Turns out when the country was cracking down on alcohol consumption, leaders had a similar disdain for outward flirting…
Though the original step towards a law of this sort was introduced in 1902 by assemblyman Francis G. Landon of Dutchess, presenting a bill that would criminalize those who put forth too much of an effort to catch a female’s attention, there was an entire anti-flirting movement that followed later in the 1920s.
The first Anti-Flirt Week was even held in Washington D.C. on March 4, 1923 by Miss Alice Reighly, president of the Anti-Flirt Club at the time. The week was prompted by many young girls and women bothered by unprovoked men passing in cars and on streets.
10 rules regulated the principles of the Anti-Flirt Club, some advising women to not accept rides from flirting motorists as their intentions may not purely be to prevent you from walking and to save your smile for people you now. One rule even encouraged women not to “fall for the slick, dandified cake eater—the unpolished gold of a real man is worth more than the gloss of lounge lizard.”
Though the specifics about the flirting law vary online, the basic gist relays that publicly flirting in the state of New York could be punishable by a $25 fine. Sources like The Free Press Journal even report that a second offense would require the offender to wear horse blinders whenever they stepped outdoors.
Silly laws such as this can be found across states, dating centuries back, that all aren’t technically enforced today. “Morality laws tend to get passed in a flurry of indignation about one offense or another,” civil-rights attorney Ron Kuby said, as reported by The New York Post. “They remain on the books because you need an affirmative act to repeal them, and you risk angering those who supported them in the first place — and you appear to be endorsing the behavior that’s been outlawed.”
So though you probably won’t see retribution administered today for flirting, it’s interesting to take a look at old rulings that were once proposed and put in place in New York.