Hear Me Out: It’s Time To End The Engagement Ring

Slate Debates

Slate Podcasts

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… popping the question. By The Knot’s estimates, we’re officially entering peak wedding season. And we know there are many, many controversial opinions we could tackle about weddings, but let’s start with that thing that precedes most weddings: the engagement ring. The ring – especially a diamond one – is an institution that feels like a foregone conclusion for couples taking the next step in their relationship. But does it need to be? Belinda Luscombe, author of Marriageoloy and editor-at-large at TIME Magazine, joins us to argue for the end of the engagement ring. If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected] Podcast production by Maura Currie You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hear Me Out.
0:03.1	I'm Celeste Headley.
0:04.6	If you have been proposed to, you've done the proposing, or you've been in the orbit
0:09.7	of those who have, so realistically that includes all of us, you know what an engagement ring
0:15.5	entails.
0:16.5	It's money.
0:17.5	Yes.
0:18.5	It's also a wedding, probably at some point, but it's also a relationship politics.
0:23.8	Like the institution of marriage, the institution of the engagement ring is rooted in old fashioned
0:29.3	ideas about who has power in a relationship and who is a commodity, who can be trusted
0:36.3	and when to follow through on a promise.
0:39.5	The engagement ring is a relatively new tradition in the history of human relationships, but
0:44.6	they are a big deal in modern times, and our guest today argues they really shouldn't
0:49.7	be.
0:50.7	I just think the engagement ring is one of those things that has got a little out of control,
0:54.4	that it's all about size now and not about intention.
0:58.7	Belinda Lescom, Editor at Large at Time Magazine, joins us to argue for the end of engagement
1:05.0	rings.
1:06.0	Stay with us.
1:10.0	Welcome back to Hear Me Out.
1:11.5	I'm Celeste Headley.
1:13.1	So according to a survey from the Knot, which is a wedding website, we are now in wedding
	...

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