Do jewelers think women are whores?

[commasense]

@PatriotX

There’s a very long list of items that are marketed as sex getters.

Buy this and members of the opposite sex will want to give you some.

I don’t think it’s limited to jewelry.

Yes, but the implications of Porsche ads or beer ads, ludicrous as they may be as real-world methods of attracting the opposite sex, aren’t nearly as insulting to women as jewelry ads, are they? Yes, a woman might figure that a guy who can afford a Porsche will be a good provider, but it seems to me that that’s a step removed from the more explicit quid pro quo suggested by many ads for jewelry.

Of course, the beer ads are implying you can get her drunk and take advantage of her. Which strikes me as much more insulting to the man than the woman.

[Marley23]

It’s definitely more nuanced than that, but I guess that’s not 100 percent wrong. People use things as displays of affection and then those displays get rewarded. It happens all the time and is different in quality, if not much in description, from prostitution.

Are the diamond ads hyper-materialistic and demeaning? I’d say so. They’re promising that a woman, because she is a woman, will love you/do you more if you give her a diamond. It’s not quite calling her a whore, it’s more like calling her shallow and easily won over by shiny stuff.

Unless the woman sleeps with you to get the diamond, there’s a pretty significant difference between that and a hooker, who sleeps with you specifically in exchange for money.

[Sophistry_and_Illusion]

Obligatory Onion link:

Housewife Charged In Sex-For-Security Scam

Perhaps the most damaging testimony has come from Mr. Crandall himself, who on Tuesday told police that while the couple was dating in 1977, Mrs. Crandall—then known as Helen Steuben—demanded that he buy her a ring worth over $1,000 before he could have sex with her. The first sexual liaison took place some six months later at Bob’s Honeymooner Hotel during an all-expenses-paid trip to Niagara Falls.

[LionelHutz405]

@Shodan

and I caught her practicing casual gestures in the mirror to show it off.

Showing it off is a big part of it, don’t you think? What good is a symbol if nobody else sees it? If you just gave her the money she couldn’t show off to her friends.

[Hazle_Weatherfield]

@Shodan

I thought it was ladles.

Old joke -All seriousness aside, I think the deBeers ads have it wrong. Expensive gifts are a consequence of romance, not a cause of it. At least, if you are doing it right.

I bought the Lovely and Talented Mrs. Shodan her three-stone ring because she has loved and cared for (and slept with) me for the last twenty-five years, not in order to bring it about. And because she did it when we were dirt poor.

But now we’re not poor any more, and I can afford to spend what I did on the ring. And she cried when I gave it to her, and I caught her practicing casual gestures in the mirror to show it off.

I gave her the ring because it matches the sparkle in her blue eyes. But the sparkle was there before the ring.

Regards,
Shodan

That’s lovely!

[Aioua]

At a small jeweler’s by my house they’ve hung up a banner out front. Bigh picture of some sparklies. The caption?
“Long Term Wife-Insurance”
I shit you not.

[Wife, wherever, whoever you are, know this: Your engagement ring will have no diamonds. That’s just how its going to be.]

[Skara_Brae]

@LionelHutz405

Showing it off is a big part of it, don’t you think? What good is a symbol if nobody else sees it? If you just gave her the money she couldn’t show off to her friends.

Showing off is a huuuge part of it. But sadly, there are quite a few women out there who believe that jewelry is actually a sign of how much their husband loves them.

A friend of my was showing off her engagement ring to a couple of other girls. One of them asked how big it was (Yep :rolleyes: )

Friend: I think its about half a carat

Girl: Oh, my boyfriend is going to buy me at least a whole carat

Friend, smiling: I guess that means he loves you more

Girl, completely seriously: Yep

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

I think it’s just kind of sexist to assume that any woman is going to automatically get all lit up by jewelry. My wife doesn’t wear jewelry, considers it to be a waste of money (not to mention ethically suspect) and doesn’t permit me to buy it for her. Judging by the ads, though, you’d think that all women are fascinated and easily manipulated by the gift of a shiny rock. Some actually are a little more evolved than that.

