A man sits in a crowded bar, planning his next move. He’s going to approach the attractive red haired woman sitting on a bar stool sipping on a gin and tonic and offer to buy the next round. If she accepts and all goes well, there may be another drink and maybe even another — followed by an offer to go to her place for a little fun. What she will not realize the entire time, however, is that he has a secret in the form of a wedding ring in his right coat pocket, signifying the twelve years during which he has been married to his wife. A new kind of wedding band for men seeks to put an end to this.

The ring is like most other wedding bands in that it is metal and, as far as bands for men go, pretty plain. The difference is that on the inside of the band is a metal stamp which says “Married” in reverse letters such that when the ring is removed, the word married appears on the man’s finger along with the imprint of a ring.

Great in theory, useless in practice. Firstly, if you have to use an anti-cheating ring to make sure that your husband won’t cheat on you, you may have married the wrong man. Secondly, the imprinted word means so little in the time between when a man meets a woman in a dark bar, gets drunk with her (or in some cases pretends to get drunk as she gets actually inebriated) and then brings her to a similarly dark home and has a roll under the sheets before taking off for the evening.

In another example of how useless the ring is, the imprint is not permanent and so a person with adequate time can get any hint of imprint to fade off of his or her finger before making a meeting with an extramarital individual.

Many Jewish men do not wear wedding bands at all as they hold that they are considered jewelry and should not be worn by men. Yet in the Jewish marriage, where two people seek to merge as one whole, is there really a need for the man to wear jewelry to remind others that he is married? I do not believe that this is the case.

13 Comments

  1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Sort of a ridiculous curiosity. Most women know to look for a more permanent mark on a married finger missing a ring: A tan line.

    2. Moreover, I would bet that many of the women targeted by these cheating men would not even care if a ring was right there in front of them.

  2. Marie Friddle – near Seattle – Please feel free to connect with me on Facebook or follow me on Instagram. I'm always interested in meeting others who share a passion for art and creativity.
    twistnpout says:

    I fell like you are talking specifically about someone I know.
    On another note, I am pretty sure the ring would make no difference as supported by your last comment.

    Nice post.

  3. Your conscious knows and God knows, the vows you take. When you marry include
    the vows include God. Your marriage is only as strong as the three chords which hold it together.
    God does allow divorce except for sexual unfaithfulness. Divorce is recognized in this case
    and only in the cases of breaking the marriage vows you take before him but he is not any more
    happy. He allows it because he is a loving God and he wants us mortals to be happy. The tragedy
    in my life is that I have been married 3 times. God is not happy, I am not happy and there are
    three women who definetly are not happy. Faithfullness makes people happy thru good
    times and bad times. We just fail to be strong in our commitment to our spouse.
    The children (if there are any ) automatically sense this commitment. They are the
    individuals who usually suffer the most when mom and dad do foolish things. They
    waste the covenent they make before God. The ring is just a symbol of this covenent. .

    1. Robert,

      Sorry to hear that you have had such a hard time at it. The Good L-rd definitely knows when you are cheating and no ring or lack of ring will help that.

      2. So the ring thing? Don’t ya think it came from a higher power? Pagan tho it may be…. the idea was started by HaShem, and it’s been construed all this time.

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