St-Valentine's Day

Hey Nerds,

I want to talk about St-Valentine's day, which is a day for love and friendship… And bullshit.

“Oh! but Jess, you’re single. Of course you don't like St-Valentine's day!” Well, have I got news for everyone who has ever said that to me: I've always loved St-Valentine's day. I hate the concept, but I love the evil genius work that is put into it.

Think about it: St-Valentine's day is great for companies. It allows them to thrive in a period that would normally be low on sales. People and wallets are still recuperating from the holidays. And... Bam! Time for us to remind lovers that they have to need to show each other that they really do love each other: Buy her a chocolate and some roses! Buy some nice lingerie and show them off to him tonight! And if you’re single, well don't worry! Ice cream and booze are on sale too, so you can hate yourself until all these hearts are gone!

It's genius, and maybe it does suck for all us single people, but it gives the store where I work money and it gives me a job. I can't complain on that part.

Furthermore, although this holiday is getting slowly more LGBTQ+ friendly, I do still believe it's purely straight at its core - just look at all the advertising. Don't get me wrong, I love my straight friends, but I'm getting tired of the lack of representation.

The other week, I was scrolling through my tumblr page with my friend Gay Wolf and she rephrased a post she had seen: “Why don’t wedding dress shops use lesbians in their advertisements? It would be an opportunity to show off two dresses instead of just one.” This is brilliant. I've heard of people getting married on that day just for the romantic aspect of it, so why not advertise more LGBTQ+ things on that day and increase your target audience? Did you know they run chick flicks on at least 10 different channels all day on St-Valentine's day? So why not throw a few gay ones in there? And not just a sidekick. Wouldn't that be great?

I have studied in graphic design, so everything to do with advertising has always appealed to me. This is one of the reasons I love St-Valentine's day. It is simply designed to get money in the pockets businessmen. The whole day is one big ad. But we really need to try and make this day way more gay, or I might just go insane when my mom turns on the TV and plays chick flick after chick flick after chick flick...

Even though it's not the gayest of holidays (yet), have a great St-Valentine's Day!

Love,

Bi Nerd

Leaving you with cute slideshow of gay weddings... Enjoy :)