Can’t Buy Me Love: Occupy Valentine’s Day Takes to the Internet

Whether they're morally against getting chocolates on Feb. 14 or simply bitter about an ex-boyfriend, anti-Valentine crusaders now have a home on Tumblr.

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Occupy Valentine's Day

If you’re like Andrea, above, and think boxed wine trumps roses, Occupy Valentine’s Day may be the blog for you. Created by writer Samhita Mukhopadhyay, the Tumblr account aims to give those who question the commercialized tradition a place to vent, share personal anecdotes or spread awareness about sexual prejudices.

“Celebrating love and romance is a wonderful thing, but it shouldn’t depend on buying certain products for the perfect experience (hello, romantic industrial complex) or on your gender, sexuality, race, class status or marital status,” Mukhopadhyay writes in the blog’s “about” section. “It puts pressure on couples to be a certain way, it privileges one type of love (think heteronormativity!) and it makes single people feel incomplete.”

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Users can contribute to the Tumblr by posting stories, links, photos or videos.  Mukhopadhyay suggests users “shout about the lack of queer visibility in sexual rights politics” or “share statistics about the growing majority of singles.” One user posted a photo à la Occupy Wall Street of herself with a hand-written note: “Love is Beautiful. Compulsory heterosexuality plus commercialized romance are not. Occupy Valentine’s Day.”

Another had his own manifesto: “I will resist the temptation to judge a person based on whether or not he or she is in a relationship. Nor will I define my own self-worth on the same principle. Occupy Valentine’s Day.”

With heartfelt mantras like these, it’s hard not to feel the love.

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