The Sadomasochistic Origin of Valentine's Day

Abby Martin takes a look at the history of Valentine's Day, commenting on its sadistic origins and the corporate takeover of the holiday, which pushes the idea that consumerism equals love.





English eighteenth-century antiquarians Alban Butler and Francis Douce, noting the obscurity of Saint Valentine's identity, suggested that Valentine's Day was created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia (mid-February in Rome). This idea has lately been dismissed by other researchers, such as Professor Jack B. Oruch of the University of Kansas, Henry Ansgar Kelly of the University of California, Los Angeles[26] and Associate Professor Michael Matthew Kaylor of the Masaryk University.[27]