[CalMeacham]

Showing it off is a big part of it, don’t you think? What good is a symbol if nobody else sees it? If you just gave her the money she couldn’t show off to her friends.

When I gave Pepper Mill her engagement ring , I did it at the Parker House restaurant in Boston. She broke down and cried. The travelling musician found an excuse to come over to our table to look.
I’m sure he wasn’t impressed. I have no doubt that he’s seen much better, and much bigger.
There were diamonds on it, but they were tiny elongated chips. It was the design of the ring that got to Pepper, not the size. I knew her well enough to know that the design was absolutely perfect … for her. Getting her exactly the Right Thing, not the Size or the Cost, is what blew her away.

And she didn’t even notice, at the time, that I hadn’t actually asked her to marry me. That was sort of taken as a given. On the way back to the car it hit me that I really should, formally and verbally, ask Pepper Mill if she wanted to marry me. So she got her ring ina fancy restaurant, but I asked if she wanted to marry me between cars in a parking garage.

[Voyager]

@Diogenes the Cynic

I think it’s just kind of sexist to assume that any woman is going to automatically get all lit up by jewelry. My wife doesn’t wear jewelry, considers it to be a waste of money (not to mention ethically suspect) and doesn’t permit me to buy it for her. Judging by the ads, though, you’d think that all women are fascinated and easily manipulated by the gift of a shiny rock. Some actually are a little more evolved than that.

Maybe I should start a thread (not here) about what the world would be like if the ads were true. People would give each other cars wrapped in bows as standard presents for one thing.

I don’t know about you people, but if we want to turn each other on we look at our bank balance. Which is higher from not going into hock to buy jewelry that is going to be worn very seldom. (Or expensive junk for me either.)

[Dangerosa]

@Diogenes the Cynic

I think it’s just kind of sexist to assume that any woman is going to automatically get all lit up by jewelry. My wife doesn’t wear jewelry, considers it to be a waste of money (not to mention ethically suspect) and doesn’t permit me to buy it for her. Judging by the ads, though, you’d think that all women are fascinated and easily manipulated by the gift of a shiny rock. Some actually are a little more evolved than that.

But ALL advertising assumes that the target audience will get lit up by the product. You don’t see Goth guys giving diamonds to Goth girls in diamond ads - any more than you see grunge band slackers in Lexus ads. You don’t see the country club set in Wal-Mart ads. The target audience for these ads is not you or your wife, they are guys whose wives will get lit up by jewelry.

Its an advertising asusmption that what every guy wants is a Hi Def big screen TV for Superbowl Sunday. But I don’t know if Brainiac4 has seen the Superbowl in the past four years. He isn’t the target audience for the early January “get a big TV for the game” ads.

[ThatDuckIsEvil]

There’s one too that says “Sleeping on the couch again?” Wha?? You have a run-of-the-mill squabble and you need to buy her JEWELRY to make up?? What kind of harpy did you marry, you utter fool?

My Grandmother bought her own diamond engagement ring back in the 30’s. Her husband was ever-so-practical and an un-romantic clod, and he did not believe in wasting hard-earned school teacher money on such trinkets. Grandma was the tightest Depression-Era Tightwad I ever did know, bless her, and she wasn’t big on trinkets either. In fact the only piece of valuable jewelry she had at the end of her life was her diamond ring and wedding band set. But, wives wear pretty rings dammit, and she wanted one - practicality be damned. They were poor starting out, and they had to take care of her mother, but she knew they wouldnt always be poor, and she wanted to have a ring to last her marriage - beginning to end, not some years in. She chalked up 48 years of marriage with that ring. When Grandpa died, she took it off and never wore it again, even though she outlived him by nearly 20 more years.

It’s a modest 1/4 karat, with a beautiful art-deco filigree setting that makes it look bigger than it is, it’s a work of art. The matching wedding band was stolen when my aunt’s house was burglarized, may the theives rot in hell, but the engagement ring is on my hand every day - my aunt let my husband give it to me when he “proposed” It is the only diamond I will ever wear or own, and it didn’t cost us a cent. You rock, Granny.

[BrainGlutton]

Honestly, can you think of a better way to sell jewelry?!

