What's not to love about Valentine's Day? How about cultural offensiveness, emotional insensitivity, rampant consumerism, and even encouraging date rape?
Of course, it starts with the lonely, or those in unrequited love. I Hate Valentine's Day, sings songstress Jewel.
"Wish I had a sweetheart, didn't even get a stinkin' card, I just have to say I hate Valentine's Day." She croons.
There’s also lots of "Excess Baggage" that is attached with love:
- Compromises self.
- Smothers happiness.
- Loses creative edge.
- Lowers a person and potential.
- Reduces funds.
This year, Canadians and Americans will spend over $20 billion on flowers, chocolates, greeting cards, romantic dinners and, presumably, sexy lingerie.
Before the web, people expressed their anger over the day by sending “vinegar valentines”. These cards had insulting poems and ugly caricatures. This little verse was for women who weren't married:
"Miss Grey hairs and wrinkles, don't look quite so cold."Don't let it surprise you to find yourself old. "The 'old maids' of this world, without chance for a beau,"For Cupid's grown gray since he cut you, you know."
There some serious concerns out there about Valentine's Day. Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, thinks Feb. 14 should be V-Day. V, she says, is for vagina, violence and victory and people should reflect on ending sexual violence against women and children, not just mushy, romantic love.
"It's a perfect day to affirm that people should love each other, and be nice to women," she writes, "instead of hurting them or killing them."
Globalization has certainly been kind to V-Day. From its origins in Europe, Saint Valentine's Day crossed across all oceans. It's everywhere, much to the chagrin of some social conservatives.
A few Muslim clerics have been particularly piqued to see men and women giving each other cards and goo-goo eyes on Feb. 14. Saudi Arabia's religious authorities have banned Valentine's Day and urged people to avoid exchanging even verbal good wishes.
"It's a pagan Christian holiday," says an edict from the fatwa committee in Riyadh, "and Muslims who believe in God and judgment day should not celebrate or acknowledge it or congratulate (people). It is a duty to shun it to avoid God's anger and punishment."
The Saudis and the Iranians don't agree on much, but they both see red on Feb. 14. Last year, shops and malls in Tehran were ordered to remove displays of hearts and flowers. Plainclothes religious police tore down banners with "Happy Valentine's Day" written in flowing, Farsi script.
For several years now in India, hard-line Hindu groups have attacked greeting card shops and restaurants promoting romantic dinners for two. Mobs chanting "down with Western culture" smashed wine bottles and set fire to effigies of St. Valentine outside cosy cafes where courting couples were canoodling. The authorities closed down Lucknow University, several hundred kilometres east of New Delhi, warning that too much attention paid to Feb. 14th would trigger lewd behaviour by young men and put female students at risk.
"A day like Valentine's Day will give undesirable elements a chance to take undue liberties," said university vice-chancellor D.P. Singh.
In the end though, it's pretty obvious that cynics, the lovelorn, feminists and stodgy social conservatives are in the minority on the Valentine's debate. As a species, we love to love, even if it can get a little sickly sweet at certain times of the year.
I'm home, after spending February in four different Canadian provinces and sleeping in six different beds (alone!).
