Occupy Valentine's Day

Just came upon an awesome concept. Introducting Occupy Valentine's Day. The tumblr website tag line reads, "Down with couple-talism!" The tumblr site was created by  Samhita Mukhopadhyay author of Outdated: Why Dating is Ruining Your Love Life and Executive Editor of Feministing.com.

From the website:

The yearly celebration of Valentine’s Day—defended as an innocent and harmless tribute to love—often serves to remind us that either our romantic situation is not good enough or our single status is a tragedy. 

Most people, coupled or otherwise, can’t stand Valentine’s Day. It puts pressure on couples to be a certain way, it privileges one type of love (think heteronormativity!) and it makes single people feel incomplete. 

Celebrating love and romance is a wonderful thing, but it shouldn’t depend on buying certain products for the perfect experience (hello, romantic industrial complex) or on your gender, sexuality, race, class status or marital status. 

This year, let’s Occupy Valentine’s Day! You could….

• Blog about how traditional ideas of romance perpetuate gender inequalities and hurt people of all genders

• Share statistics about the growing majority of singles

• Raise awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault like others have

• Not be that douche-y couple on Valentine’s Day—maybe hang out with your best friends, single and otherwise 

• Shout about the lack of queer visibility in sexual rights politics

• Have a sexy conversation by candlelight with your partner about structural inequity

• Make a commitment to have fulfilling, accountable and loving relationships in all parts of your life

• Commit to never settling for anyone that is not good enough for you just because you are afraid to spend another Valentine’s Day alone

These are just a few ways we can use Valentine’s Day to raise awareness about the limited ways we think about romance. Occupy Valentine’s Day is about changing the culture of romance.

Occupy is a concept and action popularized by the important Occupy Wall Street protests that continue in cities all across the world. The language of occupying has opened a critical moment for us to radically re-envision the kind of world we want. 

Celebrating love is wonderful and romance can be great too. But we don’t need corporations to dictate how we should do it, a mainstream media chastising us for not doing it right or traditional ideas touted over and over by our friends and family. That shit is oppressive and hurts us more than helps.

Share your love freely, daily and with your community—everyday. Occupy Valentine’s Day!

I am in love with this idea. The Occupy Valentine's Day website allows viewers to submit their own take on the holiday. Below are some sample submissions from the website.

She’s Straight. I’m Queer. Who the fuck cares. 
The attached photo is of me and my best friend. A few years ago, we started referring to each other as “platonic girlfriends.” Somewhere between the dates, cuddling, constant affirmations of adoration, and the assurance that she will always be there to get me out of whatever sadness cave into which I’ve dragged my poor-ass self, I realized that while our preferences may not quite add up to playing doubles in the tennis match of sexytimes, she’s pretty much the only romantic partner I need. In fact, she’s even flying out to San Francisco from Cape Town so we can spend Valentine’s Day together.

It’s not from a man. I bought it myself. It’s not even real. I bought it so I could travel the world alone without being hit on. Diamonds don’t always mean what you think they mean.

 Former Nice Guy (tm) Says:

Never again will I expect a woman’s body or love solely because of the way I have treated her
Treasure Friendships
Love Free
Love Often

My love is not pink…..

If taking the time to give a shit

feels like a fucking holiday
UR DOIN IT WRONG.

To make your own submission visit the Occupy Valentine's Day tumblr website.