I was talking to a woman the other day who I see every week. We discuss a wide variety of issues. One of the topics was flirtatious behavior. Now I should say that this woman is attractive, and shows a fair amount of her body. She is also engaged to be married and is two weeks away from the date.
I had just shared with her a clumsy attempt by a woman to flirt with me, and she said something quite surprising. She said “I get flirted with all the time. I get tired of it and even get angry when people flirt with me.” I was a little stunned. I didn’t say anything but she continued to talk about her life with her man.
I had to think about this a little more. Granted some women probably get hit on all the time. Granted that anything that is done frequently can be boring. Granted that her line of work in a spa is going to put her in contact with many people. However, this is where I am confused, why would you get angry?
I guess people get angry when they feel frustrated like she did that everyone wants her. I wouldn’t mind that problem. Isn’t it strange sometimes, that people seem to complain no matter how good they have it in their life? Don’t misunderstand this as a criticism of her. Everyone has the right to feel whatever they want. I just try to put myself in someone else’s place when I listen to them, and for me, being flirted with them constantly would be a fun experience and not a painful one.
If I go back into my past further, I actually worked on a job once with several women and I was the only man there. It was a manual labor job and all of us flirted with each other. I didn’t find that job to make me angry in the least. Of course, I hear you saying, of course, because you are a man. However, we are all individuals and that isn’t fair to say. If we don’t stereotype others, we have a richer life by giving people the space to be themselves.
So I gave those women the space to be themselves, and they flirted with me. This is not to brag, but just to share that for the 12 hours a day I worked with them and the several months I was on their team things went well. Anger was the furthest thing from my mind. I was grateful to get the opportunity to learn more about them and to respect who they were as a person.
But what do I know?