Public displays of affection are a growing trend in our society, but what does that mean for us?
Everyone’s opinions on the subject of PDA differ.
If you listen to Cosmopolitan, women would be getting roses and backrubs every day and men would be playing hard to get. Apparently Cosmopolitan also has many how-to guides when it comes to PDA and they all conflict with each other.
So who do you listen to? My grandparents hold hands in public and when they are at home I have watched Grandma curl up on Grandpa’s lap many times. My parents on the other hand, hardly ever hug or kiss where anyone can see them.
Is it personal preference or is there a social standard that is simply never talked about? Public schools have instituted their own policies and many workplaces have defined behavior practices, but there are no set rules.
In trying to research this phenomenon, I could not find any research on the subject. Sure, grade schools have their set of standards, but those standards get lost in the shuffle between high school and college.
I know I have been heckled more than once for PDA, once for having an impromptu staring contest on the quad. Confused? So am I.
My boyfriend and I go everywhere together. It has gotten to the point where if I try to walk into Westview or the Rock alone, the cashiers will stop me and ask, in an almost panicked voice, where my boyfriend is. Joined at the hip perhaps, but they sure won’t be forgetting our names anytime soon!
There are inappropriate public displays of affection of course, but I think that walking with an arm around your partner, holding hands, an occasional kiss, and yes, even those insufferable cutesy names couples come up with for one another, are appropriate.
There is a time and a place for everything of course, like not smooching in class for instance. I know, that’s no fun!
Ferris students must decide for themselves what they are comfortable with, but why inhibit your right to self-expression by the words of a few individuals who are not comfortable with whom they are? Most of them are probably just jealous anyway.
If you are one of those people who are not comfortable with PDA, that is fine, it is your opinion, after all. But unless they are being obnoxious about it, please refrain from heckling them. A simple plea to tone it down would suffice.
Being heckled is never fun and it does hurt peoples feeligns.
Just call me a hopeless romantic, but I find normal tones of PDA to be cute, not offensive.