(A post by Matt Parrott on Facebook)
The author’s thesis is completely upside-down. It’s the homophilic garbage which frames male affection as potentially gay which “queers” straight male physical affection.
The most homophobic subcultures in America have the most healthy male physical affection precisely because it’s firmly understood that there’s not a gay subtext to it. Even straight men who don’t consider themselves homophobic aren’t comfortable with unwelcome sexual advances, and in more liberal and libertine subcultures, that’s necessarily a potential factor and a potential perception.
Personally, I’m just a prickly sort of person who doesn’t have much use for physical interaction (or any interaction at all) with other humans. But it’s obvious from looking at these old photos, and from observing other cultures which don’t have this problem, that an aspect of the traditional human experience has been lost in our society.