The failure of the man-gagement ring

When we look at the wedding industry, we have to look at it in different parts. We have the dress, venue, catering and much more. The jewelry industry has been said to be able to survive though depressions and recessions, along side the wedding industry. If there are going to be weddings, there will always be a demand of wedding jewelry. This includes the engagement ring as well as the wedding bands. Early marketing done by jewelry companies were targeted to women, leaving the men behind. In 1926, in order to seek a larger market for wedding jewelry, manufacturers and retailers began to promote an old traditional practice, the male engagement ring. Marketing deploys like radio ads and newspaper ads were spread around the country to gain some popularity. However, this attempt failed to stir up male interest or women for that matter because they weren't the ones "popping the question."

The effort to advertise a male engagement ring came to a low tide until 1950 when an entrepreneur decided to revive the old tradition of an acceptance ring. The timing could not be better.  After the war, families were shifting and men were becoming "home bound." More men wanted to show off that they were to be wed soon. This paralleled the concept of togetherness that the country was going though during the postwar era.  However the idea of togetherness had its dismay and after the postwar era, the trend of male engagement rings fell though.

I think the idea of male engagement rings is like a bad trend. It pops up with good intentions and then fails. I think the reason why it has never been able to stick is because weddings play with such tradition and rituals that breaking any would be unspeakable . So why is there a need for male engagement rings? Is it a way to show women that "Hey, this man is taken?" I mean if a man is engaged he doesn't need a ring to prove to anyone that he is faithful. If that's the cause, let me play devil's advocate and ask you this: Why do women need rings to declare they are "off-limits?" This is probably because it has always been tradition for a man to court a woman so no one ever questions the need for a ring for her. Don't get me wrong now, when the special man finally pops the question to me, you better believe there WILL be a ring, and a really pretty big one too.

Will this trend "pop" up again? Time can only tell. Nowadays male celebrities such as Michael Buble have been seen wearing them. Is the man-gagement ring back for another round?