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» Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Sometimes Hearts and Flowers It Ain't
Hate Valentine's Day? You're Not Alone

I don't hate Valentines Day, but I will admit it puts particular pressure where it is not warranted. My own Valentines Day pet peeve is those stupid jewelry—specifically diamond—commercials which imply that if you don't buy your sweetie a diamond that costs $$$$, you don't love her. Particularly odious is the "He bought it at Jared" commercial.

Most women don't have to be force-fed expensive junk to know their husbands/SOs/boyfriends love them. Some of us actually like alternative (and much less budget-straining) gifts. Me, my parents worked in jewelry factories all their lives and I worked in them for three summers and then full time for three and a half years. Jewelry does nothing for me. I also despise pink, which I was forced into wearing a lot as a child because I was a little girl and girls wear pink, of course. Ugh.

I think it unkind and selfish to ask a man to put himself into debt to buy some hunk of compressed carbon for the woman he loves. (If he's got the cash, and she wants it and he wants to buy it for her, fine! But it's not obligatory to prove your devotion.) But then advertising exists to convince people to go into debt for things they don't need anyway.

(BTW, I also don't think this is fair:
“All the responsibility for Valentine’s Day falls on the guy," the Connecticut husband said. "If the guy and the girl both agree to do nothing, and the guy doesn’t come up with at least a flower and the girl doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t hold the same value.
It should hold the same value. If a decision has been made not to exchange gifts, then neither should expect anything. If "gifting" is a factor, there should be tokens exchanged, not just a guy dropping a bundle.)