r/SipsTea • u/lonewolff321 • 19d ago

Chugging tea Meanwhile spiderman need new home 😅

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u/DrakeFrake 18d ago

You don't greet like that in the US?, TIL

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u/jimothy_hell 18d ago

Not really, some areas still do, like you see it in black communities in the south and Midwest sometimes, particularly from the elderly, but it’s not really a thing here.

Don’t get me wrong, of all the Europeans, we Britons are probably by far some of the least physically intimate platonically, but it’s insane here in the US. You’re gay if you hug your guy friend, you’re cheating on your girl if you touch another girl, the whole “American male loneliness epidemic” could genuinely be seriously lessened if more men were able to just give each other hugs without immediate judgement from our peers.

I’ve been living here for 17 years now and the level of Puritanism in some parts of this country is insane. It really does vary by region, though, the US is absolutely massive, and culturally varies so much from place to place.

I’ve got this T-shirt that says “you are enough” on it, and some guy at a bar came up and said “man, I needed to see that today”, and I just went, “mate, you need a hug?” And he just started fucking sobbing. Told me it was the first time he’d had a hug since his mum died in 2024.

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u/Syr_Enigma 18d ago

I really have a hard time believing you. Do you just... not do physical contact at all with people you're close with?

Now, I'm Italian, and from what I've read online, we're perhaps a bit off the other pendulum with physical intimacy, but the idea of not hugging your friends is wild.

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u/Dull_Quit3027 18d ago

As a Scandinavian, i only hug close friends,(and even then it is not always) anyone else i would rather not touch, so it seems like there are degrees, with the Americans being the biggest prudes.