Valentine's Day tends to get on people's nerves. Singles are excluded by default, and many couples don't enjoy their romance corporatized, redwashed or chocolatey. Thankfully, there's an antidote: a new Tumblr started by feminist writer Samhita Mukhopadhyay called Occupy Valentine's Day. The site urges us to look past the corny, manufactured traditions of the holiday in favor of a more authentic love—with our partners, our friends, our children, our pets, even (especially) ourselves.
Sure, there are some curmudgeonly entries; one post features a stick figure holding up Cupid at gunpoint. But the lion's share of the posts are little celebrations of everyday warm fuzzies, ones that flout the dominant image of a picture-perfect straight couple smooching over candlelight and oysters. One contributor's valentine is her daughter: "Today I’m 29 years old with a five year old. We are going to make cookies and get manicures." An after-school art teacher doesn't "get into all the hoopla" but is a "sucker for Valentine's Day crafts": "We didn’t have to buy anything, we just made something special with paint and paper," she writes of her art class. Occupy Valentine's Day celebrates solid friendships, same-sex love affairs, loyal puppies, and treasured alone time with boxed wine and Netflix. (It also features a Bart Simpson gif, a George W. Bush soundbite, and vintage Sufragette leaflets.)