While the Feb. 10 opinion piece titled "Guys: 'Grow a pair' and ask her out" was meant to be a humorous piece about Valentine's Day, its humor encourages heteronormativity and puts undue pressure to observe a misappropriated holiday.
In the line, "Not having a special someone gives girls an excuse to stay at home with an extra large box of chocolates, keg of milk and Channing Tatum movies," the author assumes all girls are just waiting for their own personal prince to rescue them and cannot themselves ask men on dates. As students on a campus that is more than 60 percent female, Seattle U's women should be encouraged to be empowered. Gone are the days when families would send their daughters off to college simply to work on a "Mrs." degree. And, contrary to the author's statement "if boys aren't asking, girls aren't going," we are, in fact living in an age of relative gender equality. Nothing is stopping women from asking men on dates.
Another issue left unaddressed was that, as students at Seattle U, we spend a large portion of our time on Capitol Hill, one of Seattle's most gay-friendly neighborhoods. The LGBTQ population was completely ignored by the author's heteronormative, sexist dogma.
Gender driven arguments aside, the statement that being alone on Valentine's Day is comparable to "starving on Thanksgiving" is entirely erroneous.
The Valentine's Day celebrated in the United States today is a bastardized version of a Catholic saint's day manipulated by greeting card companies for capital gain. Saint Valentine was a third century martyr arrested for illegally conducting Christian marriages in Rome.
His saint's day was not associated with romantic love until Geoffrey Chaucer fictionalized Saint Valentine in "Parliament of Foules" in the fourteenth century. See? Fake holiday.
So, if you were alone this Valentine's Day, there is no shame in that. You were just alone on a Sunday. And boys only need "grow a pair" to make the hormonal transition from childhood to biological adulthood.
Frances may be reached at fdinger@su-spectator.com.
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