I'd like to point out that the vision of ALL young men in the Regency period walking arm in arm and giving each other flowers is not quite correct, though by reading about the period from the viewpoint of the Romantic poets it does seem that this is the norm, it was in fact not so common outside of those small literary coteries.
This trend I suppose continued on to Wilde's day and probably up to World War Two but was more or less discontinued or frowned upon until today's more expressive times.
Actually I think the modern American guy culture is much more akin to Keats' day than the culture in the UK and Ireland, even in today's post-feminist climate.
The idea of going around hugging your friends every time you meet that American guys seem to do is definitely for the most part just not the done thing over here.
Only in extreme cases of distress would you touch another man in any way - or perhpas in playful fighting. Even a pat on the back can be considered excessive believe it or not.
Oh yes we are a repressed bunch teh Irsh and British [well maybe not so much the Irish

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The American way, though as always has perpetrated the younger generation in these chilly Northern Isles. In my teenage years it was definitely frowned upon as effeminite and even gay.
Repression and the old 'stiff upper-lip' has a lot to answer for

"Oh what a misery it is to have an intellect in splints".