Women add dash of #MeToo to Galentine’s Day festivities
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When Kelly Smith thought about when to hold her kickoff event for a county commissioner campaign in suburban Florida, she chose a day symbolizing women supporting women: Galentine’s Day.
The unofficial holiday began as an idea on a popular TV sitcom. But this year, many women like Smith are turning it into part of the #MeToo movement.
“Galentine’s Day is about celebrating women working together, and that’s how we’re going to win,” said Smith, who lives in Pasco County on the state’s west coast.
A candidate for another county seat, Brandi Geoit, thinks it’s important for women to support other women — in part because of some of the inappropriate comments she’s received from men while campaigning.
“Guys asking me for hand massages and sending me pictures of their junk,” she sighed. “We’re basically saying that this is our holi- day, this is important that a lot of women are standing up and saying that enough is enough.”
Celebrated the day before Valentine’s Day, Galentine’s Day was first introduced on the show “Parks and Recreation.”
Actress Amy Poehler, playing the character Leslie Knope, declared, “Every Feb. 13, my ladyfriends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair, minus the angst. Plus frittatas.”
It became a cultural movement of sorts — like Festivus on “Seinfeld,” but with better food and less aggression. In recent years, women have marked the day with brunches, giving each other books or throwing parties that involve fizzy cocktails and waffles.
But this year, women across the country are celebrating with more than just mimosas and Instagramworthy gifts. It’s a natural extension of the #MeToo movement for those marking a day of activism, politics and female solidarity.
Sara Becker, of New York City, formed a group called Nasty Galentines after President Donald Trump’s election in 2016. Last Galentine’s Day, she hosted a craft party where several dozen people wrote Valentine’s Day cards to Congress. This year, she and friend Alissa Lentz held a networking party that they described on invites as “protesting with love.”
“We’ve been seeing the burnout rate across the board in terms of negativity,” Becker said. “We wanted to bring positivity.”
Their event Tuesday night included a panel of women discussing how they are overcoming the challenges of the past year in light of the #MeToo movement. The founder of Bust Magazine, the owner of a whiskey company and a business coach, among others, were scheduled to speak.
“We wanted to turn it beyond just a crafting party into a conversation,” Lentz said. “We wanted female entrepreneurs to reflect on the last year, but also guide us as to how can we turn this into action and change and policy. Let’s learn from one another.”