Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

[Desdinova]

Do you think the old saying "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" is true or false? Why?

 

[squirrels]

Women don't buy diamonds for themselves. Receiving them, though, is the ultimate in validation. It's a man's way of saying that he will spend ridiculous amounts of money just to see her smile.

Depending on the relationship, that can either be totally awesome, or totally chumpish.

Why are you asking?

 

[thedude4242]

I know of woman who wait their whole lives to get the diamond ring. sometime they wont even accept one unless it is a certain whatever. they let you know years in advance.

 

[taiyuu_otoko]

Here's an interesting tidbit: until the forties or so, when a guy proposed, he and the girl would go shopping for the ring together. Then some clever marketer noticed that girls usually were fairly cautious, as they were spending their money that would otherwise be spent on building their future home together.

So they needed to come up with an angle that would convince the guys to shop alone, and spend more money. So they (the diamond industry, run by alpha males) came up with the "give her a ring when you propose idea" and it worked like a charm.

Guys started shopping for rings to impress their sweethearts with, and the dumb fools spent twice what they would have spent had they brought their girl alone.

Today, it's SOP to propose with a ring. This has nothing to do with a feminine conspiracy, only a marketing conspiracy thought up by alpha marketers, eagerly bought into buy beta chumps.

Women merely benefited from the alpha's scamming the beta's.

 

[Maxtro]

The whole diamond engagement thing is a huge scam being perpetuated by the mining companies. It's commercialism at it's worst. The average cost of a diamond engagement ring is $3500 to $4000. I can think of a million things that are a better use of money than a f-ing ring.

An interesting read

The diamond invention was an ingenious scheme for sustaining the value of diamonds in an uncertain world. To begin with, it involved gaining control over the production of all the important diamond mines in the world. Next, a system was devised for allocating this controlled supply of gems to a select number of diamond cutters who all agreed to abide by certain rules intended to assure that the quantity of finished diamonds available at any given time never exceeded the public's demand for them. Finally, a set of subtle, but effective, incentives were devised for regulating the behavior of all the people who served and ultimately profited from the system.

The invention is far more than merely a monopoly for fixing diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of power and romance. For it to ultimately succeed, it must endow these stones with the sort of sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them onto the market. The illusion thus had to be inculcated into the mass mind that diamonds were forever-- "forever" in the sense that they could never be resold.

In 1870, however, there was a radical change in this situation. Huge diamond "pipes" were discovered near the Orange River in South Africa.

These were the first diamond mines ever discovered. Now, rather than finding by chance an occasional diamond in a river, diamonds could now be scooped out of these mines by huge steam shovels. Suddenly, the market was deluged a growing flood of diamonds. The British financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly came to realize that their investment was endangered: diamonds had little intrinsic value, and their price depended almost entirely on their scarcity. They feared that when new mines developed in South Africa, diamonds would become at best only a semi-precious gem.

As it turned out, financial acumen proved the mother of invention. The major investors in the diamond mines realized that they had no alternative but to merge their interests into a single entity that would be powerful enough to control the mines' production and, in every other way that was necessary, perpetuate the scarcity and illusion of diamonds. The instrument that they created for this purpose was called De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., a company incorporated in South Africa.

 

[mrRuckus]

I'll never buy one and I inform women I date of this all the time when the subject comes up.

Many, perhaps lying who knows, say they don't like diamonds and would like a different gem. I don't tend to date morons though.

 

[Warrior74]

I know a guy who dated his girlfriend for seven years. For the last three of those seven he saved $300 a month for her wedding ring. He proposed, they were married for one year then divorced. She sold the ring to move out on her own. He was an assistant manager at an auto parts store. The next time he got married he bought her a cheap ring, they were married for a year, she got pregnant and divorced him and took away his child. Now he has a girlfriend who is begging him to get married and he says never again and acts like a true DJ. Some lessons have to be learned the hard way and more than once.

But to get to the point, of course a diamond is a girls best friend, you aren't and you know all other women are really just competion. A cold shiny rock worth lots of money that is under her complete control? How is that NOT her best friend! If she could screw it and it had an income, it would be her husband!

