Men were more affectionate in a platonic way because there was pretty much no risk of somebody calling them gay. The idea that hugging, kissing, complimenting your friend "makes you gay" is a pretty new thing, and both sides of the spectrum do it. And so it's just a bad cycle that drives a wedge between male relationships. Blame television executives and their constant stream of gay jokes going back 50 years. Even in literature, people will read an old book about a strong male bond such as Achilles/Patroclus or Gilgamesh/Enkidu and start labelling them gay. BOTH sides do this. Homophobes and pro-LGBT people both love to project homosexuality on any male relationship that goes further than a handshake. And so, modern men stay isolated and keep a cold distance between each other.
IllinoisWoodsBoy t1_j69ioaf wrote
Reply to Dickens' David Copperfield: Were men more affectionate with each other in the 18th century? by angelojann
Men were more affectionate in a platonic way because there was pretty much no risk of somebody calling them gay. The idea that hugging, kissing, complimenting your friend "makes you gay" is a pretty new thing, and both sides of the spectrum do it. And so it's just a bad cycle that drives a wedge between male relationships. Blame television executives and their constant stream of gay jokes going back 50 years. Even in literature, people will read an old book about a strong male bond such as Achilles/Patroclus or Gilgamesh/Enkidu and start labelling them gay. BOTH sides do this. Homophobes and pro-LGBT people both love to project homosexuality on any male relationship that goes further than a handshake. And so, modern men stay isolated and keep a cold distance between each other.