one of my pet peeves, which is to never apologize to an audience. "Doesn't apologizing make you seem more human, and isn't that a good thing?" she asked.

I countered that it's fine to apologize before or after you're "on stage," but while you're up there you should never cede power by apologizing.

And I added that this is particularly important for women and men who have feminized speech patterns. When men with masculine speech patterns apologize, do they lose power? What do you think?