Diamond rings: a form of prostitution?

Diamond rings: a form of prostitution?

That’s the inflammatory premise of an article that claims the obsession with diamonds and big engagement rings thing is a big marketing scam invented by diamond merchants De Beers and which women and men have been suckered into.

Writer Ken Mondschein says:

“Of course, in De Beers’ defense, the pitch has to hit a receptive audience. Male engagement rings, popularised in the ’20s, never took off in the way that men’s wedding bands did. The marketing works because it ingeniously plays on men’s complexes about love, status and money— if you don’t buy her a diamond, it implies, you not only don’t love her, you can’t afford her.

 

The diamond ring is not only a symbol of commitment, but of status. What’s more, the script is one of near-prostitution where the woman passively (or passive-aggressively) hints that a gift of diamond jewelry would be welcome. (Or, as Ron White of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour translates it, “A diamond — that’ll shut her up!”) In other words, the diamond script is profoundly anti-feminist.”

I’ve always found the whole diamond ring thing distasteful. Girls who wave their rings around and somehow judge how much they’re loved by the size of their diamond…..Of course there are those who claim the size of the diamond is somehow connected to the size of the penis – I mean ego – of the man who bestows it.

And I’ve lost count at the number of times “let’s see the diamond ring!” is the first reaction to the announcement that someone is engaged. Shallow? Materialistic? Or just traditional?