Be Mine... or Actually, Don't

Valentine's Day is the season of love, they say. I'm sure everyone's seen the Valentine's Day hearts, chocolates, cards, etc. on display at our local stores for the past couple of months. I thought Christmas creep (you know, Christmas sales that start in September?) was bad enough, but I saw the Valentine's Day themed snack cakes go up for sale on December 18th...

So maybe, just maybe, these prolonged holiday sales seasons are diminishing a bit from the sentimental value of the holiday. And if you're not big on sentimentality or commercialism, then the holiday as a whole probably starts to stick in your craw a bit.

Enter the uniquely and quintessentially Victorian-era phenomenon: the vinegar Valentine.

This Valentine, for example, describing the recipient's smile as ridiculous in the eyes of the sender.
(Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)

According to Annebella Pollen in her paper, ‘”The Valentine has fallen upon evil days”: Mocking Victorian valentines and the ambivalent laughter of the carnivalesque’:

Mocking valentines covered a vast range of ‘types’ and could be sent to neighbours, colleagues and members of the local community as well as to wanting and unwanted partners. Each was designed to highlight a particular social ill, from poor manners and hygiene to pretentiousness and alcoholism, sometimes with astonishing cruelty.
(from Abstract)

Pollen goes on to explain the ways that these cards, in the context of the socially permissive atmosphere around Valentine's Day, often used very pointed humor as a means of social control.

Imagine how mad you must be at someone to go to the effort of buying a card specifically to shame or insult them! It's no wonder that not many of these have survived to be seen today - if I received such a card, I certainly don't think I'd be saving it to remember later.

I'm not sure that "he likes me" is the typical takeaway from these sorts of Valentines...
(Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson )

Of course, to those who have no love for Valentine's Day, or at least no one special to share love with, such cards might be a novel and amusing concept. And who knows? Maybe not everyone looked at them as pointed insults, but rather playful jabs to be shared between family and loved ones. Think less of bullying and more of playful banter.

In any case, it's equal parts funny and reassuring to see that, even in the days before Facebook, YouTube, and other online forums, people have always left mean, anonymous comments, and somehow we've all managed to keep moving forward.

What do you think? Are vinegar Valentine's a fun way to poke fun at your friends, or just plain mean? Should Hallmark come out with a "vinegar" line of greeting cards? What other unconventional things do you think we should do on Valentine's Day?

Let me know in the comments!

(If you would like to know more, here is the bibliography for the research paper I referenced earlier:

Annebella Pollen (2014) ‘The Valentine has fallen upon evil days’: Mocking Victorian valentines and the ambivalent laughter of the carnivalesque, Early Popular Visual Culture, 12:2, 127-173, DOI: 10.1080/17460654.2014.924212
Citation copied from publisher.
Regrettably, PDL is not currently able to make the full text of this article available to patrons.

However, you can also find additional information on Wikipedia, which also cites the same article, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar_valentines )