Public Displays of Affection

Being unemployed, I often feel cooped up inside my house all day. Probably because that's what I do. As a result I spend a lot of my free time (which conveniently makes up all my time) at malls, cafes and bars, in search of humans to interact with and observe. Not a bad life, right? It’s a necessary attempt at breaking the monotonous cycle though. I also just realized there are a lot of “o”s in monotonous. I ALSO, just realized I’m the best-dressed person at this particular coffee shop, by a long shot.

In the last week that I’ve been frequenting these places, burning money I don’t have, I’ve noticed that no matter where I end up, there seems to be pair of young teens in the middle of a heavy-petting session. Simply put, it’s quite lewd.
Now I’ve been to a lot of coffee shops in Canada, malls and bars too. Especially bars. And yet I have never seen such frequent and obnoxious displays of affection in public places. It got me thinking. Maybe there isn’t the associated stigma here, as there is in North America. I think that has to be true.

I’ve begun to dig a little deeper though (being unemployed allows me ample time to dream about why pre-pubescent teenagers escape to public places to get all up on each other). And I think that’s the secret, escape.

You see just like me, most of the people in this post communist wonderland I now call home live in giant concrete panel housing blocks. Our flat is quite nice, but it’s not THAT big. It’s a living room, a kitchen and a few bedrooms. Sure, a family could live there, and many do. But short of closing your door and keeping your voices low, there would be little method to escape from mom and dad, were you forced to share one of these places with your elder family members. As a result, if you want to have any chance of getting past hugs and handholding you’ve got to “amscray” (whoa, haven’t used pig-Latin in awhile, -But it feels right given the juvenile subject matter of this post) from watchful parental eyes. Considering the respective prices of movies, beer and coffee, of course this is where the youngin’s end up. Furthermore, I’m willing to bet that winter is especially bad as parks and secluded benches become less accessible and more clothes hamper flesh-on-flesh contact.

I think the take home lesson for me, not that any of this has been particularly insightful, is that everyones actions and attitudes reflect their circumstances, and not always in ways that are incredibly obvious. Now, time to get back to some reading, while fighting the urge to stare at the guy feeling up his girlfriend, right beside me.