Valentine’s Day has long been a scourge for the romantically coupled, pushing them to purchase chocolates, flowers and sappy greeting cards, then go out for overpriced prix-fixe dinners staffed by understandably miserable waiters.
Now, that dark day on the calendar has come for the single ladies: Billed as “Galentine’s Day,” it’s increasingly being pushed by restaurants and brands as a Feb. 13 girl-power alternative to Valentine’s Day. (Ironically, Feb. 13 has long been considered “Mistress Day,” when unfaithful men take out their side chicks, leaving Feb. 14 for wives and girlfriends. Hope no one has any scheduling conflicts.)
Galentine’s Day first entered the pop-culture lexicon on a 2010 episode of “Parks and Recreation,” with Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope declaring it “lady time” and “the best time of the year.” To Aubrey Plaza’s April Ludgate, Leslie sounded “like a tampon commercial.”
This February, Galentine’s Day is being used to sell far more than feminine products. The pseudo-holiday is apparently the perfect time to celebrate at Benihana, grab margaritas at Bodega Negra, enjoy a four-course meal at buzzy new Le Coq Rico, do some special Martha Stewart crafts, surprise your best friend with a necklace from direct-selling jewelry company ViVi, cook up tasty treats made with Pampered Chef brand kitchen tools or sip any number of pink bubblies, from Moët & Chandon to Nicolas Feuillatte.
Whether you’re a Valentine’s Day lover or a hater, there’s something pink for everyone to buy in mid-February.
Celebrating female friendship is great, but tying it to Valentine’s Day reeks of an opportunistic marketing ploy. The same holiday that once alienated single women is now pandering to them, as though the table of coupled-up jocks in the high-school cafeteria suddenly invited the cool loner girl to sit with them just because she has her own car.
There used to be something delightfully subversive in eschewing Valentine’s Day, with its saccharine notion of romance and its tacky red roses, and having a wine-and-cheese night instead with your girlfriends. Rebranding that as Galentine’s Day takes a lot of the fun out of it.
Plucky Leslie Knope would not be proud.
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