poll: should i have told the cute girl at the gym just now that i liked her smile | what's your ~gender
- yes | ~m30.8%
- yes | ~f7.3%
- no | ~m51.9%
- no | ~f10%
4,574 votesFinal results
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Conversation
did you spontaneously notice and genuinely like specifically her smile (or were you looking for smth to compliment)?
(fwiw, for reasons I can't explain, "your smile is beautiful" or "your smile just brightened my day" or smth seem better than "I like your smile")
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Replying to
spontaneous, i was looking around the gym and really liked her smile in particular
and huh that surprises me, i usually try to err on the side of describing my experience instead of claiming some objective evaluation
Replying to
I agree generally, which is why it's hard to explain why in this case it seems less good
"your smile is beautiful" is evaluative but at least boldly so, so *can* feel confident?
and the other one feels even more descriptive/less evaluative than "I like it"?
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I'm female, voted strong "no." Maybe other women are less of a curmudgeon than I am but it can feel irritating when strangers tell me I have a nice smile, even if it seems sincere. Maybe it feels akin to "you should smile more?"
I'm bad at flirting so maybe this is bad advice.
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I have an easy time talking to strangers (though bad at flirting) and usually start with some shared observation or joke or try to be helpful. I have stickers on my water bottle that people ask about (from Burning Man projects, etc) and I'll sometimes ask people about theirs.
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I (f) would say it depends on how you say it - if you stick around clearly trying to start a convo, it's likely going to annoy her. If you mention it in passing, with no expectations, it could brighten her day a little. Also depends strongly on your "vibe" imo.
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