Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend...And Financial Security: The Context Behind The Iconic Song and Jewelry Today

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Glitz. Glamor. Social Commentary? In the iconic performance by Marilyn Monroe of “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, with Marilyn’s gorgeous pink dress and matching gloves (I think there’s only like four other dresses I’ve ever wanted more than this one) and the gentlemen dancing around her and presenting her with jewelry, it can seem very glitz and glamor is all there is to it. But, there is some commentary on the financial status and security, or lack thereof, of women at the time. So of course, I, a fashion-loving, history-reading, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Political Science double-major had to write about this.

In the United States, it was not until the late 1960s that women could open a bank account in the United States, and it was not until 1974 with the passing of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act that credit discrimination against women was prohibited (prior to this, many banks would only give women credit card with their husbands’ signatures and would not grant them to single women). Given the fact that Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was released in 1953 (the song itself was released in 1949), and women had little to no economic independence, relying on their fathers and then their husbands (or lovers), who could at any time abandon them, the song “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” addresses a harsh truth within the glamor - if you are going to ask for a gift from a man who could leave you at any time, it needs to be something that will hold its value and can be sold in case of an emergency.

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Going further back and also across the Atlantic, prior to the passing of the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 in the United Kingdom, the law combined the woman’s existence into that of her husband, and all of her property became his. If the husband were to pass away, all of his property and whatever property she had brought into the marriage went to creditors or were passed down through a will, and the widow was completely dependent on her children. However, the only two pieces of property that this did not apply to were her clothing and her jewelry. Due to this fact, a woman’s jewelry was her financial security in case she found herself widowed and even if her husband left behind a lot of debt, her jewelry was considered a protected asset. The catch to this was that if the husband was alive, he was the one who had control over the jewelry and could do whatever he wanted with it.

Following the passage of the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882, although jewelry given to women by their husbands was still viewed as technically his until his death, jewelry given to her by anyone else was her property and was thus protected and independent of the husband. Due to this, women had more agency and some sort of financial security in case of a divorce or death.

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The previous examples are of course focused on the Western world, and the past, but the view of jewelry as something that will hold its value, or as an investment, is hardly unheard of in 2021, nor is it something that is only viewed in the previous two countries I discussed. Gold is a popular choice of jewelry for many cultures such as those of India, China, and many parts of Latin America, for a variety of reasons, such as symbolism, tradition, or history. For example, and I of course cannot speak for all Latinas when I say this, but one thing I saw with classmates’ families and my own was that when giving gifts for important milestones (if you asked me I would say the big two were First Communion and Quinceañera), many abuelos and abuelas would go for jewelry. Though it wasn’t a “in case your husband dies or leaves you you can sell this” thing, the sentiment was that the jewelry is something that will last forever and it is something you can pass on to your children and grandchildren (and it will hold its value).

Sources/Further Reading:

The History of Women and Money in the United States

Gender and Jewelry: A Feminist Analysis by Rebecca Ross Russel

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