She cringes slightly. He rubs the small of her back. She moves a little to the left, further away from him . He leans in closer. She removes his hand from her thigh . He ignores it and ten seconds later his hand is there again.
“Can’t this guy take a hint?” I whisper through gritted teeth to my girlfriend sitting at the bar with me .
“Apparently not,” she responds.
I later overhear the male half of the couple introducing the female as his girlfriend . She smiles and seems relaxed, up until he starts massaging her shoulders. She looks around. It becomes clear to me (I’m being like level 9 nosy at this point) that she doesn't like being touched like this in front of others. She is clearly younger than her gray haired other half. She barely looks a day over 25, while he barely looks a day under 65.
The journalist in me goes to work. Curiosity will be the death of me I swear. But until then...
I tell her I am doing a piece on Public Displays of Affection and the way millennials feel about it. I ask her a few questions. She begins to open up:
1. “I don't like public displays of affection. Especially by a man older than me. It constantly feels like he is showing me off and using the fact that I am with him as proof to everyone that he’s still got it.”
Her name is Anmarie Llyod.
Llyod’s words got me thinking and I began surveying other millennial women for the reasons they may not like PDA.
2. “I don't like PDA when children are around,” said Linda Cung, a 28-year-old insurance agent.
Cung said that even when PDA is not too raunchy, she finds it hard to be romantically affectionate in front of minors.
3. “I don't like PDA because it’s just meant to be private. I am not big on hinting to others what we do when we are alone,” Madison Richards said.
Richards is a 22-year-old community college student.
4. “I feel like the men in my family are very protective and some even act like they own their wives. PDA is one way I have seen them mark their territory in front of other men. While some women may think it’s cute, I don’t. I think it’s territorial and clingy, ” said 32-year-old, Reisa Rodriguez.
Her dislike for PDA comes from a very personal place.
5. “Maybe I am an introvert, but I really just don't like attention or making others uncomfortable. I feel like kissing and touching could do that. I’d rather just not draw attention to us, so I hardly hold my boyfriend’s hand in public.”
Brooklyn Johnson’s reasons were not so personal. Instead her dislike for public affection was due to the way she thought it made others feel.
Whatever the reasons may be, it is clear that despite stereotypical thinking, which implies women are the softer, more touchy-feely half of human kind, more and more modern women are becoming opposed to touchy-feely public behavior and PDA.
