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Engagement Rings, A Messy Social Ritual For Valentine’s Day
Two months’ salary exchanged for a lifetime of worship? Most people say “pass.”
Roaring Rivers
Torrents, ripples, and currents by Christyl Rivers
Rings and things
People, I have learned, are very touchy about the subject of engagement rings. I wrote about it recently and was hit back with both approval and animosity.
My own position is that it is up to the couple who want one to make the choice of whether to put a ring on it, or reject the whole thing of it.
That’s cool. But it is not cool that so many people, especially mansplaining misogynists, go on and on about how a woman desiring a ring is a gold-digging demon.
She is not. There are as many reasons for wanting a ring as there are women in the world. And let’s not forget, there are many men who either want one, or want the ritual or object itself, as a way to express what he feels.
Yes, there exist women who want to show off the ring. But, in this too, her (or his!) motives range from giddy to grateful, from shiny to shallow, for a symbol that indicates she found love.