"I have a boyfriend" oops. . .

Out on a night out with the girls, sipping on one of the lounge's specialty cocktails cause you feeling a little adventurous when a young man slowly starts walking towards your handbag filled table. He's not your average Joe but he's also not your next Calvin Klein model so you pay no never-mind to his approach after all this is a girls night.After a couple empty pick-up lines and pleasantries, he asks you out and before the words can filter through your ever so logical brain, you utter "I have a boyfriend" now we all know this is not true but it got him away....now for the big whoops? Why couldn't you just say you are not interested cause lets face it, had you said you are single, Mr would have pestered you until you gave him your number,called to make sure it's not a fake number and left you having  to block him whereas saying you have boyfriend eliminates all that unnecessary work if you are lucky.

My concern isn't on the guy that simply wants to score but why has society made being in a relationship a norm, like if you are female you HAVE to have a partner to be accepted. Now don't get me wrong, being in a relationship is beautiful but so is being single, unfortunately that is being frowned upon and basically making single women prey to the various guys who think that a women cannot simply enjoy being in the comfort of their own company so we resort to lying and saying we have non-existent boyfriends just so we can avoid the awkward "why don't you have a boyfriend, you too cute to be single" questions.
Now obviously this isn't something easy to do cause let's face it, should you say you are just not interested, follow up questions like:
“Oh, so you have a boyfriend?”
“I said, I’m not interested.”
“So you’re a lesbian, then?”
“Actually, I’m not interested.”
“You seem crazy.”
“Nope, just not interested.”
are bound to come up so we go for the easy route which not only indicates  the male privilege of  “I have a boyfriend” being the only thing that can actually stop someone from hitting on you because they "respect another male-bodied person more than they respect your rejection/lack of interest"  but that  single girls are "fair game"  to harassment.
This does need some guts cause not only does the guy end up thinking you are some crazy stuck up feminist but in some cases, it does spark up some pretty interesting debate cause lets face it, no guy takes blatant rejection easy. Gutsy as this is, it does have its benefits,benefits  that outweigh the common "I have a boyfriend" lie after all wouldn't you rather want guys to give you and women in general the respect of your honest lack of interest, dance the night away without being hassled and curl up in bed knowing that you gave YOURSELF the respect YOU DESERVE.
Now go be kick-ass,dance the night away and make NO excuse for being the girl that simply enjoys her own company.