Flirting with Props, Part 3: Fans
In our primer on Victorian flirtation techniques, we’ve learned how to utilize the handkerchief and the gloves to conduct our secret intrigues; now, it is time for fans, which hardly seem to need elaboration—isn’t holding it over one’s lower face while blinking seductively all that one needs to know?
Evidently not. Mr. Shafer’s intro to fan flirtations in his Secrets of Life Revealed (Baltimore, 1877) is short and to the point:
The fan is also used for flirtations, and the following rules govern the subject:
Carrying in right hand: You are too willing
Carrying in right hand in front of face: Follow me
Carrying in left hand: Desirous of an acquaintance
Closing it: I wish to speak with you
Drawing across the forehead: We are watched
Drawing across the cheek: I love you
Drawing across the eyes: I am sorry
Drawing through the hand: I hate you
Dropping: We will be friends
Fanning fast: I am engaged
Fanning slow: I am married
Letting it rest on right cheek: Yes
Letting it rest on left cheek: No
Open and shut: You are cruel
Open wide: Wait for me
Shut: I have changed
Placing it on the right ear: You have changed
Twirling it in left hand: I love another
With handle to lips: Kiss me
Well! Again I see a lot of potential for miscommunication here, especially for those of us who tend to be klutzy! Then again, we might end up with a wide circle of acquaintances that way…
Come back next time when I’ll finish up this series with parasol flirtations.
1 thought on “Flirting with Props, Part 3: Fans”
Someone could write a very amusing comedy of errors in which half the characters knew the ‘rules’ like this, and the other half just fanned themselves or carried their gloves in their hand as was convenient for practical utility. Plus, as you say, some klutzes who might know they were sending the wrong signal but couldn’t help accidentally dropping objects.