🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jan1.123533.540@llustig.palo-alto.ca.us> oleg@llustig.palo-alto.ca.us (Oleg Kiselev) writes:
>
>people?  Normal people don't have a problem being touched or touching
>others, including giving backrubs to strangers who look like they are tense,
>non-hostile, ahad taken at least one shower in the last 48 hours and are not
>adverse to the idea of getting a backrub.

Hmmm.... I think this generalizes a bit too much. Back where I grew up, you
didn't go around giving people backrubs. I'll admit it was a pretty closed-
minded environment, but a man would NEVER touch another man unless it was
a handshake, shot in the arm, etc. A man -> woman or vice versa attempt at
physical contact was almost always viewed as sexual in nature, unless the
two were good friends. And women could touch women and no-one raised an
eyebrow. Since leaving that environment, a good percentage of the people I have
met are very physical, i.e. they will put a hand on your thigh as an almost
involuntary gesture (men and women), and I still have some difficulty
interpreting it until I get to know them a bit. I have also noticed, and I 
know this is a bit of a generalization, that the more educated people are,
the more they engage in mutual non-sexual physical affection such as
backrubs, hair-brushing, etc. regardless of their sex. But this is purely
an observation within my social environment.

Jim