What's the big deal?
Why are people so passionately anti-Valentine's Day?
Type "anti valentine's" into Google, and you'll find there was a V-day protest in India this year. (I didn't even know they recognized Valentine's.) In undergrad, my friends once celebrated anti-Valentine's by smashing black roses frozen with liquid nitrogen. Yay chem lab nerds.
The party line seems to be something like:"We conciously don't celebrate, 365 days to show love, we're all anti-Hallmark-Holiday" (found here). Some Utah teens are saying pretty much the same thing. And UK's New Scientist Magazine has some intelligent words on the matter.
Hell, even Bacardi Rum is capitalizing on all the bitterness with a "Shred Your Ex" bar promotion.
This may be the one holiday when ads and culture intersect with the most ANGER.
But we live in a media-savvy society.
Since when do you do ANYTHING just because an ad tells you to?
If you really feel your relationship is at stake because of some flowers or chocolates, you have bigger problems.
And I think you may be doing it to yourselves.
I'm looking to you, Culture, and especially you, Society. You both should be pushing back against Ads in a more constructive manner.
Here's my advice: If you're so against it, quit bitchin' and REINVENT it. Don't let anyone else's bitterness, or advertising, define your holiday or your happiness.
Reposted from my other blog:
I always thought it was weird how so many people have an aversion to Valentine's Day. My family celebrated it as a day to remind everyone you love in your life, that you love them. So I'd cut out some construction paper hearts and decorate the house with Mom. Get chocolates and sign valentines for my family & friends. Get flowers for the dinner table. If I had a crush, he'd get a special card. See, we celebrated all kinds of love, not just a significant other.
When I went to college, I was deeply confused why so many people were bitter over a holiday dedicated to the people you love. It wasn't until someone sat down and explained to me the agony of being date-less on V-day in high school, or enduring sappy couples in restaurants. Or how some people see the red hearts and chocolates and flowers as insults, accusations, reminders of loneliness, artificial emotion, or just lies.
Damn. People got issues with Valentine's. But I don't let that change me, and I refuse to feel bad celebrating in front of other people. They're the ones who are mistaken. This is NOT a "date" holiday. It's a love holiday, and there are many different kinds of love.
Love.
Parting gifts:
1) V-Day by the numbers, a collection of Valentine's Day statistics.
2) a funny V-Day chart for dudes. (closer look HERE)
4 comments:
On a related note, Mr Got Medieval has what Chaucer would say about the Beverly Hillbillies pegged.
It's a good sentiment, but I have to disagree with your premise here for one reason:
Ever try to NOT think of an elephant?
It's one thing to not do what an ad says, but to truly ignore its message (and all the talk of love and romance in other aspects of media and culture on V-Day) is virtually impossible. If you see it, here it, observe references to it, think about it, or even try NOT to think about it, it's virtually impossible not to be reminded of the popular purpose of the holiday, and that can hurt when you're lonely.
I'm glad you were brought up with a different set of associations for the holiday, but reprogramming the associations you've already made is almost impossible, and can't be done by sheer will. Over time following your advice might shield you from the crass commercialism of the holiday, but not from the throbbing day-long reminder that you are still alone. I think it's both of these things, the first driven and underlined by the second, that lead to anti-valentinism.
Most corporate friendly holidays are a unnecessary burden upon the psyche of the American populace. Today's advertisements, as Carly Stasko line of thinking entails, bombard the individual with message after message of what they "should" do or "should" be. Consequently, her culture jamming activism on subways and bus stops are the deeds of a person who needs to "breathe out" & respond to propaganda; essentially, it is the attempt to bring balance, even a discourse if you will, to the marketplace of ideas. But according to the incrementally enlarging corporate slave state we currently rent our lives from, any form of protesting is acknowledged by their own internal documents as low-level terrorism. What does this have to do with Valentine's Day? Just yet again another reminder that either true love, in ANY form, either doesn't exist (thus rendering people despairing for something good & wholesome) or what is manifested by those "sappy couples" as a manufactured image of an unreality, a mockery of genuine love. Chances are, THAT is what people are angry about, THAT, even subconsciously, is the explanation for the anti-Valentine's Day activism; to express justified wrath at the infiltrated subversion of an IDEA that by it's very nature was pure, even holy in some regard.
Hi,
Valentine day is celebrated all over the world I don;t what people hate this in India. One can enjoy with a valentine as it is a day made just for them.
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