n the early-1920s in Washington, D. C., a lady named Alice Reighly founded the Anti-Flirt Club — an organisation “composed of young women and girls who have been embarrassed by men in automobiles and on street corners,” and which aimed to protect such women from future embarrassment.
The club issued the following list of rules.
(Source: Shorpy, via P. Robbins; Image: The club’s “charter members” in 1923, via Wikimedia.)
- 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.