I’m not a big fan of diamond jewelry. The stories of artificial scarcity, the stories of horrible working conditions in the mines, the stories of massive rich manipulative organizations at the helm of the industry: all checks against the stones.
Additionally, I’m really not a fan of engagement rings. They seem to be both a sign of conspicuous consumption and a sign of ownership co-dependencey and control: a more expensive sophisticated hickey or high school letter jacket.
And sure, I understand that for most people, the ring is about a sign of love: “He loves me enough to spend lots of money on this ring.” However, I find this lack of critical perspective to be an extremely unattractive, even incompatible trait in a girl.
If I proposed to a woman and she asked for a ring, not only would not go out and buy her a ring, I think I would retract the engagement on the spot. I just can’t imagine happily spending the rest of my life with someone who could want a diamond engagement ring.
Talk about a request backfiring.
Originally posted as a diary entry on Kuro5hin. Although Kuro5hin is now defunct, an archived copy of the post includes a series of comments from the Kuro5hin community.