Jenny Mao
Copy Editor
What are you doing on Sunday? Shall we go to a romantic dinner and watch Deadpool afterwards? Or perhaps you’d like to come over to watch some Netflix and see what happens next?
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and the pressure to do something special with your significant other, or the person you’re seeing, is higher than all of the other 364 days of the year. But even before reading the first sentence of this editorial, you probably realized that my title, “Valentines and Chill” is a wordplay on the popular phrase, “Netflix and Chill,” which we all know is a euphemism for watching a film before engaging in sex.
In this day and age, casual relationships and sex are normalized, especially in a university setting. So, does Valentine’s Day still hold the same value as it did a couple of years ago, before the popularity of Tinder and Netflix? Should it?
Valentine’s Day can be traced back to around 270 A.D. and some people credit Hallmark for commercializing the holiday. I went into a Hallmark store to see if this mega-corporation had created any gifts or cards to reflect this hookup culture trend.
They didn’t.
The closest was a humorous tongue-in-cheek Valentine card that skipped the romance and alluded to sex. Yet that card still wouldn’t have been appropriate for those in relationships that don’t use the labels “boyfriend” or “girlfriend.”
Don’t get me wrong, I see romance all around me, but I also see hookup culture in the same atmosphere.
The traditional notion of Valentine’s Day also seems a tad sexist to me. Why should men be expected to pay for dinner and bear gifts? You can easily argue that women give their partners Valentine’s Day gifts too, I won’t disagree with you. However, take a look at the standard Valentine’s Day gifts in stores around you. Most of the time it’s chocolate in heart-shaped boxes, teddy bears, and red or pink bouquets of roses. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with giving these standard gifts to men, the target customers for these gifts are typically women.
If dating has changed, shouldn’t these traditions change as well? Perhaps businesses do see hookup culture, but disregard it as an undisruptive fad as Valentine’s Day is the fourth-largest consumer holiday. The National Retail Federation estimates that $20 billion will be spent for this year’s Valentine’s Day in the United States alone.
Still, couples who embrace traditional romance shouldn’t be pressured to celebrate their relationship on one specific day. Yes, I understand that in a way Valentine’s Day is celebrated like Christmas, as it’s a day to give and receive gifts and appreciate your loved ones, but not everyone in a relationship is in love. Nor can everyone call what they have a “relationship.”
For those that call what they have a relationship, stages may exist, whether it be a blossoming relationship, a crumbling relationship, or anything in-between, and Valentine’s Day puts the pressure to speed up the relationship or rewind it so it meets that honeymoon middle. For those in a “relationship,” there may be some awkward tip-toeing around the notion of Valentine’s Day.
Rather than follow or break conventions, just do what feels most comfortable with you and the person you’re with. If you want to be treated to roses and dinner, cool. If you want to see Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool that’s just as cool.
So whether Sunday will be romantic, elaborate, easygoing, or just a Netflix and chilling day with yourself, just remember that at the end of the day, Valentine’s Day is just that: a day.
Suck it, Cupid.
