Tell him he's beautiful

According to Roman mythology, Cupid is a boy. He flies around shooting his bow and arrow at mortals, causing them to fall in love. He’s usually naked. Otherwise he’s wearing a diaper. Cupid is just your typical boy — running around naked with a weapon.

He exists for the purpose of inspiring romance with the goal of making people fall in love. He is an icon of Valentine’s Day. In that regard, he is certainly nothing like the boys I know.

Or so I thought.

I figured boys would be counting down the minutes until Feb. 15. I wouldn’t blame them. Society has turned Valentine’s Day into an extension of Mother’s Day or a girlfriend’s birthday. It’s all about what the woman wants.  

When I typed “Valentine’s Day” into Google, the search engine thought it was reading my mind and automatically added “gifts for her” to the end of my phrase.

Even the novelty items associated with Valentine’s Day have a tendency to make women smile while men roll their eyes.

Heart-shaped sugar cubes with sweet nothings printed across the center? I’m sure a woman came up with that concept — or a man who was seriously whipped.

What boy would enjoy an entire day devoted to acting mushy and making sure his girlfriend feels pretty?

I managed to find one boy who gets his kicks from the Valentine’s Day mush and genuinely wants to make girls feel irresistible: Joshua Amar.

Amar is a 17-year-old boy from Canada and the creator of “Tell Her She’s Beautiful.” Amar created this Facebook event hoping to help girls with insecurities. He included a long description of his mission on the event’s page and revealed the backstory that inspired him to develop it.

He wrote: “It has come to my attention that as I grow older, girls get more and more self-conscious of themselves. This hurts me, because every girl is beautiful in their own way.”

There are nearly a million people marked as “attending” on the event’s page. Over 17,000 people posted comments expressing their appreciation for the concept and spreading positive energy to every girl on Facebook. One boy even wrote a song inspired by the event.

While this is a wonderful gesture and Joshua Amar is a very special guy, where is all of the love for boys with insecurities? What can