Embracing Embracing

Samantha Melamed reports that young men today are no longer satisfied with a handshake: “more men are embracing, well, embracing.”

Melamed writes, “The rise in hugging can be directly traced to declines in homophobia, according to Mark McCormack, a University of Durham (England) sociologist who has studied the behavior of young men in the United States and the United Kingdom.

“‘These guys don’t care whether other people perceive them as gay. In the ’80s and ’90s, if you were perceived as gay, you’d face huge stigma for it. You’d get marginalized and insulted,’ he said. Now, he says, ‘gender behavior isn’t regulated in the same way.’

“In March, McCormack and colleague Eric Anderson of Winchester University published a study of British heterosexual college-age athletes. More than just hugging, 93 percent reported having ‘spooned’ or cuddled with a male friend.”

Shifts in attitudes toward homosexuality are not the only factor: “Other influences include the tactile traditions of team sports, known for encouraging swats on the butt and exuberant post-win pigpiles. Lately, even the NFL draft has become a hugfest: Each player gets a squeeze from commissioner Roger Goodell (although kissing on draft day, as gay player Michael Sam proved this year, remains controversial).

“Yet another gateway is the widespread adoption of the hug-handshake hybrid (in which a handshake gets upgraded with a slap on the back) appropriated from African American culture and favored by President Obama – which caused a scandal for New Jersey Gov. Christie, who has denied hugging the president during Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath.” Besides, there is the general decline of formality among American men.

This wouldn’t be news in much of the world, where men are more physically demonstrative toward one another than in the US and Britain. And (“spooning” apart) the embrace of embrace wouldn’t be news to the apostle Paul, who ordered Christians more than once to greet one another with a holy kiss.