Firstly, I’d rather not consider sex a trade. I don’t see it as giving the other person what they want, so they’ll give me what I want. I see it as something two or more people do together.
I should also point out that nobody owes sex to anybody else, ever.

Now, I’m sure there are people out there who don’t enjoy sensuality without sexuality, but I’m also pretty sure they’re not the majority. Most people I know like to hug, cuddle, kiss, hold hands and so on when sex is not in the picture at all. What I’d like is take that touch further.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are many relationships out there that don’t include sex, but do include touch. I’d say non-sexual romantic relationships are most common in the asexual community, whether it’s between two asexual people or between an asexual and a non-ace person. Many of those people do include sensual touch in their relationship, but don’t have sex.

So you know, I’m pretty sure I can get what I want without doing something I don’t want. Because sensual touch with no sexuality included can be extremely fun. =)

And to answer your question.
“Would you accept a negotiation on the basis of orgasms being the goal and any skin contact being out of the game completely, except by accident?”
Probably, because I’d really like to see how that’d work. I mean, orgasms with no skin contact. I’d be fascinated. I’m sure it’s possible, too…

“I’d especially appreciate it if orgasms were out of the game completely, except if they happened by accident.

I suppose it’s really hard to negotiate this kind of a thing, because it’s just so completely new to most people.”

It’s not that it’s new to most people. It’s that most people don’t want touching with no sex. Perhaps if you were a professional masseur, but I doubt you are. Why try to understand something that’s not that fun?

No negotiation can work when your on the table offers are so divergent. You have to give them what they want to get what you want. Would you accept a negotiation on the basis of orgasms being the goal and any skin contact being out of the game completely, except by accident?

Well, in all fairness, Elizabethan male friendship wasn’t at its peak anymore in Shakespeare’s time. People thought it was deteriorating, because the men in it weren’t of the same status anymore – masters would have these kind of friendships with their servants and so on, and it all revolved more around advancing in the society than around real feelings. So Shakespeare would have to be careful in writing about it, because the sodomy accusations were plentiful.

The second thing is that these male friendships did not exclude marriage. Men actually quite often married sisters, or one of them would marry a ward or a niece of the other, and so on. They used marriage to tie themselves together more firmly, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t love their wives… well, truthfully, many of them probably didn’t. But they still considered it their duty to have a successful marriage, and they acted accordingly.
And that’s exactly the thing – they used marriage for different things, but it usually wasn’t out of love. Male friendships were (at least supposed to be) all about love and common interests and passion. (And you know, they largely considered women to be stupid. So they would want a companion to talk to.)

Anyway, I haven’t really studied the plays from this angle (though I do plan on it eventually), I’m more knowledgeable about the sonnets. And I can tell you that that particular friendship was… well, very dramatic. =D It reads a bit like a soap-opera.

And it makes me want to revisit the plays again … you said that in Elizabethan times bromance was considered more important than het-romance, yet that’s not what comes across in the plays IIRC (though I can think of examples of bromance from the plays). However a) modern culture might bias me to downplay the bromance elements in the plays and b) Elizabethans might have considered bromance to be inherently less dramatic than het-romance – the comedies generally end in a wedding or two, not the blossoming of a bromance.