Today on MSN.com there was an article I found amusing:
10 Funny Flirting Facts (I don't know how long this link will work, but I'll try to include enough of its content here so that you don't have to use the link to understand the awesomeness of the list).
First, the health benefits of flirting -- apparently, people who flirt more often have higher white blood cell counts and better immune systems. According to "studies." I couldn't find any of these studies, but I'm sure it's true.
Second, the hair flip is the most common flirting signal, "according to scientists."
This one is impossible to paraphrase:
"3. In some places, flirting is illegal. In Little Rock, AR, an antiquated law is still on the books warning that engaging in playful banter may result in a 30-day jail term. In New York City, another outdated law mandates that men may be fined $25 for gazing lasciviously at a female; a second conviction stipulates the offender wear a pair of blinders whenever he goes out for a walk."
The list of flirting tips goes on to talk about how people are taking flirting to the next level -- flirting the tech-savvy way includes email and text messaging. People have also taken flirting to the streets -- between cars on a morning commute, or via mass transit.
I found this article pretty entertaining, but I have a nit to pick: like many popular articles, this one mentioned scientific research about its subject, but didn't directly cite the scholarly sources it used. I found this frustrating because I think the idea of being a professional flirting scholar is really, really hilarious, and I wanted a less efforful way of finding all that flirting literature out there. Flirting scholars, please hit me up with some reliable citations. Soon.
I enjoyed this article so much, I decided to ILL a book by the article's author: Man with Farm Seeks Woman with Tractor: The Best and Worst Personal Ads of All Time. I'll let you know if it's awesome.
Posts
Katie- Lovely post. I got got bored at the desk and looked up flirting in PubMed. I didn't find much except that anionic phospholipids flirt within and outside mitochondria (whatever that means), and articles about how to deal with patients who flirt with their doctors. Just in case you needed to know, the Library of Congress subject heading is "flirting" and to be used for conquetry, flirt, and flirtation.
ReplyDeleteI just want it confirmed that flirting is the natural flu shot.
Interestingly enough, just two days before reading this post, I received my first text-flirt, not including presumably mass-distributed sex ads. It read "saw yr prfl...yr kinda cute, wanna chat?" I was confounded by the message, but my headache cleared and I added an extra 2 miles to my jog. Now I know why. Thanks for your insight, MSN, and for your persistence in bringing cutting-edge new research to the masses, UGLi librarians.
ReplyDelete