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Speaker 1: From House top Works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Molly. Molly. Whenever
Speaker 1: I think of diamonds, I think of Marilyn Monroe. Yes, logical,
Speaker 1: She's wearing a hot paint dress singing a certain song
Speaker 1: called Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend. And when I
Speaker 1: first watched the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blonds, which is when
Speaker 1: you know, Marilyn Monroe sings the big Diamonds number, I
Speaker 1: was maybe I don't know, ten or eleven years old,
Speaker 1: and the song really got on my nerves because I
Speaker 1: was like how I was like, that's stupid, Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 1: Diamonds cannot be your best friend. They can't talk to you,
Speaker 1: they can't play games with you. So, Molly, what do
Speaker 1: you think um our diamonds girl's best friend was Marilyn Monro? Right,
Speaker 1: you know, Kristen, I think to answer that question, we're
Speaker 1: going to have to look a little bit at the
Speaker 1: history of diamonds and what you should probably know, what
Speaker 1: you probably did not know when you were ten, was
Speaker 1: that gentlemen preferred blonds. That movie came out in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty three, and you know what was going on at
Speaker 1: the height of that time, what promotion of diamonds. Basically,
Speaker 1: all the diamonds in the world are owned and sold
Speaker 1: by one company called the Beers, who may sue us
Speaker 1: after this podcast, but basically to make money, obviously they
Speaker 1: had to sell the diamonds. And this all started um
Speaker 1: in the early nineteen hundreds when they're like, oh man,
Speaker 1: we got all these diamonds, we got to sell them.
Speaker 1: And one of the big things seven was a copywriter
Speaker 1: wrote the famous line diamond is Forever. And this was
Speaker 1: sort of the lynch pin of just the most brilliant
Speaker 1: marketing campaign of all time. I think Advertising Age actually
Speaker 1: named the Diamonds is Forever slogan, like the number one
Speaker 1: slogan of the male and because it was so successful,
Speaker 1: because really, before de Beers came around and started hawking
Speaker 1: their diamonds to uh two women everywhere, Um it dononds
Speaker 1: really weren't that huge of a deal. Oh no, you
Speaker 1: did not get a diamond engagement ring the way we
Speaker 1: think of getting diamond engagement rings now, um, my favorite
Speaker 1: old engagement ring was some women I think in the
Speaker 1: Victorian era used to get symbols engagement that was the
Speaker 1: token of appreciation. And before the diamond campaign came along,
Speaker 1: it was much more likely again, opal ring and ruby ring, sapphires, turquoise,
Speaker 1: these were the more exotic jewels because really diamonds are
Speaker 1: very common right there. They're no more uncommon than any
Speaker 1: of the other, you know, precious gems. But because of
Speaker 1: the way de beers marketed them to us, we think
Speaker 1: of them as these very exotic gems and they really
Speaker 1: symbolize a lifetime together um as as emphasized by a
Speaker 1: diamonds forever. And you know, part of their campaign was
Speaker 1: getting diamonds on celebrities like Marlon Monroe, offering them to
Speaker 1: the queen. So wherever you turned as a young woman
Speaker 1: in that time, you saw your idols wearing diamonds, right,
Speaker 1: And the campaign worked so well. But I think it
Speaker 1: was by nineteen sixty five percent of American women were
Speaker 1: wearing diamond engagement rings. Yeah. And you know what I
Speaker 1: think really the brilliant part of this was is they
Speaker 1: appeal to women because they're like, oh, look at this
Speaker 1: very wonderful jewel, you must have it. But it also
Speaker 1: said to men, if you really love your lady, you
Speaker 1: gotta get our diamond. Yeah, there's this whole thing around. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, an engagement rings should you know, typically cost
Speaker 1: the man one to two months salary. I think the
Speaker 1: average cost of a diamond engagement ring these days is
Speaker 1: thirty two dollars, right, And do you know what the
Speaker 1: markup on that is? What as soon as you put
Speaker 1: a diamond in a ring, it's getting marked up one
Speaker 1: hundred to two percent of its actual value just by
Speaker 1: putting it in the ring. And that's just because I
Speaker 1: mean diamonds, to be fairly honest, not to hate on
Speaker 1: diamonds not that special. You're right, Molly, Diamonds really are
Speaker 1: not are not that's special because what they're made of,
Speaker 1: carbon is not exactly uncommon. I mean, eighteen percent of
Speaker 1: our bodies are made up of carbon. It's everywhere. It's
Speaker 1: just a very particular kind of carbon. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's the hardest, you know, mineral in the world. It's
Speaker 1: the hardest mineral. It's a very pressurized form of carbon.
