Guilty as charged my friends - I am a flirt.
Not in a "sexual way," more so in a "southern charm/smile/pour syrup on that sugar way"... that is..
When I want to.
I don't always want to. Mostly I am cynical and sarcastic. But when necessary, I turn on what we call that "southern charm."
Southern girls learn really early, a wink and a smile will get you far. We draw out our vowels, turn this "sing-songy" voice on which is just an octave or so higher.. bounce around a little more- cock our head to the side, open our eyes a little wider & brighter... etc.
One of the first things one my closest friends discovered upon moving to Nebraska was the fact that the girls there did not do the whole makeup/hair thing when they went out. She said that all of her Nebraska friends would laugh at her, because she was always dressed and ready to go. She was shocked that the women were wearing sweatshirts and jeans with tennis shoes to the mall..
You see... in the south - not so much.
Sure, sure.. there is a HUGE percentage that do dress "down." But for the most part, the southern charm/flirty part - we are always ready. Why? We expect a compliment, and we hand them out like a candy on Halloween.
One of the funniest things I have ever seen is watching someone from (other places.. or as we like to say, "Up North") come down here and get introduced to a group of women. The first thing someone does is immediately find something, anything to compliment them on. This of course, throws off the person and they sort of blush and smile and thank them... then it happens - If it is a group of women, the smiles, the gushing, the overload of niceties follow - so much so, the person is thrown off and immediately says -"Wow, it IS true, Southerners are so... nice." Actually - it's flirting. Not with you in a sexual way. It's our nature to make YOU feel good about YOU. We do it with men and women.
But don't be fooled by our sugary sweet demeanor. Ever crossed a southern woman? You will be surprised at how quickly we turn, and how quickly we return to a smile. See more:
One of my ex-coworkers from New York thought all of the women were always flirting with the men co-workers. I informed him - no.. actually they are just trying to make them "feel good about themselves." He then asked, were the compliments/smiles/etc. for real.
I winked and smiled and said, "Wouldn't you like to know."
5 comments:
Holy crow, that video is so funny. Gotta love Dixie Carter! :D
i loved that show and yes southern girls have lots of charm
I was once accused, by a Northerner, of flirting with her husband in front of her and my spouse because I said "honey" to her spouse. Trying to explain that I also call children and old ladies honey was not easy.
Madonna said it best: "I’ll flirt with anyone from garbagemen to grandmothers."
Your post is so true. I grew up in the midwest, and mostly, my friends went out dressed just as you described with your friend who moved north. And now I live in the south, and the non-sexual flirting as complimenting is also very true! I was so excited to see your inclusion of the Julia Sugarbaker rant that I tweeted our your post before I came back to comment! :)
OMG your post is so true. I am from the south and have a very bad habit of calling everyone "hon". When I moved up north, I went to work in a retail shop and I would call my customers "hon" every male customer I had would think I was hitting on them.
I found you through the weekend link up at TRDC.
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