Valentine’s Day is believed by many to be a day that commemorates the work of a priest named Valentine, who rebelled against all the rules of an Emperor who was against permitting marriage to young single men. Valentine fought against this by secretly marrying young couples and giving them a chance at true love. Valentine is seen as the masked avenger of love and it seems that some time throughout the decades this idea of true love that Valentine fought for changed. In fact, the way in which Valentine’s Day is celebrated today has been replaced with the idea of money—companies want to gain more and couples feel like they need to spend more. Will we ever grasp that love once again, instead of this commercialized, money centric, idealistic form of love?
I spoke with several Mount Holyoke students about their thoughts on commercializing love and many of their responses were similar. They believed that Valentine’s Day had lost its original meaning and morphed into a moneymaking business. “Valentine’s Day is just another means to make money for companies such as Hallmark. It is a holiday that focuses only on pleasing women, because all ads and commercials focus on the perfect gift for women. What about the men?” said Lydia Boyer ’10.
This is true. If you were to turn on the television during the months prior to Valentine’s Day, the commercials being advertised show men giving women diamonds, teddy bears, chocolate, roses and other expensive gifts. For example, the Kay Jeweler commercial has a man proposing to his girlfriend with the perfect ring during Valentine’s Day. These commercials do not only forget to include women expressing love towards men, but they lack spontaneity, romance, intimacy and individuality, which are all the characteristics of love. These commercials plaster Valentine’s Day with all these high expectations, which ruins the original meaning of the day.
It also amazes me that so many months prior to Valentine’s Day, most stores have their stocks replaced with Valentine’s Day ‘love’ items. The interior of their stores are even decorated with the appropriate colors: pink, white and red. It is as if Valentine’s Day is a part of the new winter clothing line.
Love should not only be fully expressed on this one day. However, there are still hopeless romantics like me who want to celebrate love and express it openly with others. Ghita Hassoun ’12 believes that, “we shouldn’t have one day that celebrates love, but instead celebrate love everyday. We don’t need one specific day that commemorates love.”
I know I will sound like a hopeless romantic when I say this, but we should want to show our love every second, of every minute, of every hour of every day. We should want to stand on the highest building and bellow our love for another so the whole world can hear. But instead we turn to the media to guide us and lend a helping hand in deciding the perfect gift for our significant other. We let the media pick the teddy bears that express what they believe love is and we write the words, “I love you” into little cards with the hearts and hope that it conveys our message of love.
Related posts:
- True Love Smells Like Teen Spirit
- Heart-Shaped Holyoke History
- Who put a little love in your heart?: On the origins of the symbol of love
- Has technology changed the way we love?
- Crushed: Hit by the Love Bug?
