Valentine’s Day - commercialised nonsense, or a chance to define love on your own terms?

What starts with Roula’s red lipstick and a casual Valentine’s chat quickly turns into a deeper conversation about love, money, gender roles and why so many people feel weird, pressured or flat-out resentful about this day.

Roula shares how she’s reclaimed Valentine’s Day as a low-budget, family-focused ritual, while Rosie reflects on the social pressure placed on single women, the obsession with coupledom and why Valentine’s Day marketing still expects men to perform romance in very specific ways.

From why women often wait for emotional gestures, to why men can feel threatened by financially independent women, to how movies like Pretty Woman still shape our expectations decades later, this episode goes well beyond flowers and chocolates.

They also touch on why love shouldn’t need a calendar date, how capitalism hijacks emotions, and why talking honestly about these things matters more than pretending we’ve “got it all figured out”.

Topics covered:

Is Valentine’s Day commercialised or just misunderstood?
Making Valentine’s Day meaningful without spending money
Why society obsesses over being partnered
Emotional labour, expectations and gender roles in relationships
Why men are expected to perform romance
Financial power, independence and masculinity
How movies and marketing shape relationship expectations

If Valentine’s Day didn’t exist, how would you choose to celebrate love in your own life?

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