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The Anti-Flirt Club was an American
Shorpy, History in HD
retrieved 25 October 2008
Don't Undress Me With Your Eyes
– Ghosts of DC blog post about the club {{Authority control Women's organizations based in the United States Organizations established in 1923 1923 establishments in Washington, D.C. Women in Washington, D.C. Sexual ethics Seduction
The Anti-Flirt Club was an American club
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises
* ...
active in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, during the early 1920s. The purpose of the club was to protect young women and girls who received unwelcome attention from men in automobile
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
s and on street corners. The Anti-Flirt Club launched an "Anti-Flirt" week, which began on March 4, 1923.
The club had a series of rules, which were intended as sound and serious advice. These were:
# Don't flirt
Flirting or coquetry is a social and sexual behavior involving body language, or spoken or written communication between humans. It is used to suggest interest in a deeper relationship with another person and for amusement. Flirting can change ...
: those who flirt in haste often 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
A lounge lizard is a man who frequents social establishments with the intention of seducing a woman with his flattery and deceptive charm. The term is reported to have arisen around 1915 in New York. A 1931 book described them as men " nthe habit o ...
.
# 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.
An article in ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' from February 28, 1923, titled "10 Girls Start War on Auto Invitation", laid out the problem: "Too many motorists are taking advantage of the precedent established during the war by offering to take young lady pedestrians in their cars, Miss Helen Brown, 639 Longfellow Street, declared yesterday." Brown, the secretary of the nascent Anti-Flirt club, warned that these men "don't all tender their invitations to save the girls a walk", and while there were "other varieties of flirts", motorists were the absolute worst.
Brown, along with the president—a Miss Alice Reighly of 1400 Harvard Street NW—made their plan of action known. On March 4, 1923, the first-ever Anti-Flirt Week (and only since) would commence.
Other Anti-Flirt Clubs were started in New York, Chicago and other cities, but their focus was apparently on the "mashers" who went after women on the streets, succeeding in getting police to arrest some.
See also
*Cat-calling
Street harassment is a form of harassment, primarily sexual harassment that consists of unwanted sexualised comments, provocative gestures, vehicle horn, honking, wolf-whistling, wolf whistles, indecent exposures, stalking, persistent sexual adv ...
* Curb crawler
* Male gaze
In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts and in literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosex ...
* Wolf-whistling
A wolf whistle is a distinctive two-note glissando whistled sound made to show high interest in or approval of something or someone (usually a woman), especially at someone viewed as physically or sexually attractive. A modern wolf whistle dire ...
References
External links
Shorpy, History in HD
retrieved 25 October 2008
Don't Undress Me With Your Eyes
– Ghosts of DC blog post about the club {{Authority control Women's organizations based in the United States Organizations established in 1923 1923 establishments in Washington, D.C. Women in Washington, D.C. Sexual ethics Seduction