Posted by proxy from Dana’s “stuff to blog” queue while she is on medical hiatus. She reads and appreciates all comments…and apologizes for not being able to respond at the moment.
**May I make a daily request for the Readership to send Good Thoughts, Positive Energy, Prayers, and any means of conveying support and healing to Dana. She is struggling with getting past impossible pain on an hourly basis. One can only hope doctors are able to find a way to rewire her nervous system. THANK YOU! The Proxy Blogger**
Here is window into the Anti-Flirt Club, 1923. I wonder if this would be accepted today in working class neighbourhoods of Brooklyn, where wolf whistles follow many a lass. This seems geared more toward the inappropriateness of a woman flirting. What about the men being jerks–or worse, “dandified cake eaters?”
“The club had a series of rules, which were intended as sound and serious advice. These were:
- Don’t flirt: those who flirt in haste oft repent in leisure.
- Don’t accept rides from flirting motorists—they don’t invite you in to save you a walk.
- Don’t use your eyes for ogling—they were made for worthier purposes.
- Don’t go out with men you don’t know—they may be married, and you may be in for a hair-pulling match.
- Don’t wink—a flutter of one eye may cause a tear in the other.
- Don’t smile at flirtatious strangers—save them for people you know.
- Don’t annex all the men you can get—by flirting with many, you may lose out on the one.
- Don’t fall for the slick, dandified cake eater—the unpolished gold of a real man is worth more than the gloss of a lounge lizard.
- Don’t let elderly men with an eye to a flirtation pat you on the shoulder and take a fatherly interest in you. Those are usually the kind who want to forget they are fathers.
- Don’t ignore the man you are sure of while you flirt with another. When you return to the first one you may find him gone.”
SheWalksSoftly 
3 responses to “The Anti-Flirt Club”
Dearest Dana,
I have been through awful, long-lasting health issues myself, and because of that I am giving up all my courage and hope and sending it to you, as you need it now more than I do. I want you to know that there _will_ come a better day. Do not give up.
I know there comes a time when you will have forgotten what normal living feels like, a time when you haven’t slept for so long that it has become impossible to tell if the illness or the sleeplessness is the worst affliction. How at times you have to decide again, every minute, whether to go on or give up. I know. And I am here, a complete stranger, halfway across the world remembering what it was like and thinking of you and how you will conquer this, because you will. Because I know such things can be done.
Thank you SO much!
Tinny, beautiful words. I am so thankful you are sending these wishes Dana’s way–and that she has been able to reply. Your testament is wonderful. Continued success.