Why Men Need Platonic Touch. Are Straight Men Too Homophobic

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I agree with all of this 100% and I had been thinking about this for the past few weeks. I remembered sitting close to my mom on the sofa as a small child and how loved and secure I felt. Then I was pretty much cut off from that around 8 or 9 years old and I just realized how much of effect that separation had on me.
 
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I was a wrestler through school, and although I was the only one who turned out gay, on my team (out at least as far as i know)
i wonder if that was a reason many of us did it.. hmmmm nice article
I grew up in a household with very little touch, and still get weird about it sometimes... i have a few friends that can do it without being sexual at all, and it feels so nice and comfortable
 

Acratopotes

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It's an interesting perspective.

As a baby and toddler I was obvious cradled and cuddled by mum and was picked up by dad and rode on his shoulders. At some point that stopped and it didn't seem sudden. I can't say, for example, that it had anything to do with puberty. From then one we we were not a very touchy family.

Presumably because of that I've not found it hard to comply with the current phobia around touch and, in particular, the view from some that any touching, especially in the workplace, without prior consent is sexual harassment. I am also not aware of having missed it.

When I met my wife I found she was quite the opposite - she comes from a family in which touch was much more common and it took me a while to adapt. I also have three children and touch is less common with the older ones but the toddler still climbs on us, asks to be picked up etc. It's nice, but there was never a Eureka moment of thinking it was something I had missed for years, just adapting to the situation.

The confusion of sensual and sexual touch is interesting. Even with my wife there is touch that doesn't lead to sex, something which wasn't true at the start, but then she jokes that one of our dogs must be gay because he enjoys me stroking it.

In conclusion, It's an interesting point of view but I am not sure things are as simple as he makes out.
 

NudeDude71

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I crave touch. And, I love the chances to touch or be touched by men. I love hugging or getting a hug by my male friends - although its only in a greeting sort if way. In some ways, I 'need' male connection.
Once, one of my guy friends put his arm around my neck/shoulders for a group photo. I melted inside but didn't make a big deal about it on the outside.
 

zaynmlk1626

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i really like touching people, i love how close to someone it makes you feel when you touch him, not in a sexual way only, just hugging someone too. due to the fact that i always knew i was gay and i have always been in closet, i always avoided touching other guys, friends etc just out of fear i would get exposed or something, so i grew up loving but avoiding to touch people in general. i am always surprised when someone hugs me for example. i am touchy with very few people that i feel very close with, every time i meet my best friend who is str8 we hug for example.
 

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I think the article is inadvertently misleading and almost like a bit of a pipe dream put out there and latched upon by men outside of the hetero spectrum. I dont say that because I think the article's assertion is wrong, but short sighted in that the men's inability to express platonic touch also extends to their platonic female friends, making it more of a general aversion to introducing a sexual context to an emotional moment than a specific homophobic response. I do think however, whats missing amongst men is a general sense of platonic emotional intimacy. I think for extreme emotional crises even the most homophobic of men are quite adept at offering touch as a means of comfort. Its the more mundane, everyday, emotional intimacies we choose to not share with other men that are then being robbed of the option of touch being offered as a means of comfort.
But, I also think there's a fair chance that even with emotional intimacy being established within the straight male population youll still find a fair majority of men who arent prone to offering touch as a platonic love/intimacy to men or women alike, and largely still reserve touch as an expression of romantic or sexual intimacy.