I have only one problem with this article crawling so high... As it seems an ad for one retailer of Moisanite Charles & Colvard. Also this article was submitted twice to hackernews before, once by the same person before.
Diamonds Suck (2006)
471–480 of 618 posts
Re: Diamonds Suck (2006)
#472Earlier quoted context omitted.
> diamonds being "non-negotiable" seems like a huge, glowing, neon warning sign It's deeply ingrained in Western culture. Think about it like eating dogs. There's no rational reason not to use dogs for meat, but most Westerners would throw a hissy fit rather than eat dog meat. So don't assume the prospective bride is unreasonable. In fact, assume the opposite, as she was able to read a rational explanation of the iss…
> It's deeply ingrained in Western culture. It's only "deeply ingrained" in the US. In most of the Western Europe etc it's negligible. And from what I've read it wasn't some deep rooted tradition in the US either -- it took a lot of advertising from diamond companies to instill it... http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/how...
Eh, my wife got some flack in Ireland when she didn't have a diamond engagement ring. Yet somehow we're still together.
Re: Diamonds Suck (2006)
#473Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wife and I had read the Atlantic article before it was too late, went with plain wedding bands for both of us. However, living in America, this is causing issues for her, continuously having to explain to friends and acquaintances why she does not have a diamond. We'd been looking for used rings as an alternative - hence, thank you very much for writing this, you just saved me and my wife several thousand dollars.
Is this really a thing in the US? In Italy (and AFAIK in most of Europe) wedding rings are normally plain gold (rarely white or red gold, or platinum) bands. Engagement rings do have a stone, but they are not worn every day.
It was that way in the US for a very long time. Sometime in the last couple decades a new trend arose to wear both the engagement ring and a wedding band together. The logic being you spent 4-5 figures on beautiful jewelry, so it's silly to only wear it during the engagement. (Whether it's silly to spend that much in the first place is another argument.) I don't know if they are in fashion currently, but many jewelers began selling engagement rings with a paired wedding band that is designed to match perfectly and be fused with the engagement ring after the wedding.
Re: Diamonds Suck (2006)
#474Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm probably odd, but I personally wouldn't be marrying anyone who "caved" to social pressures about a non-functional fashion accessory barely noticeable from anything other than up close. Thankfully, I already found someone like that.
Yes, I feel like there is a growing social pressure to resist social pressure ;)
it's about strength of the personality - are you a conformist which tries hard to not stick out of the crowd, behaves as all the others, listens to the same stuff, thinks the same or do you forge your own way, whatever it means for you specifically?
I prefer this strength in women - as it is not an isolated feature of personality. Life is too short to spend it with someone that shallow, unless that is exactly what you want/need.
And yes, if it's not clear, women requesting diamond rings as statement of true love (that's just not true and won't make the relationship any better), or blabbing about 3-salary-worth of diamonds... meh, I say you can do better.
Re: Diamonds Suck (2006)
#475I'm the OP - surprised to see this at the top of HN today, but happy to post a quick update: My wife and I have been happily married for ten years now. She loves her ring, and it has held up extremely well. (She just had the band resized, absolutely no issues with the stones.) No one has ever thought it was anything other than a diamond ring, which includes several years of daily scrutiny from crazy New York City bri…
Thanks for writing this. I'm glad people are pushing back against the insanity of the diamond marketing. But you're still buying into the concept of the gifting of rings, when this is a recent phenomenon created by De Beer's. Unless they were European royalty, your great-great-grandparents did not exchange rings. Commoners did not have this custom until the twentieth century. When you suggest getting non-diamond ring…
This site isn't trying to upend the artificial customs that we've come to cherish, just to substitute one costly part of it with a cheaper indistinguishable alternative for all the reasons he described
Re: Diamonds Suck (2006)
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
Horse meat is quite normal in western culture, unless if by western culture you mean anglophone countries.
And not eating it is for non-taste/texture/allergy reasons is just as absurd as wanting to have a "real" diamond. It's all nonsense. None of it makes sense.
Culture just tends to be arbitrary, in the details. If you don't care about potential social consequences, then feel free to ignore the parts that you find absurd.
Re: Diamonds Suck (2006)
#477Re: Diamonds Suck (2006)
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm probably odd, but I personally wouldn't be marrying anyone who "caved" to social pressures about a non-functional fashion accessory barely noticeable from anything other than up close. Thankfully, I already found someone like that.
Yes, I feel like there is a growing social pressure to resist social pressure ;)
Don't give in to peer pressure, none of the cool kids do
Re: Diamonds Suck (2006)
#479Re: Diamonds Suck (2006)
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
Check out this article, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/how... It shows how the concept of diamond engagement rings were completely invented by a specific ad campaign; first in America and now expanding to the rest of the world. They were specifically trying to create social pressure to buy the most expensive ring possible; to reinforce the impression that a diamond ring demonstrated wealth a…
Everyone knows about it and yet everyone does it. It is like getting a luxury brand car or a watch or living in a certain part of town. All aren't practical. When social pressure is already there, you are asking the female partner to break the norm which can be tough.
Come on, it's 2016, the female partner can take care of herself. Valiant knights are not needed anymore, she's slaying dragons too.