This tumblr was created by Samhita Mukhopadhyay author of Outdated: Why Dating is Ruining Your Love Life and Executive Editor of Feministing.com. She’s very srs, never laughs and hates love. OK, not really. 

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!

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