[Miscellany]

I was having a conversation with FashionCousin the other day whereby she expressed some concern about how all her friends were beginning to settle down. Being the nice cousin I am I laughed in an evil way and said wait 'till they all start having babies!. She wasn't impressed and I understood why. If I have to go to one more dinner party where I'm:

a) sitting at the head of the table because I'm the odd one out.
b) asked 'why are you still single?' or 'found anyone special yet?'
c) not so subtly being set up with the only other single guy there
d) have to partake in conversation consisting only of dirty nappies/weddings/how hard it is for a couple to pay off a mortgage (fuck off!).

then I'm going to whip out my filed sharp toothbrush shank and start offing people.

Aaaaanyway, after talking about various weddings and engagements we'd been to lately FashionCousin decided that if she wasn't married by the time she was 30 (she's just turned 26) then she was going to do one big thing for herself: buy herself a mega -could be a deposit on a house- diamond ring.

This is not the first time I've heard of people doing this. In fact I've seen quite a few single women who are around 35-40 years old who have gorgeous, huge diamond rings that they bought themselves. Why? A few reasons:

a) they could afford to do so themselves
b) they wanted one as a treat "just for me".
c) they didn't want the only reason they have a beautiful diamond to be dependant on whether they were getting married or not.

The few women I've seen who have done this have come across as successful, independent women to me, some of whom even have long term partners. On the flipside I've also heard of a group of girlfriends all chipping in to buy another women a diamond ring. Personally I've always wanted a pair of diamond stud earrings and I know that if I want them it's probably something I'm going to buy myself one day (err..when I finally save up). As for a ring, I want that to be from a the man I love/loves me (hm, had to stop writing to have a laughing fit there) - but that's because that would be symbolic to me and would probably die with it on.

It's interesting how beautiful jewellery once the domain of gift giving from men has become something that some women are willing to do for themselves now. Since I hear of so many men complaining about forking out for a diamond ring I wonder if this is something they are happy with now. I asked bro about this:

bro: if they buy their own ring, what are we supposed to buy for them?
me: err, I thought men hated buying the diamond ring. They're always complaining about it.
bro: ....yeah..okay. But it still sucks.

Okay, so what say you? Why are women buying their own beautiful jewellery? Girls, would you buy your own piece of beautiful jewellery or is it something only done in romance? Men, are you insulted or relieved by women who buy their own jewellery?

Labels: diamonds, men, women, wonderings

posted by M at 8:38 am 29 comments