Love Issues

Valentine’s Day. One of the many holidays that started as a mix of a pagan festival (Lupercalia, a fertility festival) blended with a day in honor of some dude (St. Valentine) who died in an unpleasant way for the Catholic Church. No one runs through the streets anymore gently slapping women with the blood-dripping hide of a sacrificed goatskin to ensure fertility, but some of us would probably rather get hit with a dead goat than be subjected to the Hallmark cards and pink candy hearts of our modern Valentine’s Day celebrations. Valentine’s these days is about more than just boy-girl dating. It’s about dating across all types of gender identification; it’s definitely still about sex (and that means it’s a good time to remember safe sex and the importance of speaking out against sexual violence) and it’s also about loving yourself — either emotionally or with an eco-friendly sex toy.