Diamonds don't translate to love

Clichés stick to Valentine's Day like flies to honey. \nThe gifts are perhaps the most trite examples. One of the gifts that people associate with Valentine's Day is jewelry, whether they actually buy it or not. In one of my classes this week, the professor showed us several local jewelry store advertisements that sparked some interesting discussion. In these ads for Williams, Inc., a specific message is abundantly clear. And this message is quite disturbing.\nOne of the ads features a diamond solitaire necklace and copy that reads, "Long-term Wife Insurance." Is this what men are supposed to believe? That they need to spend their money on expensive trinkets in order to keep their wives? Furthermore, are we to believe that women are this shallow?\nAnother Williams, Inc. ad has a picture of a necklace with a column of three diamonds. The copy on this one reads, "For your past mistakes, your present mistakes, and your future mistakes." \nI am aware that buying a gift, whether flowers or something more lasting, is frequently a hopeful remedy for wronging someone. Still, that's not the right or the best solution. \nValentine's Day is a day of celebrating love. I thought that love was not about buying affection or security. But perhaps I was wrong.\nTelling men that jewelry is wife insurance is comparable to telling women that plastic surgery is husband insurance. That thought is disgusting and women who receive these gifts should not accept this. \nOne's significant other might have bought his partner a gorgeous necklace, but does that make up for him cheating on you last month or canceling a date to get drunk with his friends? \nLadies, are you more likely to stay with your significant others, good or bad, if they break out the credit card for you?\nMoney might be important in our society, but only because of its connotation with power and success. The fancy trinkets might be more of a status symbol for the giver and the receiver than tokens of genuine affection. It's unfortunate that these messages assert that flexing your financial muscles, despite any wrongdoing, will help you keep your wife. On the other and equally as negative hand, it tells women to use these presents as leverage in the relationship.\nShowering your significant other with gifts is not the best way to tell him or her how you feel. Anyone can buy and give a gift, and people with large wallets can buy particularly stunning, desirable gifts. Still, not everyone can show their significant other how they feel through their actions, which are much more sincere and honest.\nJewelry store commercials exist all year round. Yet their proliferation around gift-giving holidays underscores the scary materialistic value that our society could stand to eliminate. Giving gifts is one thing, but using gifts to buy someone's affection or companionship is shallow and shameful.\nIn contrast to what the jewelry store slogan suggests, every kiss does not begin with Kay.