7 Commandments For Showing Love In Public
This is a PSA on PDA.
Have you ever been in public and a couple will just not stop making out? If they're lesbians at a Seattle Mariners game, you can have them removed. But anyone else (and if they're just making out, maybe with a little over the clothes groping) and you may just have to sit and take it.
Before we really explore Public Displays of Affection (and how they make some people's skin crawl), please please please check out this story from Em & Lo.
Yeah, crazy right? (It's like that scene in Mall Rats where Jason Lee is describing the plane crash his cousin Walter was almost in.) I'm not sure if I believe it but I've seen some crazy things in New York. I once saw a homeless guy with a bologna sandwich for a foot (that's not true).
While a couple en make-out res may be as easy to look away from as a solar eclipse or car wreck, most of us really don't care to see other people getting frisky (unless they're attractive AND we're in the privacy of our own homes or sex clubs). While other cultures are more averse to PDA (the Japanese think holding hands is weird and public kissing in India could get you the Richard Gere Treatment*), our schizophrenic stance on sexuality (damned Protestant pornography has made us all vestal voyeurs) makes the whole kaboodle conflicting and uncomfy.
Not for nothing, I don't mind a little bit of PDA. I've made out with someone in a bar before. I would say it's not my proudest hour but I am sort of proud of it. The key to any public make out is being able to leave that place before things get out of (or IN) hand. Em & Lo's Man Panel tackle PDA as well.
My new homeslice LostPlum (though not technically an American), explains her dislike for PDA and gives some scenarios where it's permissible (she also clears up that PDA, in this instance, has very little to do with your BlackBerry). Read: How To Have Sex In Public
While I'm pretty OK with PDA, I can understand the need to a certain level of decorum. Here's the bare minimum:
Discussion
I'm bothered by some people at work who do it. It's so frequent that it's almost meaningless
and they do it when they are being paid to work. When they are not kissing and hugging, they
are fighting. It's very sad. They know nothing about mutual respect. They are just in heat.
But maybe I'm just a jealous whiner (see avatar) LOL I'd like to see them have a good and a deep relationship, but then again they are 16 and 18.
i've often been cheered or catcalled while kissing or making out w a boyfriend ..
... and BookMama you make a good point ~ one of those times was sitting in front of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris! :)
Oh this brings back so many cherished memories. My late husband was big into PDA. And I loved every minute of it! Never before and probably never again will I experience such a passionate relationship from start to finish. Steve was truely my soulmate and each and every day for five years now I have missed him. He could nuzzle me on the side of my neck and I would just melt. We heard "get a room" (usually on the dance floor) so many times and it just made us giggle. What glorious times they were. I am so glad that I have experienced such a love in my life time.
yeah this reminds me of good old making out in the hallways in highschool. can't wait to not see that anymore. although i guess i can be considered guilty since i did kiss my boyfriend in school, but nothing heavy, just hi *kiss* bye *kiss*. it still annoyed some of my friends and especially my sister. just keep it PG in public and save the good stuff for alone time or at least if no one is paying attention (like watching a movie, but of course still be appropriate and not loud!).
i dont see ne thing wrong with a lil hugging and a kissing......
Okay, that Em & Lo story is NUTS! I can put some belief in it as I can vaguely remember some really intense make out sessions in my youth before I had a car...plus, this is Hawaii. How can a person not get a little amourous on a moon-lit beach?
For the most I can agree with the basic guidelines and will exercise my right to heavily bend them as i see fit in the interest of great mental foreplay before me and my SO get home...
On another note, when I first saw the title of this article it made me think of one of the many short lived couples from my freshman year in highschool. Aside from wondering how they managed to breath with all the face sucking they did for almost the entire duration of any and all breaks during the school day, the REALLY disturbing part was that they looked related! It was like seeing a brother and sister making out!
