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SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Will Smith and Forest Whitaker did it on the red carpet at the SAG Awards last month. The men of TV's "Entourage" embrace it. The Soprano boys take it in stride.
We're talking about the Man Hug. Dudes hugging dudes. In public and with enthusiasm.
"As American men, we used to have one option for greeting one another: the handshake," says psychotherapist and pop culture commentator Joshua Estrin. "Not anymore. I travel a lot, and I'm seeing it all over the country."
Hip-hop artists are widely credited with introducing the popular "pound hug" or "pound shake" as a greeting between men. It consists of a combination of a handshake and a stiff one-armed hug, and includes two slaps on the back.
"Depending on the circumstances, it can also include a loud exclamation, a general grunting noise to assert your masculinity," says Patrick Carone, entertainment director for Stuff magazine.
That's just one of the ways that American Man Hugs are different from hugs between men and women, and even embraces among females, he notes. The accepted protocol? Man Hugs are brief, involve...