I have to post this under Voodoo’s name but this is her husband dex. Fractal you are exactly correct and I have the same issue nearly everyday. It is easy to tell when you are getting signals or not and for a woman to claim that a smile means nothing is ludicrous. Sometimes I will walk down the mall and have woman after woman look up and smile at me for no reason. I am not the friendly type, I don’t like people that much, hell I don’t even usually smile back, but they keep flashing the pearly whites. Voodoo and I argue about this subject and she tells me the same thing she told you but she is full of it. In fact if it is OK for a woman to just smile at a random man then why do 99% of men get angry when their woman smiles at another guy, disrespect perhaps? This is simple, because humans use eye contact, facial gestures, and body language to make overtures toward the opposite sex. Regardless of whether the woman is actually just being friendly she still risks giving off the wrong message. I can tell from the first 2 seconds of seeing a woman and her seeing me if I could approach her or not, this isn’t brain surgery. Another point would be if a woman is only being friendly with a smile then why when there are two or three guys together does only one of the guys, usually the best looking one, get singled out for a look and smile?
I think there are two instances when a smile is probably just a smile.
1. When you are friendly with or know the other person. For example, you walk into a room see a woman you know smile and say hi.
2. If you come into contact with someone else and need to or feel it is necessary to acknowledge that individual. In this case a smile would be used to indicate respect or just to show you see the other person. For example two people walk into a doorway at the same time, you look up and the woman politely smiles at you as you hold the door. In this case by smiling she acknowledges your good deed and probably could get away with not saying thank you because she did so with her facial expression.
In contrast when you are in a large public place with thousands of other people there is no need for a random stranger to look you in the eye and smile. There is no need to show respect in this situation and since you don’t know the woman there is no need for her to grab your attention.
For the women out there, if you really think giving strange men smiles is innocent and meaningless you are the only one. Most men will misconstrue your friendliness for a deeper more sexual connotation.
Dex
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