Because "no" means "no"

When men wont leave you alone.

I had quite a nice day today, spent it with some friend that I haven't seen in a long time. Being with friends in a big city is no problem, but after they had left, I decided to roam around a little on my own. It's not unusual for me to get approached by men, most of the time they just tell me they like my dress, some kind of simple compliment, and then they leave me alone.

Not today though.

This man started following me around inside a store, trying to converse about clothing, saying that I would look nice in some shirt. I had to tell him over and over that "it's not my style", "I don't like that colour" and things like that. In the end I gave up and let him buy a shirt for me. He talks extremely bad norwegian, I start talking english to him, he talks english a little better than norwegian at least. he now thinks I'm british, great, I can tell him I don't live in norway, I'm just here on a vacation.

The thing is, when men approach like this, they turn persistent, they wont leave me alone, and sometimes, like this guy, they start following me around town. He asked if I wanted coffee, or something to eat, or maybe some chocolate, and over and over again I had to tell him "no", "I don't like coffee, "I've already eaten", "I'm full" lying over and over, because I do not want him to buy me stuff! Then he started to nag me about my phone number. I have done the incredibly stupid mistake of giving away my number before, and then having them call me and send me messages, and then not having the guts to tell them to leave me the fuck alone.

He started stalking me down to the bus, because I said I had to go home. He asked if a wanted a cigarette, I said very sternly "I don't smoke.", he said he new of a good disco close by, "I don't dance," I don't party," "I'm not particulary fond of places cramped full of people." I start loosing my calm with him, because I just want him to leave me alone, but I don't want to be rude. He asks about my phone number again, I tell him I don't give my number to strangers, he tells me that he wont be a stranger if I get to know him more, I tell him no, again, and he asks why, and this is when I finally snap, "because NO means NO." And he just looks at me, he is shocked, but tells me ok, it's alright. And then I manage to shake him off in a small crowd.

And then I started thinking, because it's kind of been a long time since I last ended up in a situasion like this, and I wondered, what did I do back then?

I said I was going home to my girlfriend, I said I was a lesbian. Now I pretended to be some english way-to-good-for-you kind of girl..? Being a lesbian worked better.

But what then hit me was, why should I have to excuse myself? This guy is creeping me out, following me around, he looks like he is older then my father and is intruding my personal bubble. Why should I have to be nice to him when I have already told him no?