The students of Plymouth South High School in Plymouth, Massachusetts, for the last seven years have been celebrating Valentine's Day by having the boys stand in the bleachers and raise their right arms to pledge that they will never commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women. --Family Nonviolence
At yourdictionary.com is this definition of Valentine's Day:
February 14, celebrated in various American and European countries by the exchange of valentines or love tokens.
Wikipedia defines Valentine's Day and gives a brief history:
St. Valentine's Day falls on February 14, and is the traditional day on which lovers in certain cultures let each other know about their love, commonly by sending Valentine's cards, which are often anonymous. The history of Valentine's day can be traced back to a Catholic Church feast day, in honor of Saint Valentine. The day's associations with romantic love arrived after the High Middle Ages, during which the concept of romantic love was formulated.
The day is now most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, the practice of hand writing notes has largely given way to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards.
And the practice of exchanging greeting cards seems to have largely given way to the practice of men giving gifts and other expressions of love to women. Valentine's Day, by all accounts, has become a mini-Christmas for women only. Says Joy Behar on today's ABC show "The View," "I feel this [Valentine's Day] is only male to female." That idea is reinforced by radio and TV ads. Virtually all suggest items which men can buy for women, as in a Yahoo! ad that is captured by Don't Make Her Mad and which lets men know "What Women Want."
I wonder how, in our 35-year-old dogged pursuit of equal treatment of the sexes, Valentine's Day evolved from the gender-neutral custom of exchanging special treatment, as YourDictionary.com says, to the gender-biased custom of expecting men to bestow special treatment on wives and girlfriends?
In any case, Valentine's Day may undergo yet another evolution. Many ideological feminists have stopped calling it Valentines' Day and now call it V-Day, short for Vagina Day. V-Day, according to its site, is “a global movement to stop violence against women and girls.” (Is it possible that by now the rapidly growing, massive crowds of those trying to stop violence against females are bumping into each other and fighting over funds and territory?) But although V-Day purportedly aims to stop violence against females, its true purpose, I believe, is to establish female moral superiority. How can one not conclude this in V-Day's message: men commit violence, women don't. (For a more balanced view on gender violence, see “Letter to Judiciary Committees on the Violence Against Women Act.” You may also want to search my blog for “violence” in the search window above right.)
So now we have this: traditional folk have turned Valentine's Day into a mini-Christmas for wives and girlfriends, and V-Day feminists have turned it into a time to ponder their vaginas, wail about violence against women, and thrash men. (Actually, ideological feminists don't need a special day to thrash men, since they do it year-round.)
Ah, yes! “Gender equality” has finally besieged us!
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For more on V-Day, see:
The Vagina Monologues Exposed: A Student's Guide to V-Day (PDF)
Valentine's Day is now feminist political vehicle in the gender wars
The 'Feminist' V-Day
V-Day meets P-Day on campus
Young women equally likely to violently attack partners
V-Day Hypocrisy at Roger Williams University
Text (and photos, if used) are reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Wrong again, Patriarch. The original intent of V-day is meant to increase
awareness about (Certain Types of) Violence.
Thank you for this post. I have noticed that about Valentine's Day.
Fortunately, the women I have talked to seem to be receptive to the idea
that this practice is unfair. They have then decided to buy their partners
gifts also and share expenses or at least off set expenses during this
holiday. I have also noticed another interesting thing that is connected to
this topic and that is the expectations women tend to have about romance as
a whole. I'm sure there are exceptions but for the most part men are
expected to be romantic and women are not. Whenever I hear a woman complain
about how her husband or boyfriend isn't very romantic, I like to ask them
how often they have taken their boyfriend out to do something that he would
like, or bought him a gift "Just because" and when was the last time she
did this. I also ask them compare this to the number of times he has done
this for her. In almost all cases the woman has been far less romantic then
the man. The strange thing is that most of these women didn't even realize
how much the men in their lives had done for them and how little they had
done in comparison. They just expected him to do these things for her and
didn't even think about doing as much in return. Some of them didn't care
because as far as they were concerned what the men were getting in return
for all of the expense, planning, spontinaity, and thoughtfulness was her.
It hardly seems fair to me that in an equal relationship the man is
expected to court the woman indefinitely, and their is no such expectation
on the woman's part.