Australians have embraced the Mediterranean protocol of greeting friends with a kiss on the cheek. Although we have evolved it to more of an air-kiss accompanied by a kissing sound whereas in Europe the real deal is a silent lips-to-cheek kiss. I have studied this in some detail. A generation ago there was no kissing hello; there was a handshake and, between male and female acquaintances, there was the mutual head nod followed by a mutual look-at-the-ground. Today the Australian air-kiss derived and adapted from Greek and Italian migrants is performed between women who are friends, between male and female acquaintances but not between male acquaintances. This is at odds with the European tradition. We have adopted part of the kissing protocol but not the full Monty. The gay male community will happily kiss each other hello and goodbye but this is not yet mainstream behaviour between men. However as Australia globalizes and increasingly adopts European sophistication in diet, in dress, in lifestyle (eg alfrasco dining) then surely it is only a matter of time--perhaps as early as the 2020s--before men happily kiss their female and male friends hello and goodbye. Beware the rise of the man kiss. My column in todays Weekend Australian APlus p 16 tinyurl/o3ptzng
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 21:06:43 +0000
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