Explanation: Cultural norms are a strange thing! Some cultures have traditions of kissing on-the-mouth without romantic implications. This can appear very… curious to our modern eyes when paired with aggressive homophobia, as with much of the world before the 21st century.

A lot of it was incestuous gay kissing. They didn’t call it Brothers’ Kiss for nothing. Kinky Soviets.

The one on the right never happened, though, the artist was trying to shock people with exactly which two people are kissing

There’s something that I really hate about this characterisation. Just because it’s foreign to me doesn’t mean I have to describe it as “weird”.

There are countries where it’s totally normal for men to walk around holding hands. It’s not normal on my culture, but it’s something so benign, we don’t really have to paint it out as weird or erotic. I thought we wanted man to be more expressive, more open, more emotional.

There are worse cultural quirks to be called weird, like marrying kids at 12 years old or owning land.