In the days of Jane Austen, people only danced with their same social class, [etc]
What makes you think there weren't toxic dancers in Jane Austen's time? Catherine Morland finds herself stuck dancing with the socially inept John Thorpe, when she'd rather be dancing with Henry Tilney, and Lizzie Bennet finds herself wanting to dance with George Wickham, but instead unwillingly snagged by the execrable Mr Collins, and later by the quite- undesirable- at- the- time Mr Darcy. There's nothing new about the problem of icky potential dance partners.
(nb I am NOT trying to say that your typical stalker-lookalike is really Fitzwilliam Darcy with pots o'cash underneath an unattractive exterior).
The problem is old, the solution is old. "no thank you, I'm a) sitting this one out / b) dancing with CD".
As to dealing with repeated unwanted invitations, Miss Manners advises (in order, for iterative approaches) 1) polite refusal 2) slightly less polite refusal 3) the cut direct [direct stare, cold "no thank you", turning your back]
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Date: 2006-02-24 08:24 pm (UTC)What makes you think there weren't toxic dancers in Jane Austen's time? Catherine Morland finds herself stuck dancing with the socially inept John Thorpe, when she'd rather be dancing with Henry Tilney, and Lizzie Bennet finds herself wanting to dance with George Wickham, but instead unwillingly snagged by the execrable Mr Collins, and later by the quite- undesirable- at- the- time Mr Darcy. There's nothing new about the problem of icky potential dance partners.
(nb I am NOT trying to say that your typical stalker-lookalike is really Fitzwilliam Darcy with pots o'cash underneath an unattractive exterior).
The problem is old, the solution is old. "no thank you, I'm a) sitting this one out / b) dancing with CD".
As to dealing with repeated unwanted invitations, Miss Manners advises (in order, for iterative approaches) 1) polite refusal 2) slightly less polite refusal 3) the cut direct [direct stare, cold "no thank you", turning your back]