[mkaziz]

> These days, pretty much the only people who never have sex before marriage are religious extremists

That's an incredibly ignorant and inflammatory thing to say.

[monocasa]

Nah, it's pretty much true, as someone from the bible belt even.

Hell, it was always true. The point of a diamond on the engagement ring was because it was assumed that you had kicked the tires on that part of the relationship, and the engagement fell through, then that woman had something she could sell as a nest egg for her new life as a forever alone spinster, being the 'broken woman' that she was.

[taeric]

I think this is assuming diamonds are a long held tradition. Pretty sure that is a rather heavy fabrication.

[monocasa]

Well, all traditions are heavy fabrications.

As far as diamond engagement rings are concerned, it's about a century old tradition at this point, so four or five generations. That's a pretty long time for the purposes of this discussion.

And this comes form someone who didn't get their fiancée a diamond ring for various reasons.

[taeric]

Agreed to an extent. I posit they probably aren't 4/5 generations of actual traditional usage yet. Most folks great grandparents probably did not have diamond rings.

I should also have said this was more a side comment. I don't think it detracted from the overall point made earlier.

[make3]

I really don't think it is, though I guess most religious extremists don't see themselves as such

[DonHopkins]

"You shouldn't have sex before marriage" is an incredibly ignorant and inflammatory thing to say.