pigtails

[sergebroom]

I had to take the bus to work yesterday. On the way back, at 4pm, two girls and one boy, none of them much older than 14, hopped in and sat not far from where I was. The boy kept prodding one of the girls with his finger, and she kept telling him to stop. He eventually did, only to adopt other kinds of teasing. I thought he was a bit obnoxious, until I noticed that the girl never stopped smiling thru the whole thing. So, it is true that boys of that age will do everything to annoy the girls that they like. Because they don't know how to say they like them? At that age, I'd never have done that of course. No, really.

Comments

[sajia.livejournal.com]

I got teased a lot when I was in my teens, and it's only recently that I've come to wonder whether they were doing it because they liked me. Nah.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

That'd depend in the manner of their teasing, I guess. My own experience was that, for me, it was definitely taunting, not gentle teasing. My last year of high-school was in a place other than the one of the previous years. It took time, but I eventually realized that the teasing there was anything but mean. That explains why 12th grade is the only time of high-school I look back to with any kindness. So it goes.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

I don't think I would either.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

We were such good boys, eh?

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Mostly, I suspect.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of the 2nd X-men movie, when Wolverine is making a pass at Jean Grey, and she says something along the lines that bad boys are more exciting, but the good boys actually stick around home. Of course, in the 3rd movie, Jean blew up her good-boy boyfriend to bits so maybe it'd have been better for Cyclops if she'd gone for the bad boy instead. (Mind you, I know a few ladies who'd been very upset if that had happened to Wolverine.)

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

i haven't seen either of the X-men films.

I was just very shy until my 20s. Then I was just plain shy. (Which doesn't explain how I've been married three times... )

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

But...banter is so sexy! So, there's always the teasing via banter. That works.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

One could indeed look at what they were doing as a 14-year-old's clumsy idea of banter. As for myself, at that age, I'd have been too clumsy for even clumsy bantering. Heck... This is someone whose first real date was a few months before reaching the age of 28. That being said... I love bantering. You should see me and one of my female co-workers, when I visit the rest of the team in San Francisco. People who don't know us might think we don't like each other, but they couldn't possibly be more wrong. I personally think of her as the kid sister I wish I had had. Mind you, considering that she's Chinese and I'm a French-Canadian, it'd be difficult for us to be related unless one of us was adopted. ("Mom always liked me more than you! Besides, you were adopted!")

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Consider also that smiling is appeasement behavior, which women are conditioned to give to men. There have been several intense discussions on various journals about male expectations that women -- especially women who they consider attractive -- should always be smiling, and that if she isn't, they have the right to DEMAND that she do so.

I wasn't there, so you may be right in your estimation. But it's also possible thst she was smiling out of nervousness, or just because she's already learned that This Is What You Do.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

I did consider that possibility, that the girl was humoring the boy. You may be absolutely right. I was there and yet I don't know what was going on in their heads. Of course, had there been obvious signs of displeasure on the girl's part, I've have suggested to the boy to cut it out.