Male friendship still exists, but it now has to be about something. It is why so many of us go hunting, fishing and cycling. Or, in my case, get involved in combox arguments

Where I choose to live, I cannot be in close association with a girl or woman lest the two of us be suspected of being up to something untoward.

Cross-gender hugs outside of family are verboten. Same-gender hugs are a bit better. We have a religious tradition of the Christian greeting (the holy kiss), which is strictly between brethren or between sisters.

Outsiders often remark “men kissing each other is gay!” The proper answer is that, no, it’s not gay; it’s ordained by the Bible in three different places; and we’ve been doing this for hundreds of years, and we don’t plan to stop now just because for the past 50 years, homosexuals have managed to pervert normal tokens of affection and friendship that are not sexual at all.

I’m a Presbyterian. We are the frozen, prickly ones. We have difficulty doing handshakes when it is time for sign of peace. Hugs… that is for the close family.

100 years ago in any traditional European culture (and still in some today that haven’t been overwhelmingly pozzed), men still greet each other with a kiss. In north America, men are now expected to greet each other with a rather effete bro-hug.

Yuck.

And there are reasons I now avoid the USA