A Kiss is Just a Kiss?

Today it was my great misfortune to find myself standing outside a women’s clothes shop waiting for 'The Nemesis’ (my wife Carol) to purchase the whole shop's stock. She is, after all, down to her last 400 pairs of jeans, the poor love!

While I stood there, soaking up the much-needed sun, I noticed two young men walking down the road holding hands and showing lots of affection towards each other. They then stopped by the shopping centre and kissed, before going their separate ways.

I’m so pleased to see just how far my tiny little home town has moved on in my life time.

When I was a young child Huddersfield, my home town was then a typical northern industrial town; cotton and wool were its mainstays.

The older generation had left school early and then went off to work in the mill at a young age. Foreign travel was out of the question, unless they were sent off to be killed in a war.

So, it’s fair to say that their outlook on life was limited. Some made the Taliban look like moderate free-thinkers!

Racism and every phobia you can think of was normal. Young children like me were taught these same values so we could grow to be bitter twisted individuals. You see, if you fill a child’s mind with rubble only weeds can grow through it!

Most people thought that a gay man, a paedophile, and a rapist were the same thing. Any poor man who didn’t talk with sufficient testosterone was held in contempt, and suspicion.

It took me until my early twenties to shovel out of my mind all the shit that had been placed there by parents and society from my childhood.

So, to see these two young men free and able to express their love for each other without anyone even batting an eyelid was quite heart-warming.

Back when I was young, this display of affection would have had people reaching for their pitchforks and burning torches. The only way men could show affection back then was either to shake hands, punch each other in the arm or grab each other in head locks while rubbing their knuckles into the scalp, I think I prefer a kiss.

Now, most men show their emotions more freely, they can cry in public without people questioning their sexuality (which used to happen years ago) and they can hug each other.

Some of my friends, when alcohol has been consumed, will hug me; some have been known to give me a kiss on the cheek. But lips and tongues are stretching the boundaries of friendship.

I have travelled to countries where men kissing and holding hands is quite acceptable, but if you were to give their wives a friendly kiss on the cheek it would be regarded as infidelity. It’s a minefield to know what is and is not acceptable.

I notice with concern that some young men still suffer from mind-rubble and are incredibly racist and homophobic. Gun crime and knife attacks are rife, violence used to be alcohol-induced but now it’s another type of drug.

It’s always been the case for working class boys to act tough to prove that they are a man. I myself have fallen for this myth when I was a teenager. But they must realise that men not thugs; change the world for the better.

Now I’ve upset most women reading this, because of course they can also change the world. But if Margret Thatcher is anything to go by I’m not so sure!

So trust me when I say this, as someone who has lived through it all, seen it all and bought the tee shirt. Life is good when it’s full of love and after all a kiss is just a kiss!