While everyone’s talking about approaching women, they really are silly enough to be surprised when you point out all the “don’t talk to me” signals they give out walking around.
In college I was waiting at the station for the train to arrive, and this girl from one of my nighttime chem study classes started hovering near me, every time she’d have her headphones in, but she at least made eye contact & did that small closed mouth smile you give to strangers. Since she never said much to me, kept her earbuds in, I assumed she was sticking close out of a desire for safety (because, y’know, public transit at night is horrifying for a hot girl)
I ended up changing out to a diff. day for the class, didn’t see her until the next year when we were in the same group for the next one. She had started dating someone at that point, but she did mention that she was frustrated that I “never even shot your shot” despite her hanging out next to me, sitting within 10 feet on the train, etc. for weeks on end. When I pointed out the headphones, and the fact she never tried talking to me at all, she faltered with the very concept that her shields were up the entire time, it’d never occurred to her that she was sending those signals w/ her equipment despite sending some of the right ones w/ her body language.
Just something that came to mind about the topic. IIRC she was engaged to her guy by the end of the year, never saw her after that. Hopefully she dropped out & got married.