When you see a couple kissing in public, how does it make you feel?

Depends on how I’m doing romantically.

If I’m in a relationship, it makes me happy, no matter who or what is doing the kissing.

If I’m single, it just makes me bitter.

I hate all public displays of affection

I am always happy to see love expressed freely especially in public. Anyone who feels otherwise has serious issues and needs help.

Man(and women) were designed to be affectionate. we were born that way. i think its absolutely great for a couple to kiss each other in public. if you love that person, then what’s the problem? i would say this, do not carry it too far. you can overdo anything. like you said, if the kiss causes hard feelings, then get a room. i kiss my wife in public all the time. maybe this is what’s wrong with the world now…......we have stopped showing our affection for each other.

I smile, it makes me feel happy. You want to know why? Because I’m in love and happy and when one’s happy, nothing other couples do or don’t do matters a bit.

If it doesn’t matter that “Both of them were kind of overweight. They both had short hair. They were both dressed in sexually indeterminate clothing. I think they were women.” then why mention it?

I agree with @Ben_Dover

Sour grapes and issues are usually behind those that feel contempt for affectionate gestures.

For me, it depends on the nature and length of the kissing. I find I am a bit more puritanical in this case. Sadly, I often feel like it’s my duty to kiss in public as a political statement (being a gay man). So I give a little more rope these days…;-)

For me, if you see tongue, and it’s not late not in a dark club with lots of liquor and booty dancing around…then it’s probably time to get a room, as you say.

That seems more like making out, which I would reserve for private (although hey, we all get taken away in the moment – but we all know when we’re making a scene). Kissing is an expression of joy, and should be acceptable everywhere.

This will sound shallow: I like seeing hot couples making out, hate seeing ugly people making out. Except sometimes ugly people making out makes me laugh.

oh, silly me – in the process of never reading all of the details, I missed your completely unnecessary and mildly offensive discussion about these gender-indeterminate fatties…gee, I bet they were thinking ‘what’s that creep doing staring at us?’

Perhaps I better define “kissing” a bit better. I am referring to the kind of contact that lasts for maybe ten or fifteen seconds. There is hugging or holding the other person’s face with hands. It’s the kind of kissing that is a lot more than a married couple giving each other a kiss goodbye or hello. It’s seriously intimate.

@wundayatta

Based on your new definition, then I think that sounds beautiful. I would love to see that kind of intimacy more often, between anyone.

@iamthemob What if you see a tent getting pitched? Still beautiful?

@cockswain That is beyond shallow. You must be some pretty hot stuff yourself.

@cockswain But more importantly, not the situation that I was addressing, was it? ;-)

Although I am sort of with @lillycoyote‘s reaction. :-)

Ah yes, their need for other people to see them kissing (or whatever else) in public probally exceeds their actual sex drive iteslf. I find this behavior very childish. Get a room.

@lillycoyote @iamthemob I’m drunk. But since you asked, I’ll update my avatar to show you my “hot ambivalent yoga guy” pose. Stay tuned.

I find I try to remember that I never know exactly what is going on with another and my judgements are mine.

I do this while driving a lot.

How many times do you start to get pissy at another driver when you have no idea what is going on in that car?

I have spilled coffee on myself, been racing to an emergency, had pets in the car that were upset. Same with a situation like this, maybe these two were saying good-bye for a long time, maybe one was comforting another, maybe they are just madly in love, who the hell knows?

Short of disrobing and doing the deed in the street I say let people express themselves and look at your own atttiude, which is always the ‘problem’, your reaction not the situation.

@cockswain

Yep, pretty shallow. What, only beautiful 20 year olds are allowed to show affection public? Wow…that’s a really ugly sentiment.

@cockswain Well, you’re not hideous, but I wouldn’t exactly put you in the Adonis category. Just saying.

@Coloma Nonsense, you know from previous conversations I’ve far more spiritual depth than that. It just won’t get me excited if I see ugly people making out. They have every right in the world to do so.

@lilycoyote Not much I can do about it.

I don’t like it. It’s not because I’m bitter at all. It just makes me uncomfortable. :|

I don’t mind PDAs or intimate kissing as long as it doesn’t go beyond the bounds of common decency. And I don’t care who they are or what they look like. I’m sure we all have shallow thoughts every now and then, Ex: If that person found someone to love them, why can’t I? but when it comes down to it, nearly every person is beautiful in some way and love is a beautiful thing no matter what you look like.

Anyway, at the moment seeing these PDAs makes me kind of nervous, sick, and makes me think of better days that are now behind me. But that doesn’t make them any less beautiful in their own right.

@cockswain Not saying there is anything you can do about it. I’m perfectly willing to admit that I am most certainly not one of the most beautiful woman in the world. I’m just saying that you are not necessarily in a position to judge. Depending on their standards, and on how shallow they are, there may be people who would find it unpleasant to watch you kissing someone or engaged in PDA with someone. Just something to think about.

@cockswain

Hot ambivalent yoga guy is my new favorite guy.

I feel like in general, people’s reactions to PDA generally say more about themselves than whether the act itself should be acceptable. To be cheesy, I think that any expression of affection should be encouraged…

@lillycoyote Utter nonsense. You can’t crack the facade of this confidence that easily.

@iamthemob Should be, but how does it make you feel?

I always imagine that it’s me :D, I’ve neve been kissed:/

@cockswain I disagree that it is utter nonsense but I concede that I “can’t crack the facade of this confidence that easily.” I wash my hands of it.

@lillycoyote I’ve got a hell of a personality too.

I generally just leave them to their business and maybe crack a gleeful grin.

@cockswain

No disrespect intended, but, shallow and spiritually ‘deep’ are contradictions.

