Is it just me, or is Valentines Day one of the most annoying of the year? If you’re single you can’t leave the house for weeks without soppy advertisements rubbing your singleness in your face, and when you’re with someone you’re guilted into buying presents for your other half. I mean who actually wants a teddy bear holding a heart? And in all seriousness, what do you buy boys on Valentines Day? Surely this takes all the romance out of a day that is supposed to be all about exactly that. Valentines has become so impersonal; it just seems like an excuse for restaurants and florists to bump up their prices.
That’s why this year my housemates and I have decided to celebrate Anti-Valentines Day. We all have boyfriends; this isn’t some sort of single liberation thing. We won’t be using voodoo dolls, burning bras and doing anti-men rituals (Vision certainly does not endorse sacrificing young male virgins to empower single women). We’re not sending ex-boyfriends bouquets of dead roses like some weird Anti- Valentines websites suggest, we’ve just decided to shun romantic set menus, heart shaped helium balloons and expensive candlelit dinners. We’re sick of spending hours in Clinton Cards trying to find a card that’s pretty but isn’t too soppy. In first year we were tortured by trying to find a card for Alice’s boyfriend that didn’t say ‘I love you’ and didn’t have any thing that might imply ‘I love you’ (do you realise how hard it is to find a Valentines card that doesn’t have hearts on?). We don’t want our poor student boyfriends to have to fork out for expensive meals in fancy restaurants just because it’s Valentines Day and that’s ‘what you do’.
Instead we’re doing Valentines our own way; who says you can’t go to The Duchess or stay in and watch a scary film? Why should we let Clinton cards force us to be romantic; after all shouldn’t romance be spontaneous? I realise Anti-Valentines sounds very bitter and depressing, that’s certainly what I thought when I stumbled across the term, but it’s really not. You do find the odd crazy website wishing everyone a ‘happy unimaginative, consumerist orientated and entirely arbitrary, manipulative and shallow interpretation of romance day’ but it’s best to just ignore those (before you find yourself looking for that virgin to sacrifice). Anti-Valentines is really just about trying to enjoy a day that generally depresses singles and stresses out couples. For singles its about realising that what makes you happy for the rest of the year shouldn’t make you feel alone and depressed just because it’s Valentines Day. Send a funny Anti-Valentines E-Card and spend the day celebrating with other single friends. And if you’re in a relationship don’t bother spending a lot of time and money making sure that this Valentines is absolutely the most special and romantic night ever; take the pressure off and do something you both actually enjoy; don’t let all of the commercial hype around Valentines ruin yours completely.
This is a really funny article, so true as well. Valentines has gotten so commercial.