And while we're on the subject of weddings...

Here's a quandry. Marriages are contracts. They used to be contracts between a suitor and the bride's father. In some cultures, the suitor would pay some consideration to the bride's family, essentially buying himself a wife. In others, the bride's family would pay the suitor a dowry in exchange for taking her off their hands.

The modern view of marriage is much different though. It's a contract between two individuals agreeing to enter into a relationship. Many of the customs of a marriage that come from the old view are now being done away with. More and more often, both families split the bill instead of putting it all on the bride's family. At most weddings I've been to recently, the groom is walked down the aisle by his parents. Both families are asked who is giving away the bride and groom. The entire ceremony is supposed to be as reflexive as possible.

All except for one thing. I wear one ring. She wears two. Well before the wedding ever happens, a guy is expected to invest some dough into a nice diamond ring for his fiancee to wear and show off to her friends.

Now here's my beef. Women have initiated many of the changes to the whole marriage process to make it more equal. I agree with all of them and think that they more accurately reflect what a marriage is/should be. So why hasn't there been any move to balance the whole engagement process? Shouldn't I get something neat to show off to my buddies in exchange for the big rock-on-a-ring?

As a means to equalizing engagements for men, women should have to proffer some type of engagement gift. It doesn't have to be a ring. While rings are pretty and shiny, we don't get the same kick out of them that women do. Besides, shiny objects distract us. Clearly not the way to go. Instead, women should take the same amount of money and spend it on a nice engagement plasma screen TV...or perhaps an engagement barbeque. I know that I personally could use some engagement Pings to replace my current set of clubs.

Items like these would go a long way toward serving the same purposes as a ring: they would serve as a symbol of love and commitment, as well as give your special man something to show all of his friends just how lucky he is to be engaged to her.

Dammit, I love equality. After we get this thing moving, we need to see about getting couches in our restrooms too.