Practice With Flirtation

If someone has a friend of the opposite gender with whom they are comfortable flirting--for practice alone, for sexual pleasure, or for both reasons--there are genuine benefits they could receive from choosing to actually flirt with them rather than merely consider doing so.  These benefits can be enjoyed even when either friend is already in an established, committed romantic or marital relationship.  Flirting with other people is not a betrayal of one's romantic partner, after all!

Whether one does it sincerely or insincerely, flirting with someone other than one's dating or marriage partner is not necessarily a useless exercise.  This is true even when both friends are single and neither has any interest in entering into any sort of romantic relationship at all.  A formal relationship is far from the only use for flirtation, but even someone who wishes to be in a romantic relationship at a future point has something to gain by flirting with certain opposite gender friends.  One can practice for a future relationship by doing this.

Even intense flirtation between a male and female friend might be nothing more than a test of both party's flirtation skills, with both friends knowing that they have no non-platonic feelings for each other and no desire to enter a romantic or sexual relationship with each other.  Indeed, flirting with select opposite gender friends (it is not strange or unusual for someone to have no interest in flirting with all opposite gender friends) for the sake of practice can be a great way to prepare for flirting with one's spouse or significant other, whether one has a current romantic relationship or simply wants one.

After all, someone might want to experience how it feels to use certain tactics before trying them out on their actual partner, as well as practice with the spontaneous types of conversations that flirtatious comments are often found in.  As long as both friends realize what their flirting does not mean--that the flirtation does not signal relationship availability or a willingness to actually cheat on their significant others--they are free to indulge every desire to practice flirting or genuinely flirt with each other.

Friendships between men and women are valuable for many reasons that have nothing to do with flirtation of the practice or sincere kind, but it is innocent and beneficial to flirt with certain opposite gender friends for practice and pleasure.  A friendship with no pressure to date is an ideal social environment for developing flirtation skills to use with an actual romantic partner.  The fact that this may be misunderstood by onlookers or potential partners out of pettiness and irrationality is not a reason to avoid an innocent thing.