May 7, 2008

Hold your nose? Wet your lips?

Have you ever encountered the "Flirt Signs 101" protocol before? This seems to be a locally invented procedure that lets two strangers confirm their interest in each other in a public place discreetly, as well as exchange basic information about each other wordlessly. The "Flirt Signs 101" supposedly improves upon the frustrating uncertainties in just using The Look alone, which often leads to many sayangs and what-ifs. I first encountered this sign language (hehe) from someone's profile in Guys4Men.

Here's the protocol bit (heavily copyedited):

After catching each other's eye for a while, the following signs can be used:

  1. Holding your nose with one hand, like wiping out oil, shows your interest to a person. As a reply, holding your chin, as if checking your stubble, shows you are also interested.
  2. Pinching your left ear with one hand means you want to know if the person is bisexual or gay. As a reply, if you are bisexual, you answer by just licking or wetting your lips. Otherwise (you are gay), you reply by wiping your eyes as if you are wiping out dirt.
  3. Touching your head indicates that you are top. The other guy can do the same if he is top.
  4. Reaching your pants back pocket as if you're reaching for your wallet means that you are bottom. The other guy can do the same action if he is bottom.
  5. Rubbing your hands together as if you just put some lotion on them, signifies that you should meet outside. If the other person rubs his hands together too, thats it!

The tutorial then goes on to say that if the other person doesn't respond. Either he doesn't know the "language" or he's straight. To continue the tutorial, the writer then gives a hypothetical scenario (also heavily edited):

A guy takes the MRT to Ayala, Makati, and in the train he could see a good-looking hunk. The guy couldn't take his eyes off the hunk. The hunk happens to look at him for a while. Then Flirt Signs 101 takes place.

First, the guy looks at the hunky stud and slowly wipes his nose till the hunk notices it. The hunk sees it and then touches his chin telling the guy that he is interested. The guy, wanting to know if the hunk is bi or gay, then pinches his left ear. The hunk wets his lips very daringly and unexpectedly reaches for his pocket as if he was retrieving his wallet. The first guy is a bit shocked upon learning that the hunky stud is a bottom bisexual.

Not letting the opportunity pass, the guy, even though he is also bottom, touched his head signifying that he is supposedly top. He then rubs his hands together and the hunk responds by stepping outside the train. Voila! Nag-check-in ang dalawa sa Sogo! Sa'n ka pa?

Nothing like an almost too-good-to-be-true story to increase interest, right? Hehehe. :-)

I never bothered to memorize the steps and to try it out. I don't think this is one thing that will catch on that well. In my experience, The Look is quite enough for two guys to show and confirm interest in one another. Any other information can be obtained by approaching each other and doing the old-fashioned conversation. I'm therefore quite curious if anyone out there has tried this "Flirt Signs 101" protocol and has succeeded in getting a booking because of it.

What do you think?

6 comments:

. wrote on May 7, 2008 at 3:00 PM:

Holding your nose with one hand, like wiping out oil, shows your interest to a person. As a reply, holding your chin, as if checking your stubble, shows you are also interested

- I have this habit all the time. I sincerely wish I'm not giving wrong signals. Thanks for the info dude. I'd be conscious from now on.

 
Kai Santorino wrote on May 7, 2008 at 7:56 PM:

wow... learned a lot! i always thought yung 'pailalim na tingin' was the only flirt move there is. leme put this to the test

 
Boyd wrote on May 8, 2008 at 12:21 AM:

I don't think this will ever catch on. I'd rather learn swahili.

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on May 12, 2008 at 2:04 AM:

Mugen, just let it be. Woe to the person who gets the signals wrong instead.

Kai, let us know if you ever get successful, alright?

Boyd, true, true. :)

 
Anonymous wrote on May 12, 2008 at 9:39 PM:

this is simply stupid!

 
Anonymous wrote on March 3, 2010 at 1:40 PM:

Thanks for posting this. I'd been broadcast to on the train several times and for years never knew exactly what those guys were trying to convey. Every gay man I asked denied there's a code.