Single ladies put a ring on it -- without getting hitched

Unwed women and divorcees are targeted with "uncommitted" jewelry. Also: Ring coffins for failed marriages!

Published May 27, 2010 12:30PM (EDT)

It's really never occurred to me to wear a ring on my ring finger in order to broadcast my availability to potential mates. In fact, I've always found that a well-placed sparkly band can be an effective way to deter unwanted advances. But there is apparently something of a market for single ladies who want to put a ring on it without, um, putting a ring on it. Catch my drift? This newsflash comes by way of the New York Times, which has a lengthy feature on the trend of non-commitment rings.

There is My Single Ring, which is advertised as a ring for a "single person who is happy with who they are" -- and yet, evidently, still feels the need to A) advertise for a mate, and B) fill their life with gaudy trinkets. (Also, judging from one of the images found on the website, this type of personal fulfillment can be represented by a trio of scantily clad ladies hanging out in a living room shaving their legs, doing their hair and painting their nails.) It features images of interlocking male and female symbols and is meant to send the message: "I am an intelligent, empowered individual and available to meet the same." Along the same lines, there is the $350 diamond-heavy Ah Ring, which is meant to communicate that the wearer is "available" and "happy." The official website enthuses: "Married and engaged women have their rings, and now single women have a diamond ring to call their own" -- because god forbid an unwed woman go into a jewelry shop and buy her own diamonds without it being marketed to her first.

For women whose marriages couldn't be saved by the exorbitantly priced not-so-eternal circle on their finger, there are divorce rings. Jewelers will refashion a wedding ring to symbolize the breakup -- the Times gives the example of a woman who had her gold band "severed" and "refashioned it into a ring with a gap, across which strands of silver are stitched" to represent the enduring connection of the child she had with her ex-husband. There's also D Jewelry Co., which claims to build "self-esteem one person at a time" through its "line of rings with a separation in the normal 'never-ending circle.'" However, my hands-down favorite, and probably the most economical option, is the Wedding Ring Coffin. This one is for divorcees with a dark sense of humor: It's a miniature coffin designed to "give a dead marriage its proper, final resting place."


By Tracy Clark-Flory

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