EDIT: Found enough wisdom in the comments (once you filter out the expected judgy drivel) that I now have a game plan for the weekend. Thanks all who commented in good faith!
Original Comment:
A couple of friends are celebrating a milestone birthday and there’s around 10 of us that’ve booked a couple of rooms for 2 nights to celebrate. I’ve known these guys for a while, love them, but the occasional “degenerate” behaviour is a bit annoying, especially at our age. I would put money on that one of them will bring up the strip club on one of the nights, and depending on how drunk we all are the herd mentality kicks in for the rest of them. I seem to be the only one that doesn’t want to go.
This has happened before a couple of times (both bachelor parties.) the first time I just opted out, but then I just sat around at a bar waiting for them and they left forgetting about me and I missed the rest of the night which sucked.
So the second time I went and just sort of tried not to participate but the staff of course made me feel shitty for being there and not paying for dances. I paid for a couple dances for my friends which sort of helped but the whole thing felt awkward and I feel like I was being judged by my buddies for not stopping to their level. One friend bought a dance for me and was being goaded to do it but turned it down and it just felt like I was killing the vibe . Now everyone was hammered and by the next day I imagine it was forgotten about.
Reddit responses typically go to the extreme like “well if they don’t respect your opinion then they’re not your friends.” I mean maybe there’s a stroke of wisdom there, but it’s hard enough making friends at this age and the other 99.9% of the time everything is awesome with them.
Sometimes brining this type of stuff up can be awkward because though I’m able to share meaningful things with them, there’s a blind spot when it comes to women/strippers/whatever and I know they’d roll their eyes or get annoyed with my lack of participation.
Not looking to throw the baby out with the bath water, just hoping someone else may have been in my position before so I could get a few pointers in preparation.
Thanks!