MUST A MAN KISS A GIRL?

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23316, 27 July 1950, Page 3

MUST A MAN KISS A GIRL?

(By a Reuter Correspondent.) I JOHANNESBURG. Is a voung man obliged to kiss a Kiri after taking her out and should he ask her to nay for the hus rides, dinners and entertainment she has in his company ?

These two questions are the subject °f major controversies in Johannesburg today.

It all started when two young men wrote a letter to a dailv newspaper. , The first said that he took a girl out , to a show. After coffee, he took her ; home, saw her to the doorway and said ; good-night. She gave him a puzzled ; stare in return. “No kiss ?" said the I stare, as plain as a stare can. But the young man does not believe ; in kissing. He considers it most un- ! hygienic—so he asked for public advice on the correct procedure in such cases. The young man signed himself “No, No.”

“Pro-Kissing”— the first to reply, said that in his day if a girl expected a kiss after an evening out. she got it —and no raised eyebrows either. As for kissing being unhygienic, he had three lovely daughters-in law who kissed him pretty often. His advice to “No, No.” was to kiss and.be kissed. A younger man suggested that "No. No," was only a conceited young man who had arbitrarily decided that a stare invites a kiss. “Please don't change" was the theme of the next letter, signed by “Kissable." who plaintively said there were very few “No, No's 1 ’ in the world. Short and straight was a question by “Three Typists: “Is 'No, No' a man or a mouse?" they asked. A testimonial was given bv “Yes. Yes,” who said lie had been kissing for years and never suffered any ill effects. Thirty young men signed a letter advising “No. No” not to take out young ladies, to use an antiseptic handkerchief or a good toothpaste, or to “take out young ladies with a more platonic outlook on life.”

In a postscript, they added that they were working on a new antiseptic lipstick. The second subject of controversy was whether couples should “Go Dutch.” One young man said that after he had met a girl a second time she suggested going to a cinema. When he asked her to pay her share of the admission charge, she indignantly walked away. The young man asked newspaper readers: “Must the man pay for everything in this world?” Promptly came a reply: “The fact that the ladv suggested going to the show does not allow a man to take advantage of it and does not lessen his responsibility to act the gentleman. Today, our young knights think they are doing a girl a favour by taking her out. Where has the spirit of manhood and the sense of gallantry gone?” “Go Scotch” said it was unfair to expec* articled or apprenticed boys, earning from £1 to £5 a week, to pay everything when a girl of the same age earned at least as much. Fair Plav" thought the only time a couple could go “Scotch” was when they intended to get married. Then every penny counted, and they could agree to share their expenses. But heated discussion has so far produced no official ruling to etiquette in the matter.