what does this mean when people say this

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"its nice to look" to make it even more confusing incorparating it with: "its nice to look but not touch" who are we kidding? are people just trying to be positive? is it a front? a fake format for being happy even though its obvious your not happy and thats why your saying that? i dont know about you but even if i cant have something i never say this. waste of time, why do you think people say this?

Are you talking about when a parent is with their children in a store with alot of breakable stuff, and the parent says to the children, "Nice to look but not to touch."?

Like as, "Don't touch any of this breakable stuff because you might break it. Just look at how pretty it is instead."?

not really but that fits in even better than what i was trying to get at wich is it seems people say it because the thing they want to touch is either too expencive, or they want to feel better about not being able to have it

Oh, I heard people use the phrase that way, too.

A rationalization to make themselves feel better. "I like to look at how pretty it is, but I don't have the money/it's not worth the money to buy it and touch it. I'll just continue to look at how pretty it is instead."

I don't think I ever heard it. But I have been in places like galleries or museums or seeing artwork on display and there are signs that say Don't Touch. I touched them anyway because I was dying of how they feel on my fingers. I understand now it's because they don't want people messing up their work or getting the stuff dirty from the oil from their fingers and touching artwork wrecks the paint. It ruins the picture overtime.

I have been in antique stores as a kid and I can understand now why my mother didn't want me touching things that were breakable. I could have dropped it and she would have to pay for it. As a kid my mom used to say "Don't touch it, it's very fragile." So I just thought if I am very careful, I can still touch it but just be very careful. I would just argue with my mother when she tell me to not touch things and I'd say "I'm just looking at it" and she say I had to be very careful to not break it.
Parents are more worried about kids touching breakable things because they are afraid they'd drop it or something and then they have to buy it. But if their adult child touches it or their teen, they aren't so worried.

I remember picking up a glass item in a store right after my mother told me not to touch it. But I was just aching to hold it and know how it feels.

I tried to be as careful as I possibly could. But it still managed to slip out of the gap between my fingers and it shattered on the floor.

Luckily, the salesperson just laughed and didn't make mom pay for it.

But from then on, I did not touch the breakable things in stores. (Until I grew up and my hands became steadier and less sweaty. )

I get that same urge to touch things in museums that are not allowed to be touched. Wonder why. Same about stores. It's as if I see both with the eyes and the hands. I know it's not an AS thing, because my very NT sister needs to touch things at the store too.

I understand this. It's how I feel about things that are pretty and interesting but that I'm simply not interested in actually owning. It's not to make myself feel better about not being able to afford it. I don't actually want the item -- I don't really understand the urge to own everything one sees -- just to look at it for a short time and enjoy it that way. Sometimes people say it as a sort of explanation to a sales clerk that they may as well be looking elsewhere for their commission because this customer isn't buying, just looking for their own entertainment.

Regards,

Patricia

I touched a van Gogh once when no one was looking to feel how much paint he used to get that desired effect. Hope I don't go to prison now.

in MOMA in the Egyptian section I slowly backed into a statue of Hapshetsut while makeing a big deal of getting the right angle at another statue across the way from it. Under the watchful eye of the clueless guard there I made full body contact with something that was charged and loaded with all that energy when it was carved from the living rock. I still remember how it felt having my back and thigh and leg against it while my imagination was working overtime.
I did jump when the guard cautioned someone else from touching, but it was that misdirection that did it. People see what they think they see.

But as to the topic of "it's nice to look but don't touch" I didn't see it like that at all. I see it as an adult cautioning another adult. First of all you can look at a man or a woman and admire them, but touching is not allowed without their express permission. So, it is a way of saying "no means no, and no is implied unless yes is specifically expressed."

also, if you are in a fluid bonded committed relationship the 'it's nice to look but don't touch' is a way to remember that the fluid bonded committed relationship says 'no' no matter what you or your desired object of your gaze decide.

Merle