Adulthood is a game of checks and balances i.e. pro’s and cons. Con: the ever present pressures of work and school weighing down on our shoulders that always manage to intertwine with our home life. Pro: we are not alone in our suffering.
Significant others play an important role in the lives of young adults especially when professors crank up the heat on their students. Public displays of affection or “PDA” is nothing more than a method of relieving tension with your partner. High school health class has taught us that this is a natural occurrence between consenting adults and is mutually beneficial.
Next to laughter, human companionship is crucial to mental health. You have someone to talk to. Someone to rely on and confide in. Why wouldn’t two people in love or in an intimate relationship exchange a kiss when the moment hits them?
Despite this many find PDA to be an act best done in private. For some a mere kiss has viewers running for the hills with an expression of disgust. I am not talking about hands-on-chest action here. This is a kiss we are discussing. So let’s be adults here and look at this with unflinching honesty.
Look back on the media that ruled the airwaves during the adolescence of American millennials. “One Tree Hill”,” O.C.”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “South Park”, and “The Real World” reigned supreme on the small screen providing a generation of children with free sex ed. lessons.
And let us not forget the musicians that we all secretly hoped to meet backstage. Eminem and Christina Aguilera were so far removed from clean cut it would be the equivalent of comparing an apple to a horse. Not convinced? Revisit any song from Sublime’s album “40 oz.” that dominated the teen years for many millennials.
In comparison to the grind and thrust laden music videos of yesteryear a warm embrace between two people is PG at most. To police couples on campus or shame them for showing their affection for one another is asinine.
We are adults and should think like adults. Who is to say that kiss didn’t come as a relief after the two had been put through the ringer at home and needed to be comforted? Or perhaps one of the two has just received good news and impulsively kissed their partner.
Whatever the reason be the romantic relationships of students on campus are not something that should be policed. There are certain circumstances when this is void such as when that hug evolves into something frisky. Just leave the couple exchanging kisses outside the Freudian Sip out of the equation.