Well, perhaps diplomacy in your own self interest just wasn't job one back then. In fact, it still might not be. :) Back then, the few times a male was interested in me (which was rare, since I didn't play lacrosse or some other muscling activity), I just hit the ignore button. That seemed to do the "trick" as it were. I would not have foregone the oppotunity to go to Brown myself, assuming that the ignore button was sufficient. But then then, I was an intellectual snob. It took a couple of decades to make me sufficiently house broken to become tolerable in someone's living room. Well that is an overstatement, but whatever.
LOL, my friends, family and co-workers would heartily agree. I'm missing that gene.