Tête-à-tête: What’s love got to do with it?

Two of our writers go head to head on whether or not Valentine’s Day is a holiday worth celebrating.

Georgie Head:

After two long months, I am going to be reunited with my boyfriend just one week before Valentine’s Day. He has been travelling in Australia while I have been enjoying far too much Christmas pudding and watching my Dad enjoy one too many sherries. Without a doubt, seeing him next weekend will be far more exciting and romantic than Valentine’s Day itself. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t celebrate Valentine’s Day by doing something nice. Being in a long-distance relationship complicates many special occasions, making it tough to always be together on the actual day they’re meant to be celebrated on.

It’s not that I’m a hopeless romantic, but I do like the idea of dedicating one day of the year to celebrate love. Many cynics think that we should be treating every day like Valentine’s Day, to always remind our partners and those close to us how much we love them. There is an argument that Valentine’s Day has been exploited by retailers purely for capitalist gain. It seems unfair to me that we single out Valentine’s Day as the pinnacle of consumerism, as retailers profit from other British holidays and events (Christmas, Shrove Tuesday, Mother’s Day, the list goes on) and, although we complain, we all still participate. Whilst it is true that we should share more frequently how much we care about the people we love and how important they are in our lives, we are only human and life sometimes does take over. We forget to tell our partners how much they mean to us and often we don’t make enough time for them.

Valentine’s Day is just a small, albeit materialistic, reminder to make time for that special someone. After two long months, I am going to be reunited with my boyfriend just one week before Valentine’s Day. He has been travelling in Australia while I have been enjoying far too much Christmas pudding and watching my Dad enjoy one too many sherries. Without a doubt, seeing him next weekend will be far more exciting and romantic than Valentine’s Day itself. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t celebrate Valentine’s Day by doing something nice. Being in a long-distance relationship complicates many special occasions, making it tough to always be together on the actual day they’re meant to be celebrated on.

It is also a valid excuse to inject a little romance into your life – who doesn’t enjoy going out for dinner or buying some new lingerie? Of course, Valentine’s Day isn’t just about spicing up your sex life, it’s an equally good excuse to go out for a meal or snuggle in your PJs and turn on Netflix. I don’t believe Valentine’s Day is just for those that are in love. I have managed to celebrate the day of love whether my relationship has been long-term, long-distance, short-term or a fling, you name it. But more importantly, I have celebrated Valentine’s Day single too.

Many people believe that Valentine’s Day serves solely to knock down those who are alone. However, for three years consecutively, my best friends and I would make plans to ensure we were also having a good time whether or not we were involved in a romantic relationship. Those singleton Valentine’s Day’s have been the most enjoyable. One year we went to Pizza Express and ate so many dough balls that we fell into a very contented food-coma.

Valentine’s Day does not have to be bitter. For those who are single, make plans with friends, purposely fall into capitalism’s trap and go for a meal, purchase poorly written poetry on mushy cards. Enjoy celebrating those you love!

Amelia Smith:

February 14: the day when every single Italian chain restaurant in the land is inundated by smug couples holding hands across the table and pretending that their love is somehow more profound than everyone else’s.

After all, nothing says romance like celebrating the day when poor old St Valentine was beaten and beheaded for simply suggesting Emperor Claudius should let Jesus into his life.

Valentine’s Day is easily the most uninspired holiday of them all, when supposedly deep feelings of love and affection are reduced to a sickening exchange of fluffy teddies and red roses, which will then be painstakingly documented on social media, so you can gloat to all of your friends how cute/generous/nauseatingly twee your significant other is.

Surely it’s embarrassing to have to put aside one particular day of the year when you feel genuine societal pressure to have to put on a public display of affection for your boyfriend/girlfriend. If they really are the ‘World’s No.1 Boyfriend’, you should surely be letting them know just how much they mean to you every single day, and not just when you get a nudge from the Me-To-You franchise.

Besides, unlike the inclusivity of various other deeply commercialised holidays, Valentine’s Day has the awkward entry criteria of actually requiring someone to celebrate it with. So just weeks after the injustice of spending Christmas and New Year’s extremely single, you are faced with constant daily reminders of your loneliness emblazoned across every shop window in the form of pink sparkly hearts and generic declarations of love. The pressure to find a date isn’t even limited to M&S and Clintons, even my 90-year-old Gran was keen to find out which lucky lad would have the dubious pleasure of being my Valentine this year. Of course, admitting you are spending it alone is met with pity, as proved when my Gran patted me on the head and said, “Oh well dear, better luck next time,” as if being single is equivalent to failing your driving test for the third time.

And what is there for any self-respecting singleton to do on Valentine’s Day? Every restaurant is booked out, the Deliveroo drivers are rushed off their bikes and snuggling up with your seminar reading for the evening would probably be the final nail in the coffin of dying alone. Personally, I will be found suspiciously tipsy watching the latest 50 Shades of Grey movie like a middle aged divorcee because I feel duty bound to fulfil at least one stereotype, and also because I will gladly take any excuse to watch Jamie Dornan.

So why would anyone love a holiday which revolves solely around the commercialisation of love and general humiliation of anyone not in a relationship? Call me a cynic, but it will take a lot of cuddly bears to convince me to celebrate this year.