The New Meaning of Valentine's Day

(source: coquette.com)

When I think of Valentine's Day, the above image now immediately comes to mind.  In growing circles, sex toys and "love lotions" are replacing chocolates and flowers.  I am sure there will be long lines at Love Nest, an sex toy shop in Winnipeg, tonight and tomorrow.

I find it significant that Love Nest operates as an actual chain of stores in a city as conservative as Winnipeg. Its popularity could mean that certain taboos about sex are fading.  But there's also something else at play here.  What does it mean when a sex toy story markets itself as the perfect place for Valentine's Day gifts?

You could say the answer is all too easy.  You could say that sex is the means to an end within a serious relationship.  But for a long time, it seemed that Valentine's Day was geared towards the platonic, not the promiscuous.  On the mainstream level, it always seemed to obscure sex and other taboos.  

At some point, though, the bubble hard to burst.  And so it did.  For a contest, Red River Radio gave away $25 gift certificates to Love Nest..  Can you imagine a college radio station holding a contest back in 1983, the year Love Nest was founded?

Through consumerism, we have a way of making meaning.  We also have a way of changing the meaning of cultural activities.  Collectively, we have turned Valentine's Day into a different kind of holiday: one that celebrates the so-called sexual taboos.  I think changing technology has had much to do with it.  We are plugged into social media, and we are more voyeuristic than ever before.  Our growing interest in the private has blurred the lines between private and public.  If the lines between private and public are becoming blurred, then so are the lines between what is taboo and what is not taboo.  The end result is booming businesses that couldn't be seen in the public eye about 40 or so years ago.