 

[amoka]

This is very true. I have a personal story to prove it. Well, back when my ex girlfriend and I breakup and she told me she found "another man", the beta inside of me wanted her back so badly that I almost gave her my testicles. She said since I repeatedly breakup with her in the past, the only way she could get back with me was if I propose to her. S I said "sure. Marry me". She said "ah ah, you need a ring to do that." So I popped on my computer, went on ebay trying to find a good $50 or less ring. Then she said "dont you think I deserve a better ring than that?, besides you'd need my size". I said "cool, then lets go to the jewery store", worse mistake. When we got there, this woman started mentioning all the words she could remember associated with diamond: " I want a princess cut, clear cut with level 'D' or lower, etc". I started thinking, how the fvck did this woman knew all of these? I was hoping to pay 500 max if worse comes to worse, but none of the diamonds there are less than 3k. After buying the "stone", you'd have to also buy the "band" to put it in. The total price came to about $4200. I had no such money but this woman insisted I put it on my credit card... that was when wokeup and realized there is more to this woman that I never saw coming in the 2+ years I knew her.

 

[jonwon]

Not all women do, but you can bet a good 80%+ do.

I also think regardless of the commercial angle, women want one because they can show it off to all their friends, or should I put it another way; they want to rub their friends noses in it. I believe women have friends not for companionship, ok some parts of it is, but more often than not they have friends about so now and again they can get one 'up' on each other, like a self obsorbed shi* circle jerk.

It's like saying "look what 'MY' BF bought me', with a great big shi* eating smile on her face, thinking "They are going to be so jealous", and that knowledge I feel is a massive motivator for women wanting the ring, rather than the ring itself.

Also they don’t necessarily mean they want a wedding ring, even though it is assumed the ring is for marriage, sometimes they just want the ring!

Edit- In a way it can be compared to a guy wanted the latest tech', He buys a Iphone for example, when they first come out, partly because he wants to show it off to his friends, like he was the one who designed the thing, not to pee his friends off, but to show the cool new toy. These items are normally practicle, i.e they have a purpose.

Where as a women wanting a ring, a ring does nothing but sit on her finger, it has no other use. And the whole purpose I feel is to not be practical, but to pis* her friends off.

 

[Desdinova]

I also think regardless of the commercial angle, women want one because they can show it off to all their friends, or should I put it another way; they want to rub their friends noses in it.

I agree 100%. To the woman, an engagement ring (or wedding ring) doesn't hold the symbol that she is unavailable to other men. The ring's sole purpose is to show her girlfriends that she is valuable. Other than that, the ring is meaningless.

She may be extremely happy and devoted to the guy who bought the ring for a short period of time (until the novelty has worn off), but if she wasn't truly attracted to him before he bought her the ring, she still won't be attracted to him after the ring is on her finger. She won't decline the ring nor the proposal for two reasons: 1) Because she doesn't want to hurt his feeling, and 2) Because she wants to make her girlfriends jealous.

 

[Warrior74]

I agree 100%. To the woman, an engagement ring (or wedding ring) doesn't hold the symbol that she is unavailable to other men. The ring's sole purpose is to show her girlfriends that she is valuable. Other than that, the ring is meaningless.

Once you understand that fact....you are one step closer to how the game works. Everything is to prove her value. You are there to prove her value. Look how smart my boyfriend is, or how tall he is, or how much money he has, or how artistic he is! Look at how these shoes make me look, look at my nails, look at my new hairdo, everything is to compete with other women. Which is why you are the prize. She wants you to show off to other women, "Look at this prize I worked for and got and you can't have it." Or "Look at this beta I got to marry me and pay all my bills and take care of me, what do you have?"

That's why you can never put her above you. She must work to keep her prize, she must know she can lose her prize and all that comes with it.

