Ladies, how do you feel when a male acquaintance kisses you on the cheek as a greeting?

39 comments

1. It’s normal where I live

2. That’s fine.

3. In many countries it’s the norm. Some countries even kiss two times (one on each side).

4. At home, hell no, and gender doesn’t matter. Not normal/appropriate.

   If I went to a country where it’s standard, I still wouldn’t like it but I’d also suck it up and accept it with a smile.

5. I grew up in Canada and it wasn’t quite the norm, unless you were meeting with French colleagues.

   Now that I live in the UK and spend a fair amount of time in Europe, it’s fairly common.

6. No

7. It’s normal in Europe. I have many European friends, they tend to do that with me.

   But in my culture, people don’t do that.

8. In France or Italy? Fine. Outside of it if they do this only to some women, no. 

9. I’m not a big fan of an acquaintance being up in my personal space like that, but I’m neutral as long as they aren’t weird about it and as long as they do it to everyone of all genders and not just people they find attractive.

10. I would not appreciate it, kissing in any form is intimate in my opinion. If you’re an acquaintance, hand shake or side hug is the only form of greeting I’ll accept and be comfortable with.

11. Just normal

12. Living in the USA I feel like “hell no”. I don’t even wanna be hugged by someone I’m not family with.

13. my relatives on my dad’s side of the family always did this and i always disliked it a lot, not only with the men but women as well. im all for hugs with people i like and know, but we were never close to this side of the family so it always felt very intrusive to me

14. [removed]

15. I’ve never had any acquaintance kiss me on the cheek. I don’t even like getting hugs from anyone except my SO and kids. I’d rather not be touched.

16. Nah, not even before COVID. I’m cool with a crisp high five.

17. I’m from Europe. It is quite common here.

    I have male friends I’ve known for years and we always kiss each other on the cheek. And we hug when someone needs a hug. I don’t think much of it. Close friends are like family to me.

18. If their cheek is parallel to mine- it’s lovely. If their face is perpendicular to mine, I feel gross. Basically the more contact their mouth makes with my cheek the less comfortable I am.

19. When I was in college in the late 70s that’s how all my guy friends would greet me. We didn’t hug back then.

    I don’t feel comfortable hugging. Also, I don’t like transferring of fragrances due to allergies. I haven’t really had guy friends since college, just colleagues.

20. Here in Europe it’s normal. Especially if you are meeting up with a french or Italian person . No big deal.

21. Depending on how well I know the male acquaintance, But I do know it’s a normal greeting in some European countries and I accept that.

22. My guy friends would never.

23. I grew up with this as the norm. It’s not a big deal to me.

24. Depends on who it is –

25. I’m French. That’s how I greet everyone outside of the workplace.

26. I wouldn’t mind if friends all around were doing it – like in the show *Friends* they can sometimes be seen pecking each other on the cheek as a goodbye. I actually quite like that. It shows a level of closeness most of us don’t engage in anymore.

27. incredibly uncomfortable. i had a friend who use to do that and i always felt there was a hidden meaning. then i got a drunk phone call one night that verified it.

28. Totally normal. I wouldn’t even register it, to be honest

29. English and don’t mind at all. It’s fairly common even when meeting someone for the first time (friend of a friend or friend of partner etc)

30. I guess it would depend on the person, but generally speaking I would be pretty put off by it and probably wouldn’t put myself in a position to be around that person again.

31. It’s not something Americans (men or women) usually do. I have met some women that do this and it’s always a bit weird, but I don’t think anything of it. If I man did it I wouldn’t think anything of it either. Why would I?

32. We don’t do that in my culture, so it would be weird if an American guy did it to me, especially if we weren’t well-acquainted.

    However, I do actually think that cheek/air kisses are a nice greeting, so I don’t mind it at all from people from cultures where it is normal, regardless of gender. I picked up the habit while studying in the Middle East, so I sometimes still do it when greeting or saying goodbye to my female friends.

33. It’s pretty normal in my culture and my social circles for people to greet each other that way. Not a full on lips-on-cheek kiss, but a cheek-to-cheek kiss.

    Personally though, I’ve always been uncomfortable with being touched by other people, whether I know them or not, so now that I’m an adult (and my parents aren’t forcing me to hug and kiss people as a greeting) I just do a wave and a verbal greeting now. I know a lot of people think I’m being rude, but whatever. My body, my boundaries.

34. I disssslike contact of any sorts with any gender. But I’ve been to parts of Europe where it’s a norm, I had to suck it up and awkwardly do it 😂

35. It’s normal where I live. It highly depends on social norms where you are.

36. It would be weird coming from most people, no problem if it’s culturally standard for them. I have a Brazilian friend who always greets me with a kiss on the cheek. It was a standard greeting when I lived in Chile, took me a minute to get used to it but it’s just not a big deal.

37. Um no. Unless we’re dating, your lips should probably never touch me.

38. Depends on where I am and where he’s from. I’m from Germany and here this is not a custom and I would find it weird. But I’ve lived in Spain before where it is the custom and there I didn’t care.

39. Completely depends on where he’s from.