mail() and stripslashes()

I'm using the mail() function to send email out via the web, and I've run in a problem with escaped characters showing the slash in the emails. I get the text for the email ($email_text, lets say) and then I strip the slashes and put the new version in another variable ($nice_email_text). When using the mail function, $nice_email_text is the data that gets sent out, but the slashes in the escaped characters still show up in the messages. (With OE) Any ideas what would be causing this? The scripts I've made are sending out emails to customers, and I don't want all the " and ' characters to show up with slashes next to them.