I go out for drinks once every couple of months with two friends. It’s a girls night out, we’re all in relationships and not looking to hook up with anyone. We’re mid 30s.
Quite often, we are approached by men (randomers we don’t know) who will chat with us, flirt, and usually at some point offer to buy us drinks.
My gut instinct is to decline drinks (even round-buying) because while it’s harmless to chat and be friendly, accepting drinks is sending the wrong message (rightly or wrongly) that we are ‘interested’ in them.
My two friends think I am uptight and paranoid and anti-feminist. They say that there is nothing wrong with accepting drinks and so long as the men are aware we have partners (my friends are married and wear wedding rings, and they do tell the men that we have other halves) and so long as we buy drinks back, then it’s all just being friendly and social.
My opinion though is that even though they may tell these men that we are in relationships, talking with them at length (sometimes for hours) and getting into drink-buying is flirty behaviour and not really on.
What do you think?