Tuesday, July 18, 2006

A sizzling suggestion


Spring branding
Originally uploaded by Big Sky Nik.
I had a breakfast meeting at the Union League Club of Chicago this morning, as the final stage of my membership application process. There were lots of interesting people in the room, and especially at my table. I was not seated with any young people but I did see some around the room. Many of them were young men and very cute, if I'm allowed to say so.

But just speaking briefly with some of the young guys this morning, a few of them mentioned that they are getting married later this year. Now I'm not the sort that starts talking to a guy and then takes a sneak peek at his wedding finger in search of a ring, but it started me wondering why the woman gets to wear an engagement ring to indicate her 'spoken for' status, and the guy gets to be a comparatively free agent?

I am as big a fan of diamonds as the next girl, so I'm not suggesting that women do without engagement rings. They represent that a woman is off the market, so to speak, but they are obviously also a token of someone's love for them. So why should a man not wear the same symbol? I 'propose' that a naked wedding finger should be the universal sign of singledom for both sexes.

I think an engagement ring would empower men. No longer would they have to contend with the flirtations of single women, and the uncomfortable "I'm sorry but I'm getting married" rejection. But it would also save a lot of headache (not heartache, mind you) for the single girl, whose affections would only have been wasted.

And male or female, who can't use a bit more bling?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Liz I agree in theory. However I'd rather use the $$$ on a male engagement ring on my dress.its allabout the bride anyway!

Unknown said...

Maybe I should just be more direct in future:

Me: You married?
Him: Nope.
Me: Engaged?
Him: Yep.
Me: Sucker.

[I say this with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek of course]

Anonymous said...

Now time for a serious male perspective .... speaking as a male male ....as distinct from an other-male male ..... the lack of an engagement ring is important because while we're happy to take our intended off the market (and putting fences around them would be a bit difficult), we on the other hand need to be more flexible .... just in case you understand. Statistically there are more females than males in the world and as the uber-progenitors it is important that we pick right .... something that might not become really obvious until the very last minute. That is all I have to communicate.

Unknown said...

I'm thinking that boys (men as they like to think they've become) are to unreliable and often remove or hide wedding rings so I'm looking for an engagement tattoo - on the forehead maybe (somewhere triky to hide) and they can have annulment skin grafting in the case of a divorce/separation.

Anonymous said...

There was a guy at soccer who became engaged and had an engagement ring. But his wife is a cow (not related to the fact I know she doesn't like me of course) so I'm sure that contributed to his wearing one.....

Hmmmmmmmm