Valentine’s Day is most known for its theme centered on love and the warm fuzzy feeling of hearts and cupids. The pink and red streamers and outfits spread like wildfire for one day before being forgotten again for an entire year. Single people exchange notes and candy in an attempt to find love on the arguably most romantic holiday of the year, while lovers spend a day together dedicated to their relationship.

Valentine’s Day is meant to sound wonderful and in most cases it is.

While many people believe Valentine’s Day is just a harmless Hallmark holiday, the holiday actually comes from a man named Claudius Valentine. According to History.com, Valentine was known to marry young men and women in secret after marriage at their age was outlawed. Once he was discovered, he was executed. Even before that, a group of priests would sacrifice a goat in a cave in order to celebrate the birth of the founders off Rome on February 14th. If Valentine’s Day was more about sacrificing goats and forbidden love, men would feel much more comfortable celebrating the holiday because everyone knows men are desensitized. A move towards these ancient rituals would make life for men much easier in the month of February.

Valentine’s Day isn’t always fun and games. For men, this is the day, apart from birthdays and anniversaries, where they are pressured to provide an enjoyable, romantic day for their better half. This can be stressful for every man regardless of age or social stature. Men are expected to give their woman a gift, unconditional love, and flowers. Picking the wrong flowers could result in a serious fight that might end up ruining a perfectly good relationship, all of which could be avoided if gender roles weren’t so intensified on Valentine’s Day. The dangers of Valentine’s Day can be even more detrimental to someone in a blooming relationship. Senior Leo Tuenker has recently taken a significant other and he can attest to the growing stress of providing on the big day.

“I hate how all the girls expect me to give them gifts on Valentine’s Day,” Tuenker said. “I mean I like her and all but it seems very soon to be giving gifts. I barely even know what she wants.”

Not only are men supposed to be the providers on Valentine’s Day, but they also take a backseat in the eyes of the large corporations who gear most of their products toward women. Women are generally more comfortable with expressing emotion, which makes them a prime consumer according to Daily Titan, an internet news source. By making many products red or pink, the corporations’ goal is to attract more women to purchase their products rather than men who don’t seem to support having emotions at all. Well news flash people, men have feelings too. There are never many products that target the male audience and this creates a strange rift in the perception of Valentine’s Day between men and women.

Valentine’s Day is the holiday for love and a great time to express your feelings to a secret crush, but right now it doesn’t seem to be all inclusive. Men have been discriminated against for years due to branding toward women, high expectations, and lack of gore. Hopefully this can change in the near future and make Valentine’s a day that brings everyone together.