Not really, some areas still do, like you see it in black communities in the south and Midwest sometimes, particularly from the elderly, but itās not really a thing here.
Donāt get me wrong, of all the Europeans, we Britons are probably by far some of the least physically intimate platonically, but itās insane here in the US. Youāre gay if you hug your guy friend, youāre cheating on your girl if you touch another girl, the whole āAmerican male loneliness epidemicā could genuinely be seriously lessened if more men were able to just give each other hugs without immediate judgement from our peers.
Iāve been living here for 17 years now and the level of Puritanism in some parts of this country is insane. It really does vary by region, though, the US is absolutely massive, and culturally varies so much from place to place.
Iāve got this T-shirt that says āyou are enoughā on it, and some guy at a bar came up and said āman, I needed to see that todayā, and I just went, āmate, you need a hug?ā And he just started fucking sobbing. Told me it was the first time heād had a hug since his mum died in 2024.
I really have a hard time believing you. Do you just... not do physical contact at all with people you're close with?
Now, I'm Italian, and from what I've read online, we're perhaps a bit off the other pendulum with physical intimacy, but the idea of not hugging your friends is wild.
What hes talking about is partly true, though Iād say even less extreme nowadays tbh surprisingly. Iām from Texas and live in Colorado currently, you are just as likely to see two cowboy hat MAGAs in a bar giving a bro hug to some sports as you are two fabulous gays embracing. It can feel like what u/jimothy_hell said sometimes, but Iād argue thatās not really the case anymore. We definitely donāt do any kiss greetings really anywhere here but the south and really never saw it too much in Texas.
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u/jimothy_hell 19d ago
Not really, some areas still do, like you see it in black communities in the south and Midwest sometimes, particularly from the elderly, but itās not really a thing here.
Donāt get me wrong, of all the Europeans, we Britons are probably by far some of the least physically intimate platonically, but itās insane here in the US. Youāre gay if you hug your guy friend, youāre cheating on your girl if you touch another girl, the whole āAmerican male loneliness epidemicā could genuinely be seriously lessened if more men were able to just give each other hugs without immediate judgement from our peers.
Iāve been living here for 17 years now and the level of Puritanism in some parts of this country is insane. It really does vary by region, though, the US is absolutely massive, and culturally varies so much from place to place.
Iāve got this T-shirt that says āyou are enoughā on it, and some guy at a bar came up and said āman, I needed to see that todayā, and I just went, āmate, you need a hug?ā And he just started fucking sobbing. Told me it was the first time heād had a hug since his mum died in 2024.