Using Valentine's Day for Good

By Jocelyn Geboy in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 12, 2007 5:02PM

Valentine's Day is such a gut-wrencher. We hardly know anyone who likes it. The Just Broken-Up With are bitter and lonely, wishing that the whole coupled world would go to hell. Or The Sad And Desperate, bemoaning the fact that they'll never, ever find someone to love them ... ever.

There's The Newly Dating, who are excited to be with someone, but are unsure what exactly to do ... is this gift too much? Is this outfit too sexy? Not enough? And there are those who are trying to act like they care or trying to remember so they don't look like total jerks.

Then there's The Been Together A Whiles, who either don't care or never cared, and have come to some sort of agreement, or disastrously the ones who haven't come to some sort of agreement and hope every year that they'll get something besides some hastily bought gas station roses, or maybe something at all.

Maybe even sadder are the ones who feel societally pressured to give something and end up spending way too much money on hollow symbols that some ad company has decided mean we love each other — "He went to Jared!"

We don't really hate Valentine's Day — we just would rather get a thoughtful, spontaneous gift out of nowhere, for no reason, on a random Tuesday in May, than to have some sort of forced emotion put upon us. We would rather get a personalized mix CD than some diamond ring. That's just us.

But one reason we really dig Valentine's Day is because it marks V-Day. It's a global campaign to stop violence against women and children, and it's celebrated by readings and interpretations of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues. It used to be only on Valentine's Day on college campuses, but the movement has gotten bigger and now it goes from February 1 to March 8, 2007, and sometimes is held in other venues.

These are all the events going on in Illinois. You can get more information at vday.org.

"Love XOXO" by Pink Sherbet Photography.