Friday, May 29, 2009

Hugs

Given the unhealthy phobia about physical contact in this country, in addition to litigious paranoia about sexual harassment or improper touching, I was really heartened to read this account of a new trend among teenagers in high school of giving hugs on greeting: male-female, female-female, even male-male (given sanction by recent 'Bromance' movies). Some prune faced administrators have banned it, but I think it reflects that kids are more inclined to nuture each other, perhaps as an antidote to comparative aridity of a world of Facebook 'friends.' (By the way, I wrote this brief post on reading the NYTimes article yesterday morning, then set it to be actually posted next Monday. Then I see the bloody story featured on the NBC Evening News yesterday evening, interviews with experts and all that, and so I guess I have to stay with the news cycle and post while its fresh!).

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:27 AM

    my friends and i hug upon greeting and leaving and sometimes in between! but are you saying that some teachers have banned hugging among students?

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  2. Check the article I mentioned. Some school administrators have banned hugging.

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  3. Ha. You've caught me me on a bit of inverted provincialism, I thought that hugging was just a benign local phenomenon in far-flung Tasmania.

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