Conflicted feelings

Reasons to hate Valentine's Day:

• It's ridiculous over-commercialized nonsense
• It's a ploy to get people to spend money on junk they don't need
• It makes people who don't have a partner feel miserable and inadequate
• It's sexist and heterosexist
• There's a really nasty set of assumptions behind the concept of men giving women cheap chocolate and expecting sex in return
• You should express love for the people you love all year round
• It's annoying, expensive and crowded to go out for a romantic evening at the same time as everybody else
• It makes pair-bonding, sexual love more important than all other kinds
• Anonymous messages lead to drama and DOOM
• What she said, big time!

Reasons why VD has some redeeming features:

• The awesome anti-valentines at meish.org
• Friends who send me really touching friendship-valentine cards
• mirabehn and others subverting the occasion to affirm people instead of cutting them down
• My nosy side really enjoys the annual Valentine post-box

( cut for soppy )