
A lot of my colleagues at Vice have been getting obsessed with geeks dressing up recently, be they Japanese or Brazilian, so, when I went to MCM at the weekend, I looked for something which, rather than expressing each costumer’s individuality, would exhibit a sense of togetherness. I found hugs. Maybe you've already heard of the "Free Hugs" meme. Invented from a single memeogenesis in 2004, it was the subject of a breakout YouTube video in 2006, briefly popping up on Oprah that year too. Occasionally, you might have occasionally glimpsed one or two disciples holding up "Free Hugs" placards at a railway station or suchlike. But in addition to being the nerd Kaaba, MCM is also probably the biggest annual manifestation of the hugs movement in the world. How many exactly? Well, I'm glad you asked that question…
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Quality of hug: Diminutive. Too much chin.
Rating: 5/10

Quality of hug: Querying. Sensed she had once been spurned by "great love of her life" and was wary of falling in love all over again too soon.
Rating: 6/10

Rating: 4/10
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Quality of hug: Needy. But I like needy.
Rating: 7/10

Quality of yaoi: Average.
Overall rating: 5/10

Rating: 9/10

Rating: 7.67/10 - 7.68/10

Rating: 8/10

Quality of rape: Traumatic.
Rating: 2/10The guy who started the whole shebang goes under the pseudonym “Juan Mann” (gedditt?!?). According to his website, he was living in London in '04 when his Australian mum died. Flying back to Sydney, he went vaguely crackers and made the first sign the same day on a whim, hawking his message up the high streets to no one, until, he says, one lady whose dog had just died on the anniversary of her daughter's death poured out her troubles into his open arms. From there he exported his gospel to the world. Which is a nice, though probably false, story.Of course it'd be easy to scoff at him and his army of huggies. But actually taking the temperature of their scene turned out to be an entirely positive experience. It's free love for the safe sex generation: the idea that if we can change the way we relate to our body-politics we can change the way the world works is eternally seductive. Forty years ago, they would've been doing primal scream therapy and taking off their clothes at rock festivals to sublimate the ego. This is just a version of that for a more modestly ambitious flat-pack generation. They're neither self-righteous hippies nor self-admiring flashmobbers. They just want to connect.Ultimately, CMC is the kind of place where you can find acceptance in this unforgiving world. No matter who you are…

