As a man in his 50’s who grew up in the southern US, I rarely saw men showing any outward affection to their platonic male friends. Sure, you’d see a congratulatory pat on the butt playing sports, but that’s about it.
Interestingly, before that back in the 1940’s and 50’s, men were much more outwardly affectionate toward each other. I assumed the change was mainly due to societal pressures about homosexuality and the “hugging is for sissies” mentality. In the past 20 years that pendulum has swung back again and you see it more often.
So I’m curious what it’s like in your friend group? Are you uncomfortable with it? How do you tell your friends you love them? Or do you?
Edit: to clarify the title
Not a guy but shared a house with five dudes in college and we all shared the good and bad together. They were with each other as you described. But they were all actors / singers / a dancer / in theatre so they’re probably not falling into the ‘normal’ part of the distribution either, lol.
Edit: this reminded me of a super wholesome video I saw recently where the interviewer just asked random men to call a bro and tell them they love them and I couldn’t stop smiling! Nobody seemed uncomfortable just good vibes. This was somewhere in UK (?) not US though.