Editing Flirting (section)

== Historical context ==
During World War II, anthropologist [[Margaret Mead]] was working in Britain for the British [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] and later for the U.S. [[United States Office of War Information|Office of War Information]],<ref name="uk">{{cite book
  | last = Mead
  | first = Margaret
  | editor=William O. Beeman
  | title = Studying Contemporary Western Society: Method and Theory
  | publisher = Berghahn Books
  | year = 2004
  | location = New York
  | pages = 145, 149
  | isbn = 978-1-57181-816-4}}</ref><ref>
Mead's article, ''A Case History in Cross-National Communications'', was originally published in {{cite book
  | last = Bryson
  | first = Lyman
  | title = The Communication of Ideas
  | publisher = Institute for Religious and Social Studies, dist. by Harper and Brothers
  | year = 1948
  | location = New York
  | oclc=1488507 }}</ref> delivering speeches and writing articles to help [[Americans|American]] soldiers better understand British civilians,<ref>
e.g. {{cite book
  | last = Mead
  | first = Margaret
  | title = The American troops and the British community
  | publisher = Hutchinson
  | year = 1944
  | location = London
  | oclc=43965908 }}</ref> and vice versa.<ref>
e.g. {{cite magazine
  | last = Mead
  | first = Margaret
  | title = What Is a Date?
  | journal = Transatlantic
  | volume = 10
  | issue = June 1944
  | date = June 1944
  | oclc=9091671
}}</ref> Mead found a pattern of misunderstandings in the flirtations between American soldiers and British women regarding who was supposed to take which initiative. She wrote of the Americans, "The boy learns to make advances and rely upon the girl to repulse them whenever they are inappropriate to the state of feeling between the pair", as contrasted to the British, where "the girl is reared to depend upon a slight barrier of chilliness... which the boys learn to respect, and for the rest to rely upon the men to approach or advance, as warranted by the situation." When flirting with each other, British women could interpret an American soldier's gregariousness as something more intimate or serious than he had intended.<ref name="uk"/>

Communications theorist [[Paul Watzlawick]] researched courtship behaviors between English women and North American servicemen in late- to post-WWII, finding common misunderstandings of intent. The simple act of [[kissing]] during the 'wrong stage' of the courtship often led both parties to believe the other was being too forward, too soon.<ref>{{cite book | title=[[How Real Is Real?]] | publisher=Souvenir Press | author=Watzlawick, Paul | year=1983 | edition=1st illustrated reprint | location=London | pages=63–64 | isbn=978-0-285-62573-0 | quote=One interesting aspect was a comparison of courtship patterns. Both American soldiers and British girls accused one another of being sexually brash. Investigation of this curious double charge brought to light an interesting punctuation problem. In both cultures, courtship behavior from the first eye contact to the ultimate consummation went through approximately thirty steps, but the sequence of these steps was different. Kissing, for instance, comes relatively early in the North American pattern (occupying, let us say, step 5) and relatively late in the English pattern (at step 25, let us assume), where it is considered highly erotic behavior. So when the U.S., soldier somehow felt that the time was right for a harmless kiss, not only did the girl feel cheated out of twenty steps of what for her would have been proper behavior on his part, she also felt she had to make a quick decision: break off the relationship and run, or get ready for intercourse.  If she chose the latter, the soldier was confronted with behavior that according to _his_ cultural rules could only be called shameless at this early state of the relationship.}}</ref>