Speaker 1: It has to have UM four five thousand and D
Speaker 1: thirteen pounds per square inch of pressure, and it has
Speaker 1: to be made a very high temperatures seven fifty two
Speaker 1: degrees faheit. But if that doesn't happen, the carbon is
Speaker 1: basically just gonna not become a diamond, but probably becomes
Speaker 1: something like graphite or full. Right, It's not like you
Speaker 1: see ladies walking around with graphite engagement rings yet yet, yea,
Speaker 1: So why do we so? Why do we have these
Speaker 1: this obsession with diamond rings in the first place. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, Molly. You know, as a
Speaker 1: little girl, I would put on my mom's rings and
Speaker 1: pretend to have, you know, a pretty diamond ring on.
Speaker 1: I just wonder why we have this cultural obsession with
Speaker 1: diamond engagement rings. Why do women need to have engagement
Speaker 1: rings in the first place. Well, rings give and on
Speaker 1: the occasion of an engagement are sort of an old
Speaker 1: tradition that came back from the Romans. As you mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: you might just get a thimble um. The first known
Speaker 1: diamond engagement ring was actually commissioned from Mary of Burgundy
Speaker 1: by the Archduke Maximilian of Austrian fourteen seventy seven. Clearly
Speaker 1: a romantic million be still my heart. Um, And it
Speaker 1: wasn't until the nineteenth century, when, as we mentioned, they
Speaker 1: had all these diamonds, that it really became a thing
Speaker 1: to do a diamond engagement ring. Now, mollly, I think
Speaker 1: that we could trace the this rise and popularity of
Speaker 1: diamond engagement rings in particular back to sex. Really, yes, because, um,
Speaker 1: in the early twentieth century when this whole diamond campaign
Speaker 1: is starting to develop. By that point, virginity was really
Speaker 1: no longer something that women held held onto until marriage,
Speaker 1: but very close before that, very close before that, right,
Speaker 1: they would probably you know, would remain virgins until you know,
Speaker 1: their boyfriend asked them to become their fiancee. But a
Speaker 1: lot of times once a couple got engaged, they would
Speaker 1: they would do it, to do the deed, They would
Speaker 1: do the deed. Since women were losing their virginity daring
Speaker 1: before they got married. There was this concern that a guy,
Speaker 1: you know, after he sampled the goods, he would just
Speaker 1: leave them high and dry exactly so wants the girl
Speaker 1: to do put a down payment on that with an
Speaker 1: engagement ring, right, So if they were left they had
Speaker 1: something I mean, it's basically like a no trespassing sign like,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I've done the deed, but you spent
Speaker 1: two months of your salary on me, so that's an investment. Well, also, Molly,
Speaker 1: until the nineteen thirties, a woman could sue her fiance
Speaker 1: if he dumped her for something called a breach of
Speaker 1: promise to marry. Yeah, so you know she could just
Speaker 1: take him to court if he dumped her. After the
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, that law goes away. So oh she needs something.
