The inaugural “Anti-Flirt” Week launched this day in Washington, DC in 1923, the Anti-Flirt Club with the charter of protecting young women from unwanted advances, prescribed a series of rules to rebuff men in automobiles and on street corners:
- Don’t flirt: 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
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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 made be in for a hair-pulling match
- Don’t wink—a flutter of one eye may cause a tear in the othe
- 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 care 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
Though the first and only campaign, other chapters in New York and Philadelphia succeeded in earning a reprieve from the worst harassers.
