Eventually, when someone decides he wants to try to tolerate me for the rest of his life, I hope he has the good sense not to give me a diamond engagement ring (unless it’s a family heirloom or something). I’ve always been slightly bothered by the “I love you this many dollars” implication, almost as much as I’m bothered by the subtle woman-to-woman “my fiancé loves me this many more dollars than yours loves you” ring comparison game. It’s possible that law school—which seems to have become the husband-shopping arena of choice now that home economics degrees are passé—made me biased. Also, aesthetically, I just prefer gemstones with color. If you’ve seen my apartment, you know I’m not a fan of white.
Recently, though, I have gathered new information which strengthens my anti-diamond ring stance. First of all, diamond engagement rings were not the standard until about 75 years ago, when DeBeers launched its marketing campaign, attempting to convince all women that diamonds were associated with everlasting love. (Now, your suggested ring price is supposedly equal to three months’ salary. I wouldn’t even feel comfortable wearing three months worth of someone’s salary on my body.) Then, they took it another step by promoting the previously unorthodox surprise proposal concept. The reasoning behind this is that men allegedly spend more money when left to their own devices, whereas women are thriftier, and would choose cheaper rings. I find this hard to believe, but apparently it’s proven to be true.
So, in light of that, those obnoxious Robbins Brothers commercials make more sense to me now. You know, the ones where they invite uncreative husbands-to-be in for advice on creative proposals. If you have to have a salesman tell you how to propose, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
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4 comments:
Seriously. We need to get married to each other. I am so with you on this one.
Right on, Valentine!
One of my college roommates had been engaged to some guy for years. He'd proposed to her at Disney World during the Fairy Princess Rainbow Light Parade but just as he was about to do it, she got a phone call from her mom. When she hung up, her boyfriend said, "I was trying to fucking propose to you!" and pouted for the rest of the night. So when Jim from The Office is making his oh-no-Andy-stole-my-proposal faces at the camera, I'm like, shut up, Jim. Because I'm the type of person who talks back to the TV.
I agree 100% that you don't need to spend 2 months salary, or any specific amount of money on an engagement ring. What matters is that the ring is from the heart and symbolizes the love between two people. (Full disclosure: I work at Robbins Brothers and get to help plan surprise marriage proposals once in a while. A great job, I must admit!)
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