Speaker 1: So once again, this reinforces the whole idea of you know,
Speaker 1: but you know, put the money down, give me a ring,
Speaker 1: security deposit, security deposit. But I wonder, Kristen, why are
Speaker 1: women you know why? I wonder why they were so
Speaker 1: crappy at picking out these men who are just gonna
Speaker 1: love them and leave them. I mean, that is the
Speaker 1: angel battle every woman has to face out in the
Speaker 1: dating field, which is why I was really interested um
Speaker 1: by an article. I don't know if I'm gonna pronounce
Speaker 1: this right. The guy's name is to Toshi Kanazawa, and
Speaker 1: he wrote a book called Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters.
Speaker 1: He did this little excerpt of it um a psychology today,
Speaker 1: and he was talking about how the main struggle woman
Speaker 1: has when she is looking for a mate. She's got
Speaker 1: to figure out who are the guys who are gonna
Speaker 1: love and leave her and who are the ones who
Speaker 1: are going to stick around. And that is where women
Speaker 1: get sort of the need to have an engagement ring
Speaker 1: because once the man gives her the ring, in addition
Speaker 1: to it being a you know, commitment and down payment
Speaker 1: that you were just mentioning, it's also sort of a
Speaker 1: sign that the guy will stick around, right, and not
Speaker 1: just any gift will do. According to this author, I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't just give a girl a house. You can't
Speaker 1: just give a girl a sports car. Why not? I mean,
Speaker 1: those are those are nice things. This would cost you,
Speaker 1: you know, probably more than two months salary because you
Speaker 1: have an investment in those as well. Eventually you might
Speaker 1: drive the sports car, Eventually you might live in the house. Apparently,
Speaker 1: according to this guy, the more useless a gift the better,
Speaker 1: while at the same time being very expensive. That's how
Speaker 1: a girl's gonna know if he's really into her, because
Speaker 1: it's a selfless, a completely selfless gift giving her and
Speaker 1: it has no worth other than being pretty well, that
Speaker 1: may be true, mall you know, a diamond engagement ring
Speaker 1: could be a sign that you know your mate is
Speaker 1: honest about his intentions, although um, I think it does
Speaker 1: say something that the divorce rate is at so maybe
Speaker 1: that's not exactly Uh, diamond engagement ring isn't a guarantee
Speaker 1: that something's gonna last forever. Um. But I think that
Speaker 1: the sort of a cultural tradition around engagement rings has
Speaker 1: maybe as maybe shift, like the ideology around it that
Speaker 1: you know, women need to be it's a sign that
Speaker 1: we are now off the market. You know, men don't
Speaker 1: wear engagement rings. It does seem sort of like this, Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know, a reflection of like archaic gender roles, right.
Speaker 1: It's and it's very much a double standard. You know,
Speaker 1: we're not shelling out two months salary for anything for
Speaker 1: the guy he you know, we're walking around with engagement
Speaker 1: rings off the market, whereas a guy doesn't. Right. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, in a country like Scandinavia they have
Speaker 1: very um equal gender roles in society and both men
Speaker 1: and women wear engagement rings. Then well there's also been
Speaker 1: just random trend stories that have come up about which
Speaker 1: might also be part of just marketing efforts to try
Speaker 1: and sell more diamonds and rings. But um new trends
Speaker 1: of male engagement rings. You know, supposedly more women are
Speaker 1: popping the question to the man, and um, so they
Speaker 1: are then presenting men with their own rings. There was
Speaker 1: a story in last month in the Independent newspaper in
Speaker 1: the UK a out how you know all these British
Speaker 1: women are now proposing to men and so high in
Speaker 1: stores are now starting to sell men's engagement rings. But
Speaker 1: I don't know if that would really catch on. Really
Speaker 1: don't know. You know what surprising knows how many trends
Speaker 1: do catch on? Kristen, have you ever seen a right
Speaker 1: hand ring commercial that just behind the right hand ring
Speaker 1: is that women are so financially independent that even if
Speaker 1: they don't have a man, they could buy their own
Speaker 1: diamond ring. Right, But that's still I don't know. It
Speaker 1: still says that you need to prove something about your
Speaker 1: worth with, you know, something on your hand. I think
Speaker 1: it's just another marketing floyd. I think they're all marketing skeptical.
