Don't be so hard on St. Valentine
COMMENTARY
Jenny Specht

For many, St. Valentine is no saint, but rather a harbinger of doom and despair, loneliness and longing.

This cursed man has left as his legacy an American holiday that causes mass pink and red hysteria, especially among young singles.

The truth is, though, I’ve never enjoyed V-Day (note the telling rhyme with D-Day).

Throughout elementary school, when boys had cooties, I hated having to send cheesy valentine cards with sayings like, “You’re the coolest fish in the sea, Valentine.”

“Ewww,” I always thought. “This boy smells. I don’t want to send this card to him.”

Why companies do not make simple “Have a Happy Valentine’s Day” valentines for children, I still do not know.

Time and aging — and no longer thinking boys have cooties — have not increased my like for the over-commercialized holiday. While writing this, I saw four Valentine’s commercials in half an hour. Worse yet, every store in the mall is Pepto-Bismol pink.

I like the color pink, and I think the holiday is a sweet concept, but sweet in the “sticky sweet girl who’s so nice you want to strangle her” kind of way.

Everyone has a story of “that” Valentine’s Day — the one where they were alone, crying, eating the better part of a package of Oreo cookies and drinking the better part of a bottle of wine. They made phone calls they shouldn’t have; they watched “Runaway Bride” on TV and thought it was a touching movie.

But V-Day affects not only those without partners. It also affects those who are part of a pair.

I’m going to lay some — but certainly not all — of the blame on women who expect too much.

One day of the year is never, ever going to transform a lackluster relationship. If your significant other is not generally inclined to lavish displays of affection, do not expect flowers, Godiva chocolates, a mushy card and a robin’s egg blue box tied with a white bow. Yet so many women I know do this—some openly, some secretly—wishing for the perfect celebration and being unhappy when they get anything short of perfection.

Valentine’s Day is a lot of pressure for guys—the constant bombardment of sentimental commercials, some personal emotions clashing with their need to be macho and their common fear of commitment.

Yet men are partly at fault here, mainly for letting the rest of the year go by without satisfying women’s romantic yearnings. This forces them to put all their eggs in one basket on one holiday where there are no eggs or baskets and forces them to make advance plans for a day when you cannot get a decent dinner reservation unless you call in January.

I’m not talking about all men or all women here, of course. I’ve heard stories of fantastic V-Days and of couples whose roles are the reverse of the stereotypes I’ve discussed above. And I’m sure that if I hadn’t banned all Valentine’s celebration besides a dinner out, my boyfriend and I would have celebrated a lovely holiday.

The problem with Valentine’s, really, isn’t the people; it’s the holiday itself and the way it’s marketed. I’d like to keep the holiday’s spirit and ignore all the fuss. Celebrate love in July, September, March, and don’t let Feb. 14 get you down.

Jenny Specht is a senior English and political science major from Fort Worth.
She can be reached at (j.l.specht@tcu.edu).