Public displays of affection

I was shocked not to find a thread already about something like this... or maybe it's because I am American that public displays of affection really really irk me. Note: I am not talking about holding hands or quick pecks on the lips.

I was extremely annoyed by a couple sitting in front of me on the bus this afternoon and I need to rant! Yeah, I get it, you guys are going to go home and have crazy European sex all evening, but I do not care to observe the foreplay! When the guy was basically suffocating his girlfriend with his mouth and tongue all the way down Schellingstrasse, I thought to myself that there were better places to go at it, but I figured I'd get over it. BUT then he practically climbed on top of her and continued to get it on in front of everyone on the bus. Now, I can already imagine the posts saying I should have moved, yada yada. There was no where I could go that would enable me to block out such a disturbing image!

My question is this oh wise Toytowners: When do public displays of affection cross over from moderately perturbing to down right inappropriate? Or is there such a thing? Anyone a huge fan of PDA?

Get over it - I would rather watch a couple bonk on the bus than someone stab someone on the bus for their seat.

Seriously, though, PDA is not an issue for me. Good for them to be so much in lust.

Jealousy... thats all it is!

With so many probelms facing the world today, inappropriate PDA is the least of my worries.

There is (I think) virtually no one who enjoys watching PDA (and if you do, cut it out, you sick little voyeur). However, most people are not that bothered by it.

BTW, "crazy European sex"? I've found the red-blooded American variety to be pleasantly crazy from time to time. Maybe you just need to get laid?

@Brainy
Chill out ya American Prude


When pants start to come down...

"Crazy European Sex"... Somebodies been watching EuroTrip a bit to much...

You're just jealous that nobody wants you that badly, what are you, 24 going on 70?

I guess I chalk this up to my own personal pet peeve. Glad to know that so far no one else cares!

@dk- Yeah, I love that movie. Perhaps you have been watching a bit much also?

I can't say it bothers me that much. I just read my book or stare out of the window or whatever. I just wonder whether they don't have homes to go to, or summat.

I don't like doing it myself, even though I am a bit of a touchy-feely person generally. And I do think it is a bit of an imposition if you're out with a couple and they get all lovey dovey with each other every single time. It doesn't exactly make you feel like they're enjoying spending time with you, does it? Why don't you just go home and shag each other already?

@Wahoo
To see that German chick and the hot tub scene at the beginning.. Dam right

Click to view attachment

That boundary is crossed only in the eye of the beholder. I don't think one can set up a general rule. I have seen behaviour in parks here and in the U.S. that animals might think twice about but never thought of telling the people to stop because I am disturbed. Yes, look away. Or complain to the bus driver.

Or pull out your handy camera and start taking pix. I'm sure theres an internet site somewhere that will buy them

Better than happy-slapping.

I was on the Ubahn once and saw more than I really needed to see, and it was somewhat over the top, to the point everyone was shocked. I asked them if I could join them, they stopped, and realized that everyone was staring, and the women proceeded to do her blouse back up.

You sound surprised!

that was my intent!

Anyone remember that case in the UK a while back - a couple had sex on a crowded commuter train, no-one said anything until they lit up cigarettes afterwards, whereupon they were reported for smoking!

Penetration or orgasm, whichever occurs last.

When they reach for the salad cream

The moment it start to become pornographic I'ld say. Everything else you have on the telly all day long, why not on the bus?

Sometimes you get the feeling though, some people get a kick out of others watching. Was going home on the U-Bahn a few weeks ago and was the only person on the whole wagon. A young teen couple enters the wagon and sits themselfs opposite from me. The moment they sit, they are all over each other. Had to sit 4 stops watching them shifting... before I got of I offered them a smoke after, she smiled and laughed but he threatened me for insulting him - freak.

Where was my darling JP at that time? Did you report them good boy?

I don't see the problem with it either. We try to be discreet but when you're young and in love sometimes you can't keep your hands off each other.

Ahh... spring.

i enjoy watching young or rather freshly in love lovers. it make sme all warm and fuzzy on the inside. i'll just smile inwardly and think of what is is like and then fantasize about a bagel with cream cheese and ... oh. oops.

i think young people, i mean teenies, do it to get attention. they think it's cool.

