Around 10 years ago or so, I worked for a company that brought me into regular professional contact with female American co-workers. I was “fresh off the boat”, being still a trainee Canadian at that point and still very much awash in UK social rules and protocols. I remember being quite literally rigid with shock and discomfort when I was often hugged by these co-workers. Nothing untoward, I emphasise – simply friendly bonhomie from welcoming colleagues. But it was so far from the social norms of my prior experience that I couldn’t process it at all. A decade later, incidentally, I am not much better and often feel my personal space being violated by “over-friendly” strangers from the New World. (I once joked that Brits have reproduced asexually since the times of Victoria.)
It seems this un-British overt display of touchy-feeliness is spreading, and after a minor hiccup is making real inroads down under – in the land of beer drinking and rugby. The “Cuddle Party” company charges $35 entrance to one of its parties, and makes a huge thing of it being a non-sexual, strictly clothes-on event.
I’m sure the fact that most of the people in the photograph are women is simply a statistical aberration.
No sex please, we’re just cuddling strangers.
Quieter Elephant 