Galentine’s Day may be both the best fictional TV holiday turned real holiday, and the best, most wholesome pop culture phenomenon of the 2010s.

I’ve celebrated it the last two years.

Two years ago I hosted a Galentine’s Day party on February 15 instead of February 13, and bought up all the sad leftover Valentine’s Day balloons, flowers, chocolate, wine, and cookies marked 75% off on clearance. My friends and I snacked while going around my living and sharing something we love about ourselves, and something we admire about women in general and woooo we were verklempt.

This year I made each of my Galentine’s gals a goody bag of candy, pink nail polish, and sex toy products and we ate pizza while we assembled feminist and sex-positive stickers to mail out to people.

(There are sex toy products in those bags ^)

There are so many different ways you can start a Galentine’s Day tradition with the women in your life:

• A spa day with your best friend, sister, or mom
• Gathering your friends to volunteer together at a women’s shelter
• Taking a Female Orgasm class with your closest gals
• Gifting sex toys to every adult female friend in your life (because sexual shame is the tool of the patriarchy!)
• Supporting other women (such as making sure your Galentine’s Day brunch is at a woman-owned small business, or cuddling up with your BFF and binging a show with a female director on Netflix together.)

However you do it, just do it! Why?

1. Female friendships are important.

They bring so much value and richness to our lives. They help us let go of stress and help us heal. (https://journals.lww.com/oncology-times/Fulltext/2011/10100/Stronger_Social_Support_Shown_to_Improve_Early.7.aspx) Why not celebrate that type of love?

2. There isn’t enough “ladies celebrating ladies” in our society

The capitalist patriarchal framework of the world puts us in competition with each other, pits us against one another. Collaboration, celebrating each other, lifting each other up, showing up for women is so powerful.

3. Because being around other women is good for us

The presence of other women is good for the soul. There was even a study that showed that having other women around helps us advance (https://hbr.org/2018/11/a-study-of-west-point-shows-how-women-help-each-other-advance) but even without tangible evidence, you know that connected feeling after spending with another woman. Get yourself some of that!

4. And because when I googled “study women being around other women” to find the citation for my above assertion, I had to dig through three pages of Google results on menstrual periods syncing up when women are together (which isn’t even true) before I found research on the emotional wellbeing women bring to each other when in shared company.

That’s just frustrating. 

5. Because if Steak and Blow Job Day (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steak_and_Blowjob_Day) can be a real holiday, than so can Galentine’s Day.

And remember: Ovaries before brovaries. Uteruses before duderuses.

 - Dr. Jill McDevitt