Having a man flirt with you unwantedly is one of those things that starts out maybe a little flattering, but can quickly escalate to OMFGSTOP—particularly if he's not great at hearing "no."
Men who can't take "no" for an answer or lash out at rejection have literally killed women before. It's happened so often, in fact, that women tend to come up with all sorts of ways to reject without rejecting in an attempt to not die.
Which, let's be real, is tragic and disgusting and if men could just stop killing and/or attacking women who reject them, that would be dope and super appreciated.
Until then, we have Reddit.
Reddit user weird-n-nerdy asked:
"What are some effective ways to get a man to stop hitting on you?"
It's a heartbreaking fact of who we are as a society that women have to think this way ... but honestly, some of this stuff is genius.
Invitation To Negotiation
"Actual advice: never give a reason."
"Any reason is an invitation to negotiation for some people. It also gives them a sense that maybe they have an entitlement that's being blocked by 'reason.' "
"All the following work, depending on how nice you want to be, none give a reason."
" 'No,' 'not interested,' 'thank you, but no,' 'how nice, but not thank you,' 'I'm flattered, but no.' "
"If someone says 'why not?' Just repeat that you're not interested but move from polite to simple no."
"If someone persists past that simple no, then consider them a danger."
- dan_jeffers
GiphyBaby Runs For President
"There's a user on tiktok who shares a method called 'Baby Runs for President', where you basically ask them very blunt questions with the just shy of rude honesty that a toddler uses."
"You just keep asking stuff like 'what do you do?' 'what's that?' 'oh really? What's that?' and pretend not to understand a thing until the person gives up and leaves."
"The goal is to annoy/frustrate them into giving up while feigning interest to avoid bruising the ego."
- BossVal
"You don't want to seem interested. Ideally, you embarrass them."
"One of my friends had a perfect moment like this once. She was ringing up some creepy old dude, and his total ended in 69 cents. He tried to be all like: "
" 'That's lucky. It's my favorite number. You know why?' "
"She replied, 'Because it's your age?' "
"The people behind him in line died laughing."
- knitwit3
Grandma Burps
"Once a man was trying hitting on me in a bus."
"I was feeling very bloated and gassy... and burped aloud right in his face, like a huge grandma burp."
"The look on his face was priceless. He didn't bother me again."
- clementine-1017
Boss Babe
"Ask him to buy into your MLM scheme."
- virgilhall
"This is true."
"Had a girl tell me about this job she worked at called world financial group and it was such a turn off that I ghosted her."
"Little did she know I have been invited to 3 of them already and I only went out of boredom for the free snacks and drinks."
- alognoV
"Dude this worked on me! A very attractive girl tried to sell me on some weight loss shakes or something. Bye, bye!"
- CrazedInventor
"Can confirm it works."
"I was stuck on a ferris wheel on a date with her trying to sell some shady pyramid scheme."
- HowtoCrackanegg
Just In Case
"Tell the story of how your last boyfriend broke up with you, and how it was crazy of him to freak out just because you stored some of his semen in your fridge 'just in case.' ”
- ChrisChrisBangBang
"I would be appalled at this."
"A refrigerator? A home freezer isn't even cold enough to store it safely and you're talking about a fridge?"
"Good day, madam!"
- MackLuster77
"Jesus f*cking christ, what is wrong with people?"
"Semen won't keep in the fridge for much longer than a few weeks, it needs to be frozen in a sterilized container and stored pretty close to -200o C, because that's how cold it has to be to get biological activity to stop."
"Ugh."
- Secret_Autodidact
GiphyA Lightsaber
"One time all it took was the guy seeing my Star Wars tattoo. That was amazing for me."
"I have a lot of tattoos, one is a lightsaber. He was bugging be for several minutes before he noticed it, but he stopped and asked, 'Sorry, what is that a tattoo of?' "
"It’s nothing elaborate, just a small blue lightsaber. My brother has a matching green one, we got them together."
"So I said, 'it’s a lightsaber.' ”
"And without saying another word, he turned his back to me and walked away. It was awesome."
- Barfignugen
Makin' It Weird
"Get really weird, really, really fast."
"Weird them out so much that they think you're a freak - definitely don't do it in a sexual way."
"A friend of mine once did this to a guy who sat at our table on a night out. She went right down in conspiracy theories, asking him why his shoes think he's orange, all sorts of really weird stuff just to make him uncomfortable enough that he got up and left within a few minutes."
"It was impressive, actually."
- 64gbBumFunCannon
A Proper Bank Robber
"Wearing a mask has really cut down on my appeal to older conservative men, which has been great!"
- musclebarbie22
"That’s because those guys can’t use the 'smile' opening. The only opening those butt wipes know is to refer to your mouth."
"50 years ago those old dudes had dad’s that said, 'Son, if you compliment their smile, it’s in the bag.' And never learned another pick up line."
"Now you’re wearing a mask? Their brains cannot compute."
"It’s a miracle of science!"
- averagejanecitizen
"My wife told me that this customer told her 'it’s hard to mentally make love to you with that mask on, you should take it off.' ”
"She told me that she made a retching gesture and walked off then refused to serve him anymore."
- broken-not-bent
"Mask has been an utter blessing, but then I started getting 'I wonder if your smile matches those beautiful eyes.' "
"So, now I wear sunglasses with my mask and look like a proper bank robber at all times."
- BrownSugarBare
All Along The Watchtower
"My sister learned this from a friend and started doing this as well."
"She carried a couple of issues of Watchtower in her purse and when the guys started hitting on her, got a very earnest look on her face, pulled them out and started saying 'Have you been saved? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?' "
"It worked better than mace."
- JustinChristoph
Giphy"I'm A Mother"
"Saying 'Sorry, I’m not interested, I’m a mother.' then showing them (many!) pictures of my kids made miracles happen."
- quietdiablita
"This is great. And if they try to leave just say 'no no wait! I have more photos!' "
- Ok-Story-3532
" 'I’ve got some court dates scheduled because their dads aren’t paying child support, so it’s hard to find time...' ”
- DrinKwine7
"I don't really flirt with women. But this would definitely work for me. I despise children."
- Blood-Lord
"Tried this once, dude actually wanted to be a father and had an impregnation/pregnancy fetish. Fail."
- AlessiaRS18
Have you used any of these techniques?
Is there one you'd like to add to the list?
Let's get to it in the comments.
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