I actually cant really see much wrong with the whole idea, many of the people who are into "sort of" public sex do it because they like to be watched and are exhibitionists. I have seen people a few times having sex on U-Bahn stations or in the U-bahn or in the English Garden. I would think it is all a matter of being sensible, you are likely to be in trouble for doing it on a Sunday morning in the Frauenkirche for example

Was she that ugly?

I care... Funny you should post this today; I find bank holidays and Sundays worst for PDAs; families and couples with nothing else to do except hold hands and drink coffee. I was in town earlier today with a friend for a coffee, and we walked out of our regular cafe because it was full of bored/boring couples and families. I hate weekends*.

Is it jealousy? Nja, not sure. I don't like PDAs even when in a relationship. I know what it's like for other people. People who are rarely single don't.

*I'm a freelancer, so I can choose which days are my "weekends". I always choose weekdays

Nah, don't really care for PDA. Sure it's titalating to see or exibitionary to do but IMHO it is crude, tacky, low class and shows lack of respect for your fellow man or ultimately for yourself. But then so does being naked in the park/sauna/balcony I suppose. But at least there, though, people can walk on. Being cutesie and grabbing a handful might be funny to observe, but going full on when others are forced to sit there and endure it is worse than force feeding Spargel to your fellow commuters. Sure it might taste great in the right conditions with a glass of red and some hollandaise, but not when it is being shoved down your throat in a crowded corner of the U bann.

Schellingstrasse? Is that like the Hershey Highway?

I think that I would prefer Frauenhofferstrasse myself.

I'm with wahoo 100%. How dare those bastards be all happy and touch each other in public, especially when I'm sitting there alone on my way home to sit in front of my computer and surf through ilove-dot-de and bin-nicht-so-schlimm-dot-de while I wait for probably another week for the last 3.2% of Teenage Panty Party VII to download! Proof of just how fucking rude and insensitive those damned Germans are. They should be at least as miserable as me!

woof.

PDA???

I think it is Pretty Damn Arrogant that the bleedin' Americans have to have an acronym for everything. Just because your Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia makes you uncomfortable with this guy sitting on the seat in front of you trying a Potential Development Area with the girl to gain Personal Data Access to her unmentionables so that he might get his Pressurized Docking Adapter into her Personal Deposit Account does not warrant a call to the Public Disturbance Agency. At the appropriate juncture, when the bus driver could give this couple Procedure Departure Authorization you could at least have made a Physical Demand Assessment of the Percentage of Defectives Allowable, to offer yourself as a Personal Delivery Assistant, taking into account the Probability Decision Analysis and your Predetermined Attendance in a threesome.

Good luck

Nice one!

Kind of funny that all the American tanks are in North American and Britain is full of shits.

Props, Sin. Props.

Button your blouse up, switch the lights off, bloody hell how prude and mostly americans.
What century are we in? What is wrong with showing affection to someone you love? why should it only be behind closed doors.

Because it makes the bus seats too sticky.

I once got a BJ in a train corridor, does that count as PDA?

Who me? I actually quite enjoy an audience while I am pushing Willie the one-eyed worm into a sodden wom-hole - but I guess that's just me. So I wouldn't have objected, I'd probably have taken notes.

Jean-Pierre

Nope. Affection is not paid for.

It was my Xwife, I paid later during the divorce, English cow that she was.

Here you go Sea-King, for your future smiley requirements...Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Ta much, got to dash.

im a luddite, i hate PDAs and use a filofax.

I'd wouldn't say "mostly Americans". 2 Americans and 1 Brit said they don't like it. Hardly a majority.

If it goes as far as very heavy breathing sounds and there's a bulge in the pants, then that would number 2 Brits and 2 Americans against PDA.

Blame that on the salad cream.

I think I need another coffee pronto: I just read that as "breeding couples"...

Nuthin wrong with it AFAIK. Seems the people who don't agree with it are those who aren't getting any at the moment, am I right?

Before I arrived in Europe, I wasn't completely ignorant of the German phenomenon of unabashed P.D.A. - a certain German former boyfriend of mine once passionately kissed me in the produce section of a grocery store, and when I pulled away in embarassment he was genuinely puzzled. "In Germany, this is very normal," he said, and he was right. People here are getting it on in the streets, in the restaurants, in the parks, on the U-Bahn, and just about anyplace else they fancy. And in Europe I'm much more likely to be one of those people than I would be in the U.S.

It was off-putting at first, but now I kinda like it. Both the watching and the participating.