DADvocate

(Saint) Valentine’s Day arrives in less than a week and the merchants heavily push products to sell. Valentine’s Day has become another celebration of male subservience to females. A casual perusal of advertising readily shows this.

A Wal-Mart flyer I received in the mail holds four full newspaper size pages of nothing but gifts for Valentine’s Day. The front page consists of candy, jewelry, cards and Cds all intended as gifts for females.

On the second page are food items. Men would probably only be interested in the rib eye steak. But, as Maggie Nemser, accurately states in Things Not to Get Your Sweetie for Valentine's Day:

Dinner. It's a blatant cop-out. Saving him the 80 bucks does not a romantic gesture make. A gift should come in a box. (Unless it is a kitty or a pup, which are other things you should not get him. See rule #2).

I agree. Dinner is great as an unexpected surprise, not a Valentine’s Day gift.

Back to the Wal-Mart flyer. The third page shows cookies, candy and Many Kisses Elmo. All items appeal to women and children, not men.

The top half of the back page is jewelry for women. Did you know you can spend $698 on a ring at Wal-Mart? Below that are other gifts for women and pets. Not a single gift specifically geared towards men in the entire flyer.

A JC Penney commercial has been shown repeatedly on TV this morning. It shows a necklace with a diamond encrusted heart slowly swinging back and forth. The male voice says, “When you’re happy, I’m happy.” Thus, the message that a man’s mission on Earth is to make women happy and to further increase many a woman's sense of entitlement. Isn’t that much of the message of militant feminism: “Men must behave the way we want them to behave so we can be self-fulfilled and happy.”

So guys, expect nothing on Valentine’s Day. (Which is fine with most guys.) If you get your significant other something adequately expensive, you might get some of the good sex implied in the woman’s twinkling eyes in the TV commercials. Of course, your significant other probably doesn’t look like the model on TV and a good hooker is cheaper.

BTW - Later in the year we’ll have to deal with this all over again on Sweetest Day. How did Sweetest Day come about? Is it a St. Valentine’s Day for atheists?