Ah, yes, Valentine’s Day, a day of romance and celebration. That is, if you have a partner to celebrate it with. Year after year, corporations feed into the public’s consumerist desires, appealing to couples’ love for each other to make a quick buck. While all this is going on, single individuals find themselves feeling lonely and pessimistic, wondering if they will ever find that special someone. This brings into question whether Valentine’s Day is just another corporate scheme.
“Yes, I think it’s exploited for the profit it can give to the economy; however, couples don’t have to go out and spend a lot of money to have a good time on Valentine’s Day. They can just do stuff at home like tie-dye t-shirts or baking,” said junior Marshall Ford.
Marshall’s perspective highlights an aspect of Valentine’s Day. It does not need to be defined by material items but instead argues that the societal pressure to celebrate Valentine’s Day should be replaced with inexpensive more convenient ways of spending meaningful time together, such as the previously mentioned home activities, fostering a better connection with one’s partner.
Junior Kristopher Massie’s response offers a much more critical stance on the holiday, suggesting that the emphasis on the holiday to spend money on your significant other outshines the actual love that keeps a relationship together, leading couples to not focus on their genuine affection for each other, but rather material possessions.
His perspective calls attention to the fact that meaningful connections should not be limited to a single day out of the year, nor should gifts be the only thing to define the love in a relationship. This leads some to feel that Valentine’s Day is forced and ingenuine.
As a result, Valentine’s Day is undeniably a corporate holiday, decorated to feed into the consumerist desires of society and take advantage of couples’ love for one another. Companies profit off of the pressure they place on couples to spend money on each other on gifts and celebrations. However, how couples choose to interpret and celebrate the holiday is truly what determines its significance. For some, it can be a meaningful day to celebrate love, while for others it may feel forced and create a sense of anxiety and stress in regards to what they might need to get their partner. People oftentimes tie their self worth in the relationship to how good their gifts are, making it much less sincere.
Ultimately, Valentine’s Day is what an individual makes of it, making it either a day of genuine celebration of love or just another corporate cash grab.
