Dear Mark:
The “gentle platonic touch” didn’t clear the bunkers and blockhouses on the bluffs overlooking Omaha Beach; nor did a “gentle platonic touch” plant a flag on Iwo Jima or clear the caves on Peleliu.
Tough, Depression-hardened street kids from all over America did. And when it was finished, the majority that came home settled into their post-war lives, worked at their jobs, raised and loved their families, remembered their buddies who weren’t so fortunate, and cherished their lives.
Because THAT’S what a Man does.
Hear! Hear!
Take a look at the snapshots from WWII. Notice something?
The guys quite often are leaning on each other or have their arms casually draped over one another's shoulders.
Holding hands, not so much. :)
But that is the kind of touching I think that the author is talking about. He is however wrong about why it stopped. It was not because of "Puritanical sexual shaming" but the LACK of it. We are bombarded with sex. Everything is sexual, even when it is not. We have been conditioned to see sex in everything. So a guy putting his arm around you is sex because everybody is out of the closet and shoving their sexual persona in our face.
Women have less trouble with it but even among women you will find less touching. And it is all for the same reason. If everything is about sex then any sort of touch means that you will welcome sexual advances from the person you touched.
It is really rather horrible.
Bravo, sir.
Bravo, sir.
Thumbs up on your comment!