 

[nismo-4]

Once you understand that fact....you are one step closer to how the game works. Everything is to prove her value. You are there to prove her value. Look how smart my boyfriend is, or how tall he is, or how much money he has, or how artistic he is! Look at how these shoes make me look, look at my nails, look at my new hairdo, everything is to compete with other women. Which is why you are the prize. She wants you to show off to other women, "Look at this prize I worked for and got and you can't have it." Or "Look at this beta I got to marry me and pay all my bills and take care of me, what do you have?"

That's why you can never put her above you. She must work to keep her prize, she must know she can lose her prize and all that comes with it.

I love this and Desdinova's quote!

To me, you can give ruby, sapphire, emerald, diamond (any of these) and it can be a romantic moment. But watch how often she wears it. If that diamond ring ain't on her finger, and she's actin' aloof, send her ass to Arkansas and make her dig!

Magic and attraction is like the invincibility in Super Mario Bros. You get really happy at first sight, you catch it, you get really excited, but when the effect starts wearing off, the excitement drops with it.

Keep the attraction going and there won't be any problems.

 

[bigjohnson]

A lot of men don't understand why women love to get flowers, jewelry, and other similar gifts. These men will often feel frustration because they see no purpose in it yet it seems so important.

Here's the scoop.

One thing women do to qualify a mate is investigate a very central and basic survival question; How willing (or eager) is this male to expend his material provisions on me and by proxy, our future family?

Being willing to buy her items that cost money and have no logical use is the ultimate way of showing the male will probably expend his resources on the family with little regard to his own personal benefit. In other words, it's a good proxy measurement of generosity and selflessness.

This is why, contrary to all reason, the more useless a gift is, the more it's appreciated. Flowers are a prime example of this. Jewelry is also on the list but it of course has residual value, which is a plus and a minus, you lose some from column A and put some in column B, essentially.

 

[Slickster]

Diamonds = Money

Money is a girls best friend.

 

[Trader]

Do you think the old saying "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" is true or false? Why?

Oh I'm getting a girl a ring alright. A cubic zirconia ring (CZ - the artificial diamond). You can get it for under $500 and it looks great, in fact it has an even brighter *fire* than a real diamond, that's how you can tell it is artificial. No way in hell I'm going to spend 3 months salary on a diamond ring.

I told girls that's what I am going to get my future wife, and yes I am going to tell her straight up it is a CZ and not a real diamond.

Obviously the girls got a bit frustrated, 'Oh she is not going to tolerate that!'

Don't give a damn, if she is going to walk just because it is a CZ, there's the door.

 

[WaterTiger]

Never liked diamonds much, although they make a nice accent stone to flank a colored stone which is my prefered.

As for the "Engagement Ring", should the time come for any of you gentlemen, get a simple silver band and have TAKEN boldly engraved on it. Save the money for the honeymoon, first home, new car or whatever PRACTICAL thing you can figure out.

 

[Desdinova]

I'll tell you guys the reason why I created this thread. Not too long ago, I started this thread about a girl who got engaged:

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=169546

She's been flashing that ring at everyone she comes in contact with. Meanwhile, she's been txting me, telling me she misses me. I outright told her that she should be focussing on her life with her future husband. "I try, but 90% of the time he pushes me away and picks a fight with me. Makes it hard to forget you."

Again, the engagement ring doesn't mean a goddam thing other than proof of value.

 

[Julian]

Yes it's true. However, it does not only apply to diamonds. Diamonds are synonymous with wealth.

 

[squirrels]

If you have any question or distaste about how your woman will behave on the subject of diamond rings, maybe you shouldn't be marrying her in the first place.

When and if I get married, I will be getting my woman a diamond ring. It will be somewhere between modest and extravagant, depending on what's reasonable money-wise. And she WILL appreciate it and behave maturely in regard to it...because I'm not going to marry an idiot.

Maybe I'll TELL her it's a CZ, then break out the truth on our 5th anniversary or something. Lead in with, "Honey, there's something I need to tell you...I haven't been honest with you all these years..." just to build the suspense. How's THAT for a social experiment?

 

[bigjohnson]

..... the engagement ring doesn't mean a goddam thing other than proof of value.

I believe it's a mistake to extrapolate the expected behavior of every woman out there based on one damaged example.