Valentines day :D (:()

[luke_boii]

Hey everyone , I just wanted to hear everyones thoughts on valentines day, wat is it like having one especially a guy ( I hve Neva had one . ) is it ok to want to have a Valentine  (badly)? Thanks guys

[mitchell.boii]

Naww.. I think your facebook status was the same

[Somnium_Dream]

Valentines Day was a day created by hallmark to up sales between Christmas and Easter (I don't need to point out the religious irony there)

It's not wrong to want a valentine (badly) but it is silly to limit loving people and sharing the love and giving gift and sharing special moments to one day.

I'm just a pessimist - but yeah, in my eyes valentines day = stupid look for someone who’s going to love you everyday...not just Valentines Day

 

[JasionDrake]

Valentines Day was a day created by hallmark to up sales between Christmas and Easter (I don't need to point out the religious irony there)

It's not wrong to want a valentine (badly) but it is silly to limit loving people and sharing the love and giving gift and sharing special moments to one day.

I'm just a pessimist - but yeah, in my eyes valentines day = stupid look for someone who’s going to love you everyday...not just Valentines Day

 

Sums it up for me, too.
Valentine's Day exists for two types of people - those who need a day to remind them that they actually care about their partner, and those who need a day to show off the fact that they have one.
I don't like it at all - I've had the fortune to only have a had a boyfriend once for it, and it wasn't really something we were interested in celebrating.

[Andy]

I like receiving tokens of affection as much as the next person, but valentine's day seems antithetical to genuine affection.

It's not wrong to want a valentine (badly) but it is silly to limit loving people and sharing the love and giving gift and sharing special moments to one day.

As I recently read on a popular blog, if a certain behavior is to be honestly indicative of a given characteristic, it needs to be 'costly' enough for those without that characteristic not to bother with it.  Thus to demonstrate genuine affection, it could be said that some degree of effort must be expended - romantic contrivances, presents and the like.   Those who do not feel affection will most likely not expend this effort.   Valentines day seems contrary to this theory, as people are obligated to offer tokens of their affection by social convention.  Advertising and product placement ensure that no real effort needs to be expended in order to demonstrate 'genuine' feeling.

As society places so much value on this day, any failure to deliver some token of affection is often construed as a deliberate affront to your partner, to such an extent that people will often only display perfunctory gratitude at a gift on any other day of the year, but will be devastated not to receive one on Valentine's.   The corollary to this is that people who only give gifts on said day will often be regarded as having expended the requisite effort to demonstrate genuine affection.  There is no way of separating the genuine from the superficial.

So to some extent, Valentine's day seems to undervalue the contributions of boyfriends, girlfriends, partners, husbands and wives who demonstrate their love and affection year round, while glorifying those who contribute only by obligation, and with minimal effort.  It seems to me that if demonstrating affection is your agenda, Valentine's day should be pointedly ignored, with a view towards proving your  love and commitment on a day when it wasn't so expected.