When Annie flirted she didn't always admit to herself that she was flirting. Sometimes she preferred to suspend her mental faculties so that she could flirt, as it were, without her mind watching. It was as if her body and mind separated, her body stepping behind a screen to remove its clothing while her mind, on the other side of the screen, paid no attention..
In "Fresh Complaint" by Jeffrey Eugenides, the character Annie experiences a unique form of flirting where her mind and body seem to disconnect. She often finds it easier to engage in flirtation when she allows her intellectual awareness to fade away, creating a division between her internal thoughts and external actions.
This separation enables her to flirt more freely, as if her body operates independently from her conscious thoughts. By suspending her mental faculties, Annie navigates social interactions in a way that feels more instinctual and less scrutinized by her own judgment, leading to a more uninhibited expression of attraction.