[Frylock]

I think the advertisers think that men think that everyone thinks something which implies (whether everyone realizes the implication or not) that women are whores.

I swear that sentence makes sense.

-FrL-

[SSG_Schwartz]

To answer the OP:
Jewlers–Yes
Construction Workers–Also yes
Truck Drivers–Yes, again
Professional Athletes–Oh hell yes
Shoe Salesmen in Detroit–yes
Popcorn vendors in Miami–yes

Well, you get the point

SSG Schwartz

[SisterCoyote]

@Aioua

[Wife, wherever, whoever you are, know this: Your engagement ring will have no diamonds. That’s just how its going to be.]

So, um, how you doin’?

Diamond ads are insulting to women, and have been for years.

Of course, most advertising is insulting to somebody, really.

[catsix]

Don’t they also insult men by implying they are not thoughtful enough to do something on their own, so they should just line up at the jewelry store and hand over their wallets?

[BrainGlutton]

@catsix

Don’t they also insult men by implying they are not thoughtful enough to do something on their own, so they should just line up at the jewelry store and hand over their wallets?

No, they are insulting men by implying they are stupid enough to believe that lining up at the jewelry store and handing over their wallets constitutes doing something on their own.

Which does not mean they are wrong.

[Spice_Weasel]

@Frylock

I swear that sentence makes sense.

Sorry, not so much.

Personally, I love jewelry, but it doesn’t have much to do with the cost… I just like the sparkly. I’ve always loved jewelry, and yes, I think it’s romantic to have a symbol of a beloved relationship to wear on your body on a daily basis. From my perspective, it is a very intimate gift. I love getting gifts of jewelry from my husband, but they aren’t expected and usually we can’t afford it. Sometimes he’ll say, ‘‘I really wanted to buy you a beautiful necklace I saw today but we can’t afford it.’’ It’s a nice way of saying he’s thinking of me and it always surprises me because he’s not a very spendy guy. (and lest anyone jump to unwarranted conclusions, I do the same thing with him, about stuff I know he would like.) For us, it really is the thought that counts and it saves money!

Jewelry commercials, however, are insufferably stupid, and some jewelers are downright sketchy in their high-pressure sales techniques. When my husband was looking for my engagement ring, he says the sales clerk actually said to him in an attempt to push a more expensive product, ‘‘Isn’t she worth $1000 to you?’’ He left.

And there was some fucking stupid one that keeps playing on the radio that shows some sappy family making some sappy wish on the Thanksgiving Wishbone and then the Dad gives the Mom this Wonderful Magic Diamond Ring and the little kid’s all like, ‘‘Hey, Dad, did you have a wish?’’ And the Dad is like, ‘‘Oh, as a matter of fact, I did!’’ And the Mom boasts, ‘‘So I kissed him!’’

Because you see, her one fervent wish was something shiny and expensive, and his one fervent wish was human affection, or if you wish to be pessimistic–sex. So yeah, I really do see your point. But I think they are equally as insulting to men as they are to women. Does anybody seriously believe that jewelry is like some magic relationship panacea? Do guys truly believe that if they buy a woman jewelry, she will magically love him or be attracted to him? Because that’s really sad.

Why the hell are they making these commercials?

Eh, never mind, I know why. I’ve met those women too.

@BrainGlutton

No, they are insulting men by implying they are stupid enough to believe that that lining up at the jewelry store and handing over their wallets constitutes doing something on their own.

This aspect of it is irritating too. I heard another commercial recently that basically said, ‘‘Hey guys, we know that you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing! Come on over to our store and we’ll tell you exactly what your wife will want!’’ It’s manipulative and insulting in much the same way that a car salesman might approach a woman.

[photopat]

I view jewelry advertising the same way I view Valentine’s Day and Casket shopping. In each case there’s an implied suggestion that “the more you spend the more you love, the less you spend the less you love.” To which I say bullshit. I know the SO likes jewelry and I know what kinds she likes. Diamonds are nice but a creatively cut piece of Amber is beautiful too and has more character.

(Also, to the jeweler who came up with the idea that a man should spend 3 months salary on an engagement ring? I hope you get a diamond shoved up your ass.)