rizlared: I'm European, and never ever kiss men, I am very secure in my sexuality, but my "Britishness" precludes me from this demonstrative act, Dru you have raised a thought that I discussed the other day, in that, now I am living in Italy where men kiss each other and also walk arm in arm as a normal occurrence, I have notice that they are also very touchy feely with the opposite sex, not as a flirtatious action but because "They can". Because I struggle to understand the language I rely almost entirely on body language and find even that can be very misleading.
I think that because the culture is all about hand and body language, it differs greatly from the culture of Britain and therefore America, where there is a real lack of sexual confidence, which leads to the scared emotions about homosexuality.
An interesting observation, Riz. I remember from a college course on body language that Brits have the largest area of personal space when they meet, even amongst close friends, and Arabs have the least, they are usually almost nose to nose with each other. Americans have a slightly smaller area of personal space than Brits, and areas like France and Italy just slightly more than Arabs. That's what led me to this question.
In America, close female friends hug each other, close friends of opposite genders hug each other, but close male friends do not. And I wanted to see how all of this related to the ability to say "I love you" amongst friends in other parts of the world.