Let’s start by making something clear: I am a very romantic person! I love to take girls on nice dates, to get them little thoughtful gifts, to say “I love you” to those I care about. I remember details, little wishes people make throughout their day, and I make them happen, like when my best friend said she’d really like to go see that one movie at the cinema and I took her to the Cine-parc. I like making people feel special, and I do it as often as I can.
That being said, I don’t do Valentine’s Day. I don’t think it should be celebrated. It’s a stupid celebration and it was created to make people feel bad about themselves. Here’s why I think no one should partake in this commercial holiday:
First, Valentine’s Day is meant to make you feel bad if you are single.
Being single is not a problem, but society makes it seem like it is. There’s nothing wrong with not having a relationship, or not needing one. Not everybody likes relationships, and that’s ok. People who choose to be single are not “learning to love themselves before someone else loves them,” they actually enjoy their own company and don’t feel the need to be in a relationship at each moment of their lives.
And for those who are single but wish they weren’t, well Valentine’s Day just sucks even more. If you already feel bad about not being in a relationship, the 14th of February sort of feels like a slap in the face by someone wearing metal gloves.
Second, even if you are in a relationship, Valentine’s Day still sucks.
It becomes very stressful to always have to prove your love with grand gestures every year! It can be expensive, it can create conflict between people who were getting along just fine. Maybe you bought your significant other some gift, and they don’t like it, and now they feel guilty for not liking it and you feel shitty because you got them a bad gift, or mad because you thought it was great and they don’t.
Third, society, movies, and books make you believe you have to prove your love on Valentine’s Day…
But what is an appropriate proof of love? You mean to tell me that making someone coffee every morning, folding their laundry, texting them good morning or sending them cute memes or nice songs for them to listen to is less a proof of love than buying a big Teddy bear and chocolate? Why are dates at the restaurant more important on February 14th than on any other day of the year? And If your partner forgets it’s Valentine’s Day (I don’t even know if it’s possible anymore because it’s everywhere!), then all hell breaks loose. They are a bad partner, they don’t love you, bla bla bla…NO! they just forgot! Because they are human and life is stressful…
Fourth, Valentine’s Day encourages people to buy things they don’t need, sometimes at exorbitant prices which can cause financial struggle.
We already live in a society where consumerism is a problem. Christmas turned into a gift-buying holiday, birthdays are just the same, but Valentine’s Day is the champion! Valentine’s Day was created just for this purpose: convince them they need to buy crap to prove their love, or that they should feel miserable if they are alone, and then sell them some shit! That’s Valentine’s Day for you.
Fifth, companies take advantage of this stupid celebration to raise their prices.
You’re out of hand soap and it happens to be any day between February 1st and 14th, well your soap is going to cost more because stores inflated their prices. And why do they do it? Because they know you’re going to buy the thing anyway, you’ve been conditioned by society to believe you need to buy stuff for Valentine’s Day or you’re a bad person.
Sixth, Valentine’s Day creates false ideas and representation of love for children and teenagers who are just trying to understand what romantic relationships are all about.
It makes them feel like romantic relationships are more important than friendship, which will later encourage them to give their partner all their time and see their friends less and less. People give children gifts on Valentine’s Day because “they don’t want them to feel left out”, but then the child only remembers that Valentine’s Day equals gifts, and as they grow up they fall into the same consumeristic patterns their parents and everybody else fell for.
Finally, it pushes people in and out of relationships too soon, or for the wrong reasons.
Valentine’s Day makes those not in relationships feel like crap, and some will jump into relationships, or into bed, with the wrong people…which can lead to very serious consequences, like unwanted pregnancies, or depressions because their relationship isn’t perfect…Others will leave the person they are dating either because they don’t feel in love enough to celebrate Valentine’s Day with their partner, or because of they are stressed to screw this “special” day up, and bail before it even comes.
Personally, I believe that a world without Valentine’s Day would be a better world. For a couple who is really in love, Valentine’s Day shouldn’t mean anything, because every day should feel like Valentine’s Day. For the others, those who are single, who feel alone, who are still learning what to expect out of romantic relationship, they wouldn’t feel like shit for not having a romantic relationship like the ones we see in movies (which are fake!). It would also mean that less people would commit suicide because they feel unloved, alone, or like they aren’t good enough for anyone. There’s a reason why the amount of suicides increases around Valentine’s Day, it’s because this celebration is poisonous, stupid and harmful.
In my household, February 14th, 2019 will be a Thursday. That’s all that it will be.
Images obtained from:
https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2016/02/18/13/karen-meangirls.jpg
https://adogcalledbrae.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/single.jpg
https://williamcking.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/valentines.jpg
https://westernrifleshooters.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/i-say-no.jpg