"Hugging" as a script

[drlynch]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/style/28hugs.html?_r=1&th&emc=thFor Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
To hug or not to hug is never in question for Ashley Rocha and friends at Pascack Hills High.

Published: May 27, 2009
There is so much hugging at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, N.J., that students have broken down the hugs by type:

Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Katie Dea and Henry Begler, both 14, at the Claire Lilienthal School in San Francisco, prefer a friendly hug to a high-five greeting.
There is the basic friend hug, probably the most popular, and the bear hug, of course. But now there is also the bear claw, when a boy embraces a girl awkwardly with his elbows poking out.

There is the hug that starts with a high-five, then moves into a fist bump, followed by a slap on the back and an embrace.

There’s the shake and lean; the hug from behind; and, the newest addition, the triple — any combination of three girls and boys hugging at once.

“We’re not afraid, we just get in and hug,” said Danny Schneider, a junior at the school, where hallway hugging began shortly after 7 a.m. on a recent morning as students arrived. “The guy friends, we don’t care. You just get right in there and jump in.”

There are romantic hugs, too, but that is not what these teenagers are talking about.

Girls embracing girls, girls embracing boys, boys embracing each other — the hug has become the favorite social greeting when teenagers meet or part these days. Teachers joke about “one hour” and “six hour” hugs, saying that students hug one another all day as if they were separated for the entire summer.
continued @ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/style/28hugs.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[Joe]

This may seem strange to some of you but some of my closest friends greet me (and I them) with hugs and kisses....boys kiss the girls, girls kiss the girls, boys kiss the boys etc. We all do it. Not always on the lips, but a kiss on the cheek or forehead as well as a hug. It feels nice and is probably the most genuine gesture of non-sexual affection one could give to a good friend. Now, I'm not saying we're kissing each other all day, or that the kiss lasts for anything but a second. It's just a really wonderful way to show someone when greeting them that your guard is down, that the 3-foot-radius-of-space does not apply to you and/or to them, so much so that you'll allow them to put their lips on you. Admittedly, hugs do the same but hugs and kisses from and to dear friends are just some of the small but meaningful ways we can express our affection to very close friends.

I'm not sure if this is admission fits into hugs as scripts but I just thougth I'd share and see what anyone thought.

Interesting Article Dr. Lynch! Keep them coming!


- Joe


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In response


Joe,

Thank you for your comment.

Obviously when I posted I did not comment on the piece except by suggesting in the title that "hugging" is a script.

I had a few random thoughts at the time of how when I first heard Don Nathonson talk about script and how quickly he felt script could change such as how bathing suits changed so quickly at the start of the 20th century. From showing no skin to much.

This is a like example. The first example of this was actually just a little downstate here in Illinois now a few years ago where hugging was banned.

I was wondering if it has anything to do with, now, finally, enough young people having traveled and having experienced how effusive other cultures are in this respect. Anyone knows that if you go to Mexico you don't enter or leave a room without shaking everyone's hand or in France usually kissing everyone's check at least once and it can get very confusing depending which part of the country your in whether it is one, two or three times!

drlynch