The Edwardian era was the last golden age of same-sex snuggling for both men and women!

I think it should be reinstituted. I say this as a person who doesn't even snuggle very much.

(which would have to be called The Buddy Book, wouldn't it?)

(It would.)

The switch from semi-acceptance to powerful cultural repugnance would be really, really hard.

I'm just fascinated by the idea of people keeping a genuinely platonic friendship alive in the face of active societal discouragement, because that is not at all how most of our narratives of emotional bonding and resistance go.