Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Valentine's Day (Capitolist American Ver.)

The day of Love. Love of money, that is.

Americans have this uncanny knack for working the money-angle on any concept, even one as noble as a holiday for celebrating love. You hear the commercials as well as I do, they are all but unavoidable, and all of them with their same, sick message; If you love your female (yes Female, but I'll get to that in a min...) partner, then you need to prove it with cash.

How vulgar! How ludicrous! How asinine!

How American.

They took Christmas a long time ago. Halloween is right behind, now being recognized as the second largest retail holiday after Xmas. And now, our dear, sweet, not-so-innocent Day of Saint Valentine's, falls prey to rampant consumerism.

Worse yet, the adverts are blatantly sexist.

"Buy HER the gift SHE's always wanted."
"Make sure SHE knows how much you love HER."

Don't believe me? Listen again. Sexist. Consumerism I can almost stomach because it knows no prejudice, but sexism don't fly.

Of course, Steak and BJ Day is the outcome of this silliness and a half-hearted attempt to return balance to the equation. But it's like handing someone a hundred dollars and then punching them in the face. It might balance out, but it still isn't acceptable.

The current state of Valentine's Day has become as trite and offensive as "Steak and BJ Day"

Don't like it? Good. Then don't accept it. Don't tolerate it. Don't feed it, and it will die.

What makes me more sad is that we need a holiday as a reminder to cherish our loved ones.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: americans, anti, consumerism, holidays