(no subject)

[johnny9fingers]

Yesterday we unplugged the studio at TPA. The remodelling is going ahead as planned, and the builders start tomorrow. We finished so late I missed the last train, and had to find a more circuitous route home.
We unplugged and stored everything: desk; patch-bays; racks of kit; monitors; speakers; computers....everything.
Steve's new business partner is an amusing young woman in her twenties. She has lots of chaps fluttering around her, trying to help her out. One of these is quite a personable young man who has just left the Royal Engineers. I gently pointed out to him that he should be a little more assertively individual when madame asks him to jump through flaming hoops.
Oh well, I shall look on with benign amusement: the young lady is evidently an incorrigible flirt, as is her wont; and which is, I suppose, proper in the young. But she really shouldn't try to vamp her elders....cynical old buggers like me see through that sort of stuff, in the same way that Old Ladies always get my number exactly: not to be trusted, but a damn good laugh.
 

Comments

[ericcoleman]

I was working the door for a friends band. I had just shown up to see them, but seeing as how the leader of the band was incapable of dealing with the door under the best of circumstances, I took over. Through the evening a very cute, and as the evening went along, slightly tipsy waitress kept flirting with me. After a certain point she started doing the lean. Every man loves the lean, but at a certain point I felt enough was enough. I took her firmly but gently by her very slim shoulders and said "They're very nice, but please take them off my chest".

She walked away. After about 5 feet turned and looked at me. Then walked over to some friends, said something to them, and as one they all looked at me.

Poor little thing, I think I may have invalidated her entire world view with that one sentence.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I'm perfectly prepared to flirt back. It requires a certain ability to....think a bit like the other person, so it keeps you on your toes.

[tripinthehead33.livejournal.com]

Poor little thing, I think I may have invalidated her entire world view with that one sentence.

You probably did. Better that it's done that way than in a violent and horrifying incident though, right? A lot of women like that end up realizing the flaws in how they act only through very bad situations that come up in their lives.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Too true. But folk should have a right to express themselves. We're all speaking elliptically of limits.
Does a woman have a right to be a prick-tease without coming to harm? Of course, she has. Is it proper? Only if all parties are in on the joke and playing according to the rules: only if folk aren't bothered by it.
I'm not bothered, and neither seem any of the other chaps around, though I never get the full force of the thing, being old, stuffy, decrepit, and clever: qualities which, thank the gods, lack attraction for the young.

[thaliastrel.livejournal.com]

Well, kudos to you for the benign amusement. The whole business tends to make me pretty grumpy. Especially when you tell the flirt to stop and they don't. I guess I just don't get flirting.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

It's a bit different when the flirt in question is flirting at you. And I must admit, it's disconcerting being flirted at by someone of the same gender. Some young women just do that sort of thing naturally. It's probably genetically programmed and from the point of natural selection advantageous. But who knows?
Flirting in women is a bit like charm in men: not to be trusted. It requires an acceptance of the courtesies inherent in 'chivalric' behaviour: it is impossible to flirt if you might be assaulted. It assumes chaps are gentlemen (in the best sense of the word), and is therefore a compliment of a kind.
Humans and compliments, even convoluted ones.....a statement that doesn't need a corollary.

[thaliastrel.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...my brain can't handle flirting of any sort. I would really rather just talk. On the other hand, I have to say that being flirted with by women can be quite enjoyable. Is it because they tend to be shorter than me, so I feel more comfortable? Is it because lesbianism is more culturally acceptable than man-on-man? Is it because, as you say, women are better at it*, and can think of pickup lines more subtle than, say, "You're a virgin, aren't you? Because I can help you with that"?

The world may never know.

* I doubt this. I'm terrible at flirting.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I think the lesbian flirting thing may be easier than the gay male flirting thing mainly because men are all so ugly. Almost all women have something to recommend them, and almost no men; and the ones that have make one a bit worried, actually.
Flirting is not cheesy pick-up lines. It is an acknowledged conspiracy between the flirter and flirtee, and usually avoids overt reference to sexuality. Oblique abstractions and delicate symbolism allied with heightened perceptions can provide an amusing frission, but that sort of flirting requires a truly educated women aware of the forms, and yet...flirting should always be about, in it's crudest sense, the witholding of permission for a shag, whilst dangling the abstract prospect thereof. Doing so with enough charm and control is the essence of the thing.
Some folk have to juggle knives for their thrills. Some girls get flirting wrong, or pick the wrong audience....it helps that Steve's business partner is a black belt in one of the more 'contact' versions of karate, which gives her the confidence to do as she pleases, and good for her. It also helps that she is around folk for whom certain standards apply. Civilisation is a fine ambition: it's about time we attained it en masse.

[thaliastrel.livejournal.com]

"Acknowledged conspiracy"? No wonder I can't handle it. That kind of thing sets my hair on end. I remain comically unaware of the forms, and charmingly obtuse about any sort of non-pervy interest until the exasperated fellow just comes out with it. Which, honestly, I prefer. Cards on the table is how I get *my* friss on.

(And yes, I do think it's possible to be frank without being rude. It's quite a beautiful thing to see.) (As are men, IMO, but you probably don't want to go there.)

Butting in to say...

[(Anonymous)]

So the idea is to taunt someone? Thank the gods I never notice anyone doing it.

I agree with your other commenter, by the way. It's *much* better just to come out with it. Being direct and not offensive (for want of a better word) is far harder to do well than verbally waving your bits just out of someone's reach (why?).

I trust your spelling mistake was for ironic purposes, much like the time you sent an email containing the word zebra's for the plural.

M

Re: Butting in to say...

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Hadn't noticed the spelling m'dear....just shows how lost to reason I have become over the last year or so. I really should copy edit or spell check, it's just I dislike some of the American spellings the LJ spellcheck prefers.
'Coming out with it' is only alright if the girl concerned means it: if she just wants to get a few admirers jumping through hoops for her and lessening her workload....I mean, how else do rich attractive young women get things done?
Exploitation is such a blunt word, as is delegation. Young men just seem to want to do things for this lass. I find it all hugely amusing; and even funnier when she tries such tactics on me. I think I unnerved her though: she's already described me as clever. We know what this means. However, she does have an ex she wishes to annoy, so the flirtatiousness may mask some inner turmoil, or such revelation may merely be another weapon in the armoury of the normal young woman of a certain kind today.
The young are quite wonderful in so many respects: if only they could discipline themselves they'd be something to be reckoned with; outside of the outbursts of thuggishness and murder that seems to occupy their collective time; and wherein the innocent get caught in the crossfire.
Collectively, the young provide a better spectacle than the Colosseum: murder, mayhem, ignorance, and prejudice.
Lock 'em up on principle and only let 'em out when they've passed the proper tests and have given much evidence of good behaviour. And they should all be on parole until sometime in their thirties.
Perhaps I exaggerate.