Lip service

If your witticisms and wisecracks fail to help you make headway with that gorgeous friend's friend, you happened to stumble upon on a social networking site, then drop all efforts and simply follow the word of mouth. Literally. A recent survey conducted by a dating portal has found that when you want to chat-up a woman on the Internet, telling her that she has lovely lips will take you closer to your goal than any other one-liner!

The portal analysed the success rates of opening lines from nearly 2,00,000 online flirtations in 11 languages over the course of one month to come up with a 'Compliment Success Index'. Users were asked to use one of 12 different chat-up lines, each complimenting an aspect of a woman's body and it was concluded that complimenting a woman's lips was the most successful.

This is hardly a surprising conclusion, considering that merely weeks back, a study surfaced which claimed that for men, a woman's lips are the most attractive part of her body and that they spend a good seven seconds gazing at them during the first meeting. But what is it about this pick-up line that floors the women? "Well, we spend a sizeable amount on our lips every month, so obviously we care about how they look," shrugs arts student S Ragini, "From fancy, branded lipsticks to shimmery gloss to moisturising balms, women have since antiquity been bothered with making our lips look delicious. And obviously when they're appreciated, it feels nice; like a job well done!"

Lakshminarayanan Raghu, a graphic designer agrees, "When a woman wears lipstick or gloss, it is with the intent of drawing attention to her lips, so I guess she wants to be complimented on them," he says, adding quickly, "However, I'd never have the guts to tell a woman that I fancy her lips, especially if I've just met her on the Internet. God knows, she might be a prude and take offence. 'You look pretty' is a safer bet."

Rightly enough, the study has stated that there are certain countries where other lines score over this lippy logic (for instance, in Portugal, women like to be complimented on their ears!). And India could well be one of them. Soft skills trainer Sindhuja Natraj states that she'd fume as opposed to blush if a man told her on the Internet that her lips were lovely. "I'd be put off if a guy started up a conversation on that note. It's creepy. In the Indian context, a girl would never respond to such a pick-up line. We'd prefer something more refined like maybe 'You look interesting and I would like to get to know you' or if he's taken the effort to go through my profile 'Hey, we seem to have a few common interests. We could perhaps chat sometime?' And if it has to be about the appearance, it's eye, eye sir all the way!"

However, systems analyst Giri Prasad concludes, "Lips are the new hips and guys are crazy about them. Blame it on the Angelina Jolie phenomenon; every guy today wants a girl with soft, plump lips. And girls are evolved enough to know that when we chat them up saying that they have beautiful lips, we're not being creepy."

Well, guys, if the line does work for you and your Internet relationship translates into real-time, you know what to do. Seal it with a kiss!


Other Internet chat-up lines:
Do's:
You have soulful eyes

Your smile is disarming

I love your sense of dressing

I love The Simpsons too!

Have you been to this cool hangout in town?

Don'ts:
You are a sex bomb

I want to make friendship with you

Hi you're cute. Can I have your number?

Can you be my girlfriend?

So how come you're awake so late?


Read more: Lip service - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/man-woman/Lip-service/articleshow/7184675.cms#ixzz19axE6g62