Starting every February (well, maybe mid-January would be more accurate) we are bombarded with images of the impending holiday at almost every turn. Places like Target, Wal-Mart, your school, and *gasp* the internet, are a warzone of blindingly bright reds and pinks, heart-shaped chalk with corny text printed on, every shape, size, and flavor of chocolate, ridiculously gigantic teddy bears, romantic recipes, and adorable, though maybe cliché, date ideas. Yup, Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is a commercialized holiday and huge money-maker for any businesses that can market themselves for it, such as card stores, restaurants, and of course, with the traditional chocolate and roses approach, florists. Though blown out of proportion, Valentine’s Day really can be a nice way to show your significant other just how much you care about them. We have other holidays to celebrate important relationships in our life as well, like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, but why isn’t there a day to appreciate platonic friendships?
“What’s Galentine’s Day?”
“…Oh, it’s only the best day of the year!”
On February 11th of 2010, NBC’s original show Parks and Recreation aired the 16th episode in its second season, titled: Galentine’s Day. At the beginning of this episode we see a group of women, enjoying brunch at a restaurant brought together by the amazing, enthusiastic Leslie Knope. Knope sums up the principle of the holiday in an aside to the camera-crew: “My lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it breakfast-style; ladies celebrating ladies.” She displays her affection for her friends and mother by giving them personal, handmade gifts and excitedly asking about their lives.
Henceforth, thanks to the writers of Parks and Recreation, Galentine’s Day, we ladies received a fun, yet empowering, unofficial holiday.
How have people responded to this makeshift holiday?
While Parks and Recreation had/continues to have a large following, it’s no surprise that not everyone has heard of Galentine’s Day. I explained the concept from the show to my friend MeiLeen Tanguay, a Junior Psychology major at Stockton, and she seemed very excited. She exclaimed, “I think that’s cute! Who doesn’t love brunch??”
Though “Galentine” is a play on the word “Valentine,” the holiday is by no means mocking Valentine’s Day. It unabashedly celebrates female friendship while not devaluing romantic relationships in a sort of anti-Valentine’s Day. At the same time, it does not shame women for being single. Galentine’s Day is about building your friends up, single or taken, not tearing them down. Tanguay went on to say how wonderful she thought this concept was: “It doesn’t make you feel bad about being single and it’s all-inclusive.”
With that being said, Galentine’s Day has been a hit.
If you Google it, there will be articles upon articles from beloved magazines and online blogs in the results, many of them giving pointers about how you and your girl friends can make your own day significant and memorable!
Many of the articles also encourage the empowerment of other women on this special day. When I discussed the idea of the holiday with my friend Erin Grugan, a Junior who’s majoring in both Visual Arts and Communications, she remarked upon what I believe to be the driving force behind Galentine’s Day: “Most of the strong people that influence my life are women; women celebrating women is incredibly important, so I think it would be neat to have a day dedicated to that.” Any way we can celebrate this is a step in the right direction, like giving a card or gift to a woman you care about to show your appreciation for them, watching movies with your gal pals that are written by and star women, or simply getting together (preferably where there is food of some kind,) and discussing important topics in all of your lives.
Why is the holiday tailored specifically to women?
I spoke to a few guys who seemed confused about having a day for female friendship, yet not a day for male friendship. While I do completely agree that having a day to celebrate all platonic relationships is a fantastic idea, I also believe that women should get their own day.
So often in media and our society, male friendship is praised, and seen as the norm. When female friendships are portrayed, however, they’re often trivialized as girl shows or girl movies instead of what they actually are: shows and movies. For example, you may often hear of girls saying how much they enjoy The Avengers, which is a movie portraying only male friendships (I understand that Black Widow is a woman, but even she is only engaged in male friendships and isn’t shown to have female friends), but very rarely do you hear of guys saying they enjoy Sex in the City.
Women have it pretty rough in this society: our qualities and skills are often devalued, our bodies are policed and objectified, and we still do not have equal rights. We, women, should have a day to recognize that we are strong and we are important. We should have a day where we are nothing but kind to all the influential women in our lives.
In an ideal world we wouldn’t need Galentine’s Day, and instead could have (bear with me) Pal-entine’s Day. Unfortunately though, women are seen as less than. So until we have reached a point in time where this is no longer true, let the women in your life know how much you appreciate them this February 13th, whether they’re your friend, mom, aunt, co-worker, teacher, neighbor, or what have you: they aren’t told this enough, so they’d certainly love to hear it.