PDA Against All Etiquette

A quaint old book on etiquette written some fifty years ago, admonished the young women not to kiss another woman in a gentleman's presence for fear he might wish himself as highly favored. We are not quite so prudish as that nowadays, but we do look upon it as out of place to kiss our friends and members of our family much before mere acquaintances. Thus, if you chance to meet a well loved friend at a friend's reception or tea or at a dance, even though you have not seen her for some time, it is better not to exchange kisses. To kiss a friend at a reception is, in formal city society, regarded as decidedly rustic.—Agony Aunt, Mary Marshall Duffee

Public Displays of Affection Out of Place 

“Lord, I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing?”– Swift

It is surprising how many of our present-day manners have been af- fected by the germ theory. The fact that kissing is much less general as a form of salutation now than it was a generation or so ago is due, I suppose, to the fact that we now regard kissing as contrary to our notions of hygiene. Even the expediency of kissing the hand as our ancestors used to and as many Europeans still do, seems of doubtful wisdom when we consider that in certain diseases contagion is carried in the hands after apparently full recovery has been effected.

Most women who think at all about the proprieties, keep to the rule that it is not considered in good form to kiss anyone in a public place. Thus when they meet a friend, or even close relation, a whom they have not seen for some time, in a museum or a department store, they do not kiss. Many women extend this rule to railroad stations, preferring to reserve this part of the greeting for the privacy of their homes. Of course, among many continental European— notably the French, Italian and Spanish, and Germans, too, for that matter— such procedure would seem like coldness and indifference. On the continent, brothers of middle age exchange kisses of greeting with as much fervor as 15-year-old girls. 

A quaint old book on etiquette written some fifty years ago, admonished the young women not to kiss another woman in a gentleman's presence for fear he might wish himself as highly favored. We are not quite so prudish as that nowadays, but we do look upon it as out of place to kiss our friends and members of our family much before mere acquaintances. Thus, if you chance to meet a well loved friend at a friend's reception or tea or at a dance, even though you have not seen her for some time, it is better not to exchange kisses. To kiss a friend at a reception is, in formal city society, regarded as decidedly rustic.— By Mary Marshall Duffee, 1917

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