Annoyed couples sitting back to back/Courtesy
- By Jacinta Museo
This crazy time of the year is back—the time when a lot of men will be made to go through hell in the name of love. It’s a made-up holiday, filled with stress, expectations, and a lot of anxiety.
Valentine’s Day seems to stir up unique kinds of bitter criticism in people, regardless of background, age, or relationship status. It’s a day when soul ties are formed, hearts are broken, relationships end, and virginities are lost in equal measure.
Of course, there are plenty of valid reasons to dread February 14. If you’re coupled, you feel the pressure to make a grand gesture, and if you are (unhappily) single, you feel the disgust of being surrounded by over-the-top romantic gestures.
Some people love it, others hate it, and then there are those who are still making up their minds.
Regardless of the fact that I’m a lady, I’m an anti-valentine by nature. I am among the one percent with zero pressure about Valentine’s.
Why do you need a holiday to do something nice for your significant other when you’ve been together for a whole year? I think the correct protocol should be just sitting and watching a movie.
The world should just celebrate love and treat the important people in their lives lovingly every day of the year. not just a meaningless day in the dead of winter.
Perhaps the holiday feels commercialized and specifically made for women, a day solely designed to raise expectations and cause men to spend their hard-earned money or take out a loan in order to please their unfaithful and ungrateful lasses.
The corporate side that makes me sad is that it’s like the day is meant to pressure people’s sons into spending bunches of money to celebrate with their highly demanding girlfriends. I think love should be simple but thoughtful. A gesture or loving act should not be judged by its price tag.
The same men we called dogs are the men we are probably expecting to get us a dinner reservation, which is extremely difficult and requires a lot of planning, not forgetting that the fancy dinner is wildly expensive.
All this torture is because of the late St. Valentine, whereby, for really strange and weird reasons, he has forced men from generation to generation to go through the worst every year, from the perfect gifts to the candy and chocolates and the fanciest dinner to the notion of everlasting love and romance. That’s really a lot of pressure for two people on just a single day of the year.
It’s the time when men will be praised as the most important creatures in the world, gifts from God, just because Madam Delilah wants some treats. Some will even be like, “Babe, I’m sorry for what Chelsea FC did to your Arsenal FC last weekend; I promise it won’t happen again,” apologizing for every mere mistake as if it even concerns them.
In the name of expressing love, men are forced to really bend so low. The chocolates to be offered are expected to be delivered while still solid; nobody cares about the near-boiling point temperatures the country is currently experiencing.
Besides that, they are expected to have clear throats and start putting their singing skills into practice. Never mind; some can’t even sing a line. Others are expected to call FM radios and have to request for some soap songs for their women.
Damn! Ladies, this is really too much for a boychild. A lot of pressure, which can actually harm your relationship and also lead to a breakup.
To me, it’s just like any other day. After all, love is something that other people share, but never with you.
- The writer is a student of Journalism and Communication at Moi University
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