Flirting with Disaster

After having an in-depth conversation with a friend at work, I realized that flirting is a very tricky thing. Sometimes it seems so obvious and other times, it could be construed in a completely harmless way.

Part of this discussion came up because we were disagreeing about someone’s flirting tactics (you can tell I have a lot of work to do, I’m sure). He clearly thought they were flirting whereas I thought they might just be innocent comments. The person in question was asking the other person a number of questions and she took that to be flirting. I took it to be natural curiosity because I know I ask people lots of questions. I don’t flirt with people in general….but when I do it’s very obvious to me.

So it brought me to the question of why does it seem like some people flirt with everything and everyone that moves, while others don’t seem to flirt at all?

In my relatively short time on this earth, I’ve noticed that certain groups of people flirt a lot more than others. Not really sure why except that it might be a cultural teaching. I find it incredibly annoying when I see it because it just comes on so strong and seems so false. It would be hard to tell when and if those people really are interested. At the same time, if they are flirting with everyone, then what does that suggest to the flirtee? Or is it that these people are being nice but they don’t know how strongly they are coming on?

Let’s investigate. If a person flirts with me and everyone else, how would I know that they were flirting with me, right? If a person flirts with only me, then I can guess that they are flirting with me and only me. Then if they flirt with me and only me, then I might follow through with the flirting if I feel like I want to pursue that. Is it me or does my method seem too straightforward and logical?

Here’s an example: This girl that I know bats her eyelashes at everyone, EVERYONE! Gender doesn’t matter at all. And she calls everyone sweetie. She often wonders why all these guys hit on her and why the guys she’s interested in never respond. She also has trouble figuring out why women are always yelling at her to not call them ‘sweetie’. She’s an example of an overly flirtatious person, who should probably only flirt with the men she’s interested in. But maybe I’m too practical. She’s obviously winning in some situations where the flirting with everyone comes in handy.

Maybe she’s thinking that flirting on a mass scale could be planting many seeds in hope that at least one person will respond. But people respond, it’s just not the people she wants to respond. I guess this is one of those topics that will forever make me ponder.