If you're a woman and you've ever got engaged, you'll know that the first thing lots of people ask on hearing the news is, 'Ooh, can I see the ring?' When I got engaged six years ago, I was asked this question quite a lot.
And despite myself, I always felt a bit awkward when I told people that they couldn't see the ring because I didn't actually have one. It wasn't that I felt I was missing out by not having a diamond (or a sapphire, or a ruby, or all three). It's that lots of other people clearly felt I was.
Bizarrely, I found myself having to make excuses for my apparently tragic lack of engagement bling, as if my now-husband was some sort of non-committed cheapskate for not forking out two months salary (or whatever De Beers now insists is the correct amount of money to spend) on a ring.
The thing is, I didn't actually want an engagement ring. I never wore rings, for one, and precious jewels leave me kind of cold. It's not just the ginormous ethical questions surrounding the mining and selling of diamonds – I don't even crave ethical gems.
Last week the ring Napoleon presented to his future empress Josephine to celebrate their engagement sold at auction for a whopping 730,000 – nearly 50 times the listed price. But not even this historic gem was enough to make me feel the power of diamonds. I basically just thought,'Hmmm, I suppose it's quite pretty. But nearly a quarter of a million quid? That's insane!'
But sometimes I feel like I'm alone in my glittering apathy.The idea that women just can't resist precious trinkets is an old one, from Shirley Bassey bellowing 'They are all I need to please me/They can stimulate and tease me' to Marilyn Monroe crooning that while humans may lose their charms, diamonds 'won't lose their shape - diamonds are a girl's best friend.'
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The Duchess of Windsor (the scandalous wife of the former King Edward VIII) and Elizabeth Taylor were famed for their love of priceless jewels and more recently,pop princess Rihanna released a song called 'Diamonds', the video of which featured her smoking a giant diamond-filled spliff.
And of course, the likes of Kim Kardashian are never seen without some glittering gems. Even less ostentatious celebs aren't immune - whenever the news breaks that a star has got engaged, magazines and celeb blogs vie with each other to show the first pic of the ring, which is then analysed as if it was the Holy Grail - is it too big? Not big enough? What does it all MEAN?
The thing is, it's not like I don't like jewellery - or even sparkly things. I love costume jewellery, and my favourite piece is a not-exactly-cheap necklace of Venetian glass beads. And I did get a wedding ring - a plain gold band. But I'd rather have a necklace from Tatty Devine than De Beers. Basically, diamonds don't stimulate and tease me. And they're certainly not my best friend. But clearly lots of people disagree.
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So what about you? Are you a sucker for diamonds and pearls? Did you – or do you – crave a bling engagement ring? Or do they leave you cold too?