Speaker 1: So does that mean that you don't think that diamonds
Speaker 1: are a girl's best friend? Well, I think in addition
Speaker 1: to to answer that, in addition to the marketing campaigns
Speaker 1: that have been around it, and sort of this false idea,
Speaker 1: you know, that women need a diamond, that they're these rare,
Speaker 1: precious gems. There's also been a lot of controversy about UM,
Speaker 1: the actual mining processes and UM kind of human rights
Speaker 1: issues surrounding diamonds. I think, you know, it came into
Speaker 1: the mainstream with the movie Blood Diamonds that came out
Speaker 1: a few years ago, and a blood diamond, or UM
Speaker 1: conflict diamonds as it's more commonly known, is a diamond
Speaker 1: that's been stolen or illegally mind and then sold to
Speaker 1: raise money for rebel militias or terrorist groups and then
Speaker 1: those you know, those groups. Then you know inflict suffering, Yes,
Speaker 1: massive suffering, UM. But you know, people know it's a problem.
Speaker 1: So the u N and the Conflict Conflict Free Diamond
Speaker 1: Council have basically it's still better regulations so that you know,
Speaker 1: the estimate is that about nine percent of the diamonds
Speaker 1: UM on the market are conflict free. But you know, Kristen,
Speaker 1: you know, I was just listening to you talk about
Speaker 1: conflict diamonds. This has been a very UM Down with
Speaker 1: Diamonds sort of podcast since sort of anti diamonds. We've
Speaker 1: been fairly negative about it, but I do have to
Speaker 1: say that, you know, if some guy walked in here,
Speaker 1: got down on one knee and gave us a diamond ring,
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously be the problem. That was a stranger likely,
Speaker 1: but it would be odd. But you know you probably
Speaker 1: want the ring, if anything, to pon it. True. Um,
Speaker 1: but I mean, when it comes right down to it,
Speaker 1: while they may not be our best friend, girls still
Speaker 1: love diamonds. We do love diamonds. We love carrots, cuts,
Speaker 1: The Four Seas, all of that, right, the four season
Speaker 1: Molly should we should we talk about what to look
Speaker 1: for if we ever are on the occasion that all right,
Speaker 1: we know that this is just the beers cramming some
Speaker 1: false knee down our throats, but you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: getting married and I want to diamond. Yeah, lay down
Speaker 1: The Four Seas first four season, Molly cut, color, clarity
Speaker 1: and carrot impressive. Yes, And you know, even if it's
Speaker 1: a little while before we get diamonds, we still have
Speaker 1: to look at diamonds. The Hope diamond well, Molly, you
Speaker 1: know the Hope diamond. Hope diamonds pretty big, all right,
Speaker 1: It's a hundred and twelve carrots. It would probably not
Speaker 1: make for a very good ring because I'd be really heavy.
Speaker 1: But well maybe if that's your style, I myself would
Speaker 1: go for the Coulon Nan. What is that diamond? Well, Molly,
Speaker 1: the Coolan is the largest diamond ever found. It's three thousand,
Speaker 1: one hundred and six carrots. Now, you guys can't see
Speaker 1: Kristen when she was talking about that diamond, but she
Speaker 1: was just glowing. She clearly loves that diamond. And I
Speaker 1: have a theory Kristen as to why you love it?
Speaker 1: Do you want to hear it? Yes? I do. Hormones. Hormones.
Speaker 1: They're mentioned in all of our podcasts, So hormones must
Speaker 1: have something to do with it, Molly, hormones, It's not.
Speaker 1: It's always hormones, you know. Female hormones definitely make us
Speaker 1: do some odd things sometimes, but it is not what
Speaker 1: it's behind some yearning for a diamond, Molly. It is marketing. Wow,
Speaker 1: so skeptic. It's marketing for once our hormones get off
Speaker 1: the hook, yep. But if you want to learn more
Speaker 1: about diamonds and hormones, you can go to how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com for more on this thousands of other topics.
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