Gender Neutral Hugging Convention

May 19th, 2013
hugging
In the US whether you hug or shake hands depends on intimacy. If I'm greeting an old friend we'll hug but if I'm greeting a stranger we'll shake hands. It gets awkward somewhere in between where it's not obvious which is appropriate or where the two people have different ideas about their shared level of intimacy, but that's unavoidable in human interaction.

What I don't like about this system is that it also depends on gender. At the same level of intimacy two women are more likely to hug than a man and a women, who are more likely to hug than two men. If I meet a man and a woman who I know equally well, it can be normal to shake hands with the man but hug the woman.

We should have a convention for deciding whether to hug or shake hands that doesn't depend on gender. How can we get there?

Comment via: google plus, facebook

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Inner dialogue, walking down the sidewalk

A discussion I have with myself a lot The post Inner dialogue, walking down the sidewalk appeared first on Otherwise.

via Otherwise October 10, 2024

Contra Emile Torres On Unethical Jobs

Thinking about replacability is hard

via Thing of Things October 3, 2024

Startup advice targeting low and middle income countries

This post was inspired by a week of working from Ambitious Impact’s office in London, and chatting with several of the startup charities there. While my experience is in the for-profit world, I think it’s applicable to entrepreneurs working on impact-driv…

via Home September 27, 2024

more     (via openring)