Was it Nancy Reagan who said "Just Say No"?

I find it so amusing that people think that pressuring me into doing something is the actually going to persuade me to change my mind. I'm about as stubborn as they come. Take, for instance, the birthday party I went to on Saturday night with Jeremy (the guy I'm dating). A couple days before the party actually took place he received a phone call from the girlfriend of the birthday boy. The plan had originally been to go to Dave and Busters, but she told him that now they were going to go to a strip club. So I hear him go "cool tools" and he looks at me and says "We're gonna go to a strip club on Saturday night ok?" My eyes get big and I go "No?" Then he decided I was mad at him for asking me. (He thinks I'm mad alot. I don't know why. I've never considered myself to be an especially surly individual.) So after I assure him I'm not mad, I tell him I was just surprised that he thought I would actually go. He asked if I'd ever been, and when I gave him the negatory on that he told me that it was something that I should experience once in my life. I told him I don't need to experience it because I don't want to experience it. I told him I was happy to go to the Dave and Busters portion of the evening, but after that I was going home. He took this to mean he couldn't go either, at which point I told him that was his decision to make, not mine. He said, "You'll be mad at me if I go." When I told him I wouldn't be mad, he said, "But you'll be disappointed in me right?" at which point I informed him that "disappointed" is a completely different word than "mad" and I was simply saying I wouldn't be mad. I don't want to be the person who tells him "No." I want him to choose to do the right thing, I don't want to tell him to do it. Not to mention, it's really hard to stand up against someone you care about.

So Saturday night rolls around and we arrive at the party. About halfway through the night, he wanders off to the bar with the birthday boy, and I'm left with the somewhat drunk girlfriend of the birthday boy. I knew that he wasn't happy that Jeremy had decided to come home with me instead of going to the strip club, which is why I wasn't especially surprised when the girlfriend approached me and, with a slight slur, inquired, "So you guys don't want to go to the strip club right?" at which point I informed her that was correct. So she gave me an anecdote about how she has only been to a strip club once, and she hadn't really wanted to go the time that she did because she thought it would be dirty. However, when she got there she found it wasn't really as dirty as she thought it would be, that yes, the girls had their tops off, but they weren't completely nude and she could deal with that. She would much rather be there with her boyfriend than have him go alone so she can witness what happens, and it really wasn't that bad in her opinion, which I obviously should relate with because she is very Christian/Catholic. At the close of the story, where I was obviously supposed to say "Well I'll think about it and maybe we'll go since it's not that bad," I simply told her that a strip club just wasn't a place I wanted to be.

At the end of the night, Jeremy rode home with me, leaving the birthday boy and a few other party-goers to visit the strip club without him. He was really great about it in the end, a real trooper. I was glad he didn't go to the club because I wasn't really too keen on the idea of him watching girls dance around half nekkid. He respected my feelings on the whole thing and, while I felt bad that he missed half of his friend's party, I felt good that I had held onto my beliefs and hadn't been present at an establishment that I think presents a lifestyle that I disagree with.