Matthew J.X. Malady
Come sit here next to me where we can have a drink and no inadvertent touching
’m a conservative hugger, but I’m not totally anti-hug—that’s a misreading of the argument, which is that the unwieldy proliferation of the hug often results in a perfunctory display that feels emotionally and physically terrible. I will warmly open my arms for known huggers I like (if we’ve interacted enough to become attuned to each other’s hug styles, it helps a lot), and coldly offer them for known huggers I fear. Because there were many people I love there that night, and also champagne, I ended up in a lot of hugs that were not so bad.
THIS IS ME!!!
Also, a few years ago, a girl in my class would not stop hugging me. The only thing that got her to quit was that I pointed out that people who continually initiate physical contact with people who didn't want and had explicitly asked for it to stop were in the same area code as rapists.