03-28-2006, 11:50 AM
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 17
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sourced out from "The Silhouette" By ERIN REID
A promise ring is a rather ambiguous little piece of jewellery. What is a promise ring, anyway? Yes, it is a pretty little ring, usually given by one person to another, but what does it mean? What is the wearer promising? What is the giver promising? Is there an official definition?
When I heard that an acquaintance had just received a promise ring from her boyfriend, I wondered what exactly that meant, but was too polite to ask. Does it mean she's engaged? Planning to be engaged? Or is the ring just a nice present from her boyfriend?
One Mac student (who wishes to remain nameless) believes that the promise ring is "a sort of pre-engagement ring, like you're promising to be engaged." The idea is that you wear the promise ring when you intend to get married, then when you actually decide to get married in the near future, you wear an engagement ring, and after the vows are spoken you wear a wedding band. It's a hierarchy of jewellery, in which each ring is more beautiful and expensive than the last.
Others feel that the promise ring is a "token of a certain level of commitment, although not quite engagement." In this case, the promise ring is an evolution of the fraternity pin--remember all of those movies set in the 1950s, where girls would scream hysterically "I've been pinned"?
It's a promise of fidelity, of monogamy. It's also a subtle message to all would-be admirers that the wearer of the ring is already taken, and they should stay far, far away.
A more cynical student feels that promise rings are just something guys give their girlfriends so that neither party experiences any guilt when they have pre-marital sex. This way, if the man is accused of using his girlfriend for sex, he can point to the ring on her finger, and remind her that she possesses a physical reminder of his long-term love and commitment. As we all know, however, some of these relationships do end, and the promise can be broken.
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