Next step is to break up the groups of people that endure Valentines's Day (which will hence-forth in this essay be referred to as "VD"... coincidentally the same acronym used for something that I find to be less offensive than Valentine's Day). We have four basic groups of people that I'll use for sweeping generalizations later. We have single males, single females, males as part of a couple, and females as part of a couple. Just keep those in mind as I move on to my next point...
We now look at what VD means. Sure we could look at the origin and history, but that's hardly relevant to how it's celebrated now. Do you get together with family and eat a big hearty meal? Do you throw a party? Do you get the day off work? Not really. You might, but it would be a coincidence. The celebration of VD at this point is about buying VD cards, flowers, chocolate, jewelry, and expensive dinners for your significant other. I'll apply the groups I mentioned above to this. Single men are generally safe from this. Single women are generally depressed about not having a significant other to spend that money on them. Coupled men get abused horribly by the commercial nature of the holiday. Coupled women get mad if their significant other doesn't get abused by the commercial nature of the holiday. I apologize, but I'm leaving homosexual couples out of my "statistics" because I don't really understand the dynamic as it relates to VD.
So what we have is a holiday that has become completely an exercise in spending money. Let's move on.
Now, some may try to say that VD is also about couples coming together, doing something romantic for each other, and then having sex... which are all good things, but just like Christmas being a commercial holiday that forces us to buy gifts for each other, when it would have more meaning every other day of the year... VD is strange day that seems to require couples to do something. Why can't they do those things every other day of the year? Really, VD is a way to make people feel guilty about not buying expensive crap and doing something romantic. It's a forced event... and therefore has less meaning.
Some people (a friend of mine in particular) tried to make me see VD as a day that isn't specific to people in relationships. Apparently there's support for that concept but you have to read pretty far back, and perhaps look at other countries that celebrate VD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day). So according to this friend, you're supposed to just send flowers and small gifts to friends to show you care. I'm going to point back to the commercial nature of the holiday and mention that this seems like a way to put guilty pressure on single males to spend money on that day too. Wouldn't a friend much rather get a gift given because it was something you wanted to do, and at some unexpected time? VD reduces the meaning of such gifts.
So so far we have that it's generally a holiday celebrated by couples and which seems designed to force people into spending money out of guilt as opposed to out of kindness.
Now comes my favorite part (thick sarcasm intended here). If I happen to be in public during VD (that acronym will not stop being funny), and I see couples gushing over each other, I am subjected to the biggest negative aspect of the day. It's a forceful reminder that I am single, and that they are happy together while I can do nothing but lament my lack of social skill required to find a person who likes me that way. I am admittedly guessing here, but I think a good number of the people in the "single" categories would feel the same way. It's a slap in the face.
So not only is the day a commercial guilt trip extravaganza for couples, but it's a free and fast ticket to depression town (population 1) for single people.
I have more personal evidence I could bring to bear, but I didn't intend to turn this into my personal gripes. I'm trying to point out that as holidays go, VD is probably the worst one of the year.
With any luck, I'll play video games all day, and my contact with people will be minimal (to save me from seeing happy couples anywhere).
Now... one last thing: A different friend gave me a way to look at VD in a better way. If I just think of it as "Singles Awareness Day", it'll be a much more honest name for the day, and it's acronym fits perfectly. :)
