A new survey by Etsy states 46% of Generation Z think Valentine’s Day is outdated. With the romantic holiday being considered outdated and people dreading being single for the holiday, Gen Z is looking for ways to switch things up. As dating is adapting to the modern world, Valentine’s Day is being redefined, rather than diminishing or growing.
Since childhood, Valentine's Day has been celebrated in small ways like passing around candies and cards. As it wasn’t even a holiday initially associated with romance, different types of love don’t need to be constricted to fit inside the “normal mold” of Valentine’s Day.
Young women have switched from receiving flowers from their boyfriends to celebrating the love and friendship from their friends in the form of “Galentine's Day.” This can be a symptom of the ‘90s TV show “Sex and the City’s” resurgence. The multi-season show follows “sexual anthropologist,” Carrie Bradshaw, and her experience as a woman in her 30s battling love, sex and friendships. Her three friends also share their love and sex lives from differing perspectives.
Young women have been drawn to the storylines within “Sex and the City” as a timeless story of romantic love and female friendships, or as another testament to the importance of female friendships throughout life.
Nicole Bell is a senior studying visual communication, and she is celebrating the holiday with her friends. Friendship love is so vital, especially for young women, and she said she loves Valentine’s Day.
“I think its the cutest holiday because I love pink and red,” Bell said. “I just love love. Even friendship love. That’s my favorite thing ever.”
She and her friends held a Valentine’s Day-themed wine night this week with crafts in honor of the occasion. There are so many ways to get in the spirit; it doesn’t need to be a sad or stressful day.
Even with friendships at the focus, some women are still looking for sex and romance to really encapsulate the holiday. Some can turn to short-term love to attain this with cuffing season or situationships.
Situationship is a slang term to describe a complicated romantic or sexual relationship that hasn’t been officially labeled. Coined from the phrase “sticky situation,” more than 67% of Gen Z said that in 2024, they were in at least one situationship, according to the popular mobile dating app, Hinge.
Gen Z can turn to temporary and complicated love as a symptom of short-term content usage online. Attention spans in Gen Z is not a new topic, but perhaps this is showing in dating.
Morgan Knight, a sophomore studying special education, looks at Valentine’s Day with a critical eye.
“My thoughts on Valentine’s Day are that it’s a consumerized holiday that is really causing more harm than good,” Knight said. This is especially true when considering sustainability during the holidays.
Knight said her plans for the holiday weekend aren’t looking as planned and that she wants to go out with her friend, but her friend is spending the holiday with a situationship.
“I feel like a lot of people are using their situationship as a stand-in for Valentine’s Day, rather than going out with their friends and doing something more friend focused than male focused,” Knight said. She said Valentine’s Day and situationships go hand in hand as a way to make it known you’re official, without being official.
Actually, having a holiday about love and choosing to spend time with girlfriends can lead to women talking about their boyfriends too much.
In a Substack essay titled, "I'm sick of hearing about your boyfriend,” the author wrote, “I don’t remember the last time I met up with one of my girlfriends and didn’t talk about their boy problems.”
This can turn many people away from dating, female friendships and Valentine’s Day because love is daunting. Adding situationships and other complicated experiences related to modern dating, of course, is daunting. Although that doesn’t have to be the case.
Hinge suggests quality over quantity in dating is best. Letting go of someone fun and low commitment can be a way to respect yourself and raise your standards for love. Although a debate among women on the decline in romance is current, there are many who still admire slow-burns and identify as romantics. Love being deep and true can bring back a fairytale outlook and inherent optimism.
Valentine’s Day stirs emotions because it is centered around dating. Love won’t die out, but how we date is definitely evolving. A holiday about love is becoming less about flowers and more about having someone to call your “valentine,” whether you are official or not. Choosing a quality relationship over a situationship can bring a happier holiday experience.
Like Bell and Knight, young women are stepping away from a day previously defined by complicated love and reaching for a day about quality female friendships.
Maybe Valentine’s Day is a day for greeting card shops to make a little extra money, or maybe it’s a day to mourn a love that seems unattainable. However, especially at Ohio University, any and every holiday becomes a means for celebration. Even dining halls are finding ways to embrace it with Valentine’s Day cake for every 100th customer Feb. 14.
This love-bound holiday is evolving into a celebration of love for anything you want it to be, so begin to carefully consider who you want to celebrate love with, even if it's your girlfriends.
Kyra Dapore is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University. Cassidy McClurg is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Kyra and Cassidy about their column? Email kd364521@ohio.edu or cm303824@ohio.edu