Maybe deep like a kiddie pool. Or a decent puddle.

I dont have a problem with couples kissing in public. I think its cute.

I don’t think I could live in NYC if I gave any thought to people kissing in public. It just happens too often, given that where I live is a popular spot for wedding photos, people “popping the question”, couples out for romantic strolls…

@cockswain

LOL…okay, thanks for the clarification. hahaha

@cockswain You seem to have a personality, certainly. That was never in dispute.

I usually just ignore the kissers and continue on my way. It’s really none of my business..

Mostly jealous. But it depends on how attractive they are, whether they are both male, whether they are old or young, whether one is of a significantly greater age than the other, whether one has facial hair, whether both have beards, whether either has prominently red hair, whether one has hair that hides his face, whether either has extremely curly hair, whether one is attractive and the other decidedly not attractive (in which case feelings of jealousy or confusion incline proportionally to the Numerical Value Difference (NVD) between each face/body, which difference is calculated by admittedly cursory but nonetheless consistent measurements), whether tongue is visible, whether gaudy piercings are visible, whether gaudy tongue piercings are visible, whether either’s hands are placed in readably intimate and earnest positions upon the other’s hands/face/shoulder(s)/nape of the neck/small of the back/pectoral vicinity/inner thigh/crotch or whether rather either is gesticulating in protest re the kiss in question (in which case feelings of confusion overtake but do not extirpate persistent feelings of jealousy), whether I have on my person a camera with which to take, however illegally, voyeuristic photographs (which photographs often proffer false feelings of satisfaction in capturing and thus tenuously ‘participating’ in the public display of affection in question), whether the apparent projected ‘vibe’ of the couple is aggressive, i.e. they are aggressively affectionate or insistently intimate or possibly even encroachingly exhibitionistic in their kissing, as opposed to, say, passively caught in a moment of helpless desire/passion which for the sake of social nicety they’ve been avoiding for hours but are finally unable to resist despite the fact that they’re sitting here in public on a park bench or standing on a street corner and making a cab driver wait impatiently or just generally doing it (the kissing) in a place without private rooms in which to do it (the kissing) so that they don’t care if people stare or take pictures or meditate or practice tai chi nearby or compose a veritable ekphrasis on their present oral endeavors, and so it depends on a lot of things I think.

@absalom someone’s seen The Human Face :-)

@iamthemob, Aw, what a great show. I have it on DVD.

I tend to think to myself how lucky I am to live in a society that allows it; people are immediately arrested for public displays of affection in my neighbouring countries.

Although i don’t always like to see particular people kissing too much, i actually don’t mind. I may think it a bit odd because you don’t see that kind of thing in pubic often, but other than that i have no beef with it. As long as it doesn’t go any further than kissing, and more than that and i think it would be inappropriate, and depending on the people, possibly ew.

I’m fine with hugs, a light kiss, and hand-holding. Seeing a couple holding hands is precious. As for a major make-out session, I just turn away to give them some privacy. It only gets uncomfortable when they are seated next to me on public transportation or at a movie theater.

I agree with all of the answers, it just depends on a lot of factors. Something I do despise is couples that have to hang on to each other while walking (it’s usually just teens). You can obviously see they are impeding each others stride, just fucking hold hands…..

I want to look, but then I feel like a voyeur, so I try to keep my eyes averted in order to let them be private, but I resent having to avert my eyes in public space. It’s like they are claiming space as their own, but it doesn’t belong to them.

It’s just the same as running into a couple that is copulating. What are you going to do? Quietly clear your throat? Once I was visiting a beautiful spot by a lighthouse… or trying to. Fortunately, I had left my wife with our three-year-old daughter in the car as I went to investigate. On a lawn in back of the lighthouse, I found a couple going at it. As far as I could tell, they didn’t even notice me. I turned around, and went back to the car and we drove off.

I was resentful that I couldn’t take my family to see this beautiful spot because the couple had claimed it. It’s not nearly that way with a couple that is making out, but there is some of that feeling. I have two competing instincts—one is to stare and kibbitz, and the other is to try to find something else to look at. Which is what most people in the area seemed to be doing (this was at a crowded corner next to a busy farmer’s market.

I find it interesting that people have this other attitude of being amused or happy that people are in love. Do you look or look away? It’s really fascinating. Thanks for sharing your experiences on this question. And keep on going! ;-)

Do you mind public kissing? – No, I don’t have a problem with it unless it starts deteriorating into crazy groping—get a room at that point.

How does it make you feel? Make me feel happy seeing two people in love or lust. Reminds me of when I was young and in lust.

Do you try to look away—giving them a kind of public privacy? No, if they want privacy they should go elsewhere. I don’t stand there rating the performance either. I just smile and move on.

Do you think anyone who is bothered by it is a prude? Yes.

Do you think there’s no big deal? I see nothing wrong with PDA. If it starts getting sexual it’s time to take it inside.

Where do you think your feelings about this come from? Remembering when it was me getting kissed I suppose. When you’re 18, where are you going to go to kiss and make out anyway?

I’m not sure if this should be a separate question, but what do you do when two people disagree on how much PDA should be displayed? Like the woman wants to make out at a bar, but the guy doesn’t want to because he himself does not agree with that PDA so his girlfriend gets mad at him?

@Blackberry Cut them off from any more alcohol consumption. :) Seriously though, I’d think that the person who doesn’t want to do so should be the way to go, just like in the bedroom.

The only time it bothers me is when I haven’t seen my boyfriend in a while and I am feeling lonely and sorry for myself.

Without having read the responses, it would depend on the length, duration and intensity of the kiss. Are they starting to get obviously sexual? Then yeah, take it inside.