By: Grace Uppendahl, columnist
If you’ve ever attended a Christian college, you know what I mean when I say the phrase “ring by spring.” Ring by spring is a common saying through most Christian college campuses. Urban dictionary defines it as, “Christian college kids in their senior year feel the need to get engaged before the final semester, thus ring by spring.”
While it might sound like a joke, ring by spring has been a part of culture here at Whitworth since the 1950s. Today, most people might laugh about it, until they meet someone who is engaged before they graduate. However, the ring by spring culture is toxic and stems from a wider culture we no longer live in today.
Jerusha Emerson, an English lecturer at Whitworth said, “Anytime I talk about the ‘ring by spring’ culture, I like to clarify that the notion of a ‘ring by spring’ culture is very much a culture that I’m speaking of separate from people’s individual choices to partner up at this particular moment in their life,” Emerson says.
Many people who do get engaged before their last semester at college do it because it is what is right for them, not because of the culture.
Yet, Emerson’s opinion of the ring by spring culture is anything but positive. “I think that the ring by spring culture is problematic,” Emerson says. Ring by spring puts undo pressure on students, particularly women, which stems from the 1990s and purity culture.
“[There was] the notion, particularly in the 1990s, of sexual purity, and the emphasis being placed on women to maintain their sexual purity, but to also be responsible for a man’s sexual purity by not tempting him,” Emerson says.
Emerson explains that this created a sense of lust. People wanted to have sex, so getting married is a good idea. Right?
Wrong. For years, purity culture has pressured women. Women are expected to be pure, but not too pure. Yet, the minute women put out, they are seen as impure and are often called names that align with that assumption.
Emerson believes that having sex is not a terrible thing once you’re married and it is truly a beautiful act of love. But marrying someone because you want to sleep with them is not the best tactic. Once you make that commitment, you are often stuck with problems and questions.
Ring by spring, as a culture, illustrates a deeper societal problem that we have not been able to move past in decades. By not talking about the pressures that we as a society and as a school put on women, sex and marriage, we become a part of this culture.
As a school, we have thrived off this culture. For years, we have even included ring by spring as a part of the little three. It’s a good thing it isn’t as big as it once was.
Whitworth even had traditions built around women who got their ring before they graduated. Dale Soden. Ph.D., a retired history professor, explains that there was a candle ceremony in the dorms for the women who got engaged. “They’d start passing a candle around the circle. And when the person who’s getting engaged got the candle, they’d…blow the candle out,” Soden said.
This ceremony was exclusively for women. This is a great example of how ring by spring is built off the idea that women have little to no value outside of marriage. It wasn’t until recent years that women were given the opportunities they now have.
The ability to get a job and earn your own money is something that society has just become open to. When ring by spring became popularized, it was in a time where a major reason for women to go to college was to get married. This culture has evolved through time, but the core values are still there.
Sienna Buster, a senior at Whitworth, was recently engaged and has a unique view on this culture. Buster and her fiancé met during traditiation at Arend in their freshman year. “We were friends for a couple months. And then we’ve been dating ever since,” Buster says.
Although on the surface it may seem as if Buster and her fiancé are a part of this culture, they do not see themselves as taking a part in it.
“He and I have a lot of conversations [about how] we really don’t like ring by spring. I think it’s a terrible culture. It was really damaging to young people, and we don’t really recommend dating in college,” Buster explains.
Buster even admitted to wanting to wait till after college to get engaged so they wouldn’t be perceived as a part of the culture.
The reality is that the ring by spring culture is toxic, particularly towards women. Women’s rights have increased since the 50s, even the 90s. But the way society perceives, looks at and expects women to be married at such a young age has not. This culture puts pressure on women to find a husband. Not getting your “ring by spring” means your worth as a woman is diminished.
The idea behind ring by spring is that of judgement, inequality and purity culture. We have grown since then.
As a society, we need to start seeing women as equals. By doing that, we can cancel the ring by spring culture and become a more inclusive community.