Once upon a time, rings were only supposed to be worn on the left hand ‘ring’ finger. It was generally a man who bought his woman a ring, so that the moment you set your eyes upon a woman wearing a right (on the left hand, of course), you automatically knew that she was someone else’s lady. The long and short of it is that rings were always worn on the ‘ring’ finger of the left hand, and that they were always bought by men for their women to signify that they were either married to them (in the case of wedding rings) or that they were about to marry them, in the case of engagement rings.
Fast forward to today, and we see more and more women spotting right hand fingers. The way it works is that a woman pops into a jewellery store (the online or brick and mortar variety), gets a quotation for a nice ring, buys it for a herself…and then starts wearing it on the ‘ring’ finger of her right hand, lest the meaning in the ring be misconstrued. So what could be behind this trend where more and more women are buying the right hand rings for themselves?
Well, behind the trend where right hand rings are becoming more and more popular is the ‘women’s liberalization’ wave, where women are coming to realize that they don’t have to live in desolation just because no ‘knight in shining armour’ came their way and gifted them with a ring…that they can just as well pop into a shop selling rings, buy themselves one, start wearing it on their right hands – and still feel as good as their counterparts who have been given the rings by their men. In other words, in the right hand rings, we find a message to the effect that a woman doesn’t necessarily need a man to be happy, and that a man (who would gift her with an ordinary left hand ring) would only be coming in to complete her happiness, but that she would already be happy on her own even before his entry into her life. Of course, someone might ask why the woman in this case then can’t wear her ring on her left hand then, and the answer to this question would be that she wears it on her right hand so that she doesn’t end up distracting and discouraging men who might have some sorts of intentions about her. Such men, seeing her wearing an ordinary left hand ring, might get to imagine that she is either someone’s wife or fiancée, and thus keep his distance. This way, the women in question could very easily end up without a man in her life for the rest of her life; and clearly that is not the intention here.
Another factor that could account for the increased demand for right hand rings, besides the increased liberalization of women, is the fact that the wearing of the right hand rings by a number of celebrities and ‘opinion leaders’ in women’s circles has led many to start wearing the right hand rings, not because of the inner message in the rings, but rather just because they are the ‘in’ thing.
