By Jaylyn Preslicka, Editor-in-Chief
In 2020, Americans spent 27.4 billion dollars on Valentine's Day overall. Anywhere from cheap bears, to high-fructose corn syrup-filled chocolate, or expensive restaurants booked out two months in advance, this marketing scheme of a holiday causes people to spend an extraordinary amount of money on one singular day.
Although people can spend money on whatever they please, the four current generations spend an average of 271.60 dollars per couple. This doesn’t even include the cost of home décor or meaningless tv-show specials. Although most holidays have very little meaning behind them anymore, consumer culture takes Valentine’s Day to a whole other level.
“Commodities colonize the entirety of social interaction; authenticity degenerates to the point that critical thinking and genuine interaction are rendered impossible,” journalist Veronica Blascoe said.
It is the nature of the holiday to go all out for your loved one, platonic or not. The issue of this isn’t necessarily celebrating, but the extra effort and “show” put on in the relationships is not inherently true. Every day of the year should be a celebration of love and happiness between people, not one day that dictates that you must follow a series of expected expressions. Many write-off critics of the holiday are bitter and cruel when they offer their opinion on the hypocrisy.
It isn’t simply Americans that spend too much money and time on the Hallmark card fiasco. Italy is the number one consumer of Valentine’s Day paraphernalia, spending upwards of 800 dollars per couple on the day. In theory, it would be nice to have a day where couples can celebrate, but consumerism and company profit render its meaning utterly useless.
“Criticising the desire for material things overlooks how many activities people engage in to pursue social relationships and human self-development themselves depend on access to material things," Political journalist Eduardo Tovar said. "‘One can hardly fence or paint, for example, without first obtaining brushes, canvasses, helmets, swords, and the like.”
Capitalism is to blame for a holiday’s demise. However, it isn’t just Valentine’s Day. Saint Patrick’s Day is just as much to blame. These usually obscure holidays would be nothing if it weren't for the 19th century post-industrial revolution boom. The 20th century just made the holidays more and more mainstream to the general public and thus they were no longer seen as something only able to be celebrated by those with money.
According to an article from the University of Bologna Business School, “Festivities such as Tax Day, Grandparents’ Day and for some even Valentine’s Day are of this caliber, while the very latest Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday seem to have the sole task of stimulating purchases by exploiting the attractiveness of sales."
Do we need a heart-shaped pizza to show our loved ones that we care about them? No. The green beer that floods local bars across the states is nothing more than a cheap one-day cash grab. Like most holidays, the origin became diluted, instead of something belonging to a specific religion or ethnic group, it became mainstream and as a result, companies capitalized off of it.
There is no harm in celebrating these holidays as they are fun, but think about how you can treat your partner every day with the same amount of admiration as you do on Valentine’s Day.
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