Right. I'll pass on wearing a piece of industrial abrasive, dearly paid for with the blood of others, as a status symbol. More crap from the consumerism gurus.

another way for guys to be as shallow, superficial and materialistic as women!

about buying expensive junk for babies...

Guys, run the other way. It means she couldn't give a crap about YOU, only how she can USE you. Men need to WISE UP.

Just to set the record straight: Saint Valentine's Day is an honest-to-God saint's day with a long, venerable, and charming tradition behind it. It's too bad that we've let it get hijacked by commercialism, but I don't hear anyone calling Christmas a "Hallmark holiday."

See it's true! They're just like women! Even the straight ones. Case closed

20% increase? In the words of Star Trek smooth talker Cyrrano Jones, "Twice nothing is still nothing." This sounds to me like little more than a puff piece designed to fuel conusmmerism around a holiday that's supposed to honor a renegade priest.

Wow, I didn't mean to unleash the stream of vitriol here. I am an engineer and have a very acute view of the true worth of diamonds. They are useful. They are not rare or "forever" (they are easily marred or destroyed by heat). I find all of the hype about how wonderfully rare they are to be pretty funny as it is all a confabulation of the diamond wholesale industry.

Anyway, I am not against jewelry, I wear a very understated stainless steel ring, earring, and a silver chain. However, I don't know many guys (or women, for that matter) who are all that excited by the thought of new jewelry. Perhaps is is merely the sort of person I choose to surround myself with.

Not only stupid, not only hypocritical, but shallow to boot.

No wonder no woman will buy me that $400 rubber bracelet I've coveted so long.

Damn I suck. I wish I were a womyn.

Wait- So men are buying THEMSELVES expensive jewelry for Valentines day now? Riiiiight. Because most guys i know just cant stay away from the jewelry store.

I'm calling BS on this one!

Men with money will wear bling, what do you think crown jewels are? From all the mob movies I've seen aren't Italian men notorious for wearing gold chains and big rings? It's just a way to show that you have money even if you are walking around in a sweat suit or jeans and a T-shirt. I figure any guy who wants to buy jewlery for himself is fine. What the hell do I care. I figure if you have the money to spend on precious gems, fine, they are an investment just like stocks, rare books or art. I'd prefer someone buying gems than a car or a boat where the value decreases the moment it leaves the lot and it does nothing from that day forward than cost you more money. But if regular guys are buying bling to appear rich when they aren't well welcome to lifestlye of the poor and shallow.

"For those women who don't care about the Hallmark holiday (or at least pretend not to care and then try to ignore the voice of disappointment when Feb. 14 passes as just another day..."

I really _don't_ care about Valentine's Day. My husband and I didn't get each other anything in past years, and don't intend to waste money on anything this year either. I never understood the whole, "look what my husband bought for me!" thing anyway. If the woman makes money, why should she be all giddy like a schoolgirl when her husband presents her with an expensive piece of jewelry? She paid half for it. The only way it could matter is if he chose a particularly romantic time and an extremely thoughtful gift. That would be special, and could be free (origama, a poem, wildflowers).

I do bring my husband flowers on occasion, and he brings me chocolate sometimes. Not on Hallmark approved holidays, but when we think of it.

This sounds like the article a few years ago in the NY Times that said Casual Friday was going by the wayside because men were buying more suits. At least, that's what the men's clothing industry reps quoted in the article said. They had no sales figures backing up their claim.

any man wearing any jewelry besides a simple wedding band is tacky mafia greasy.

He may wear a college ring if he insists on being Joe Campus, but he'd better get rid of it within 4 years of graduating.

If I want jewelry for myself I go buy it for myself.

don't really care. Most jewerly is tacky an impractical

All you ladies (and I mean ladies in the broadest sense of the word) doth protest just a wee bit too much.

that the attempts to sell the "all gender is a social construct" really does irritate me

gold chain on a man: pretty good tacko-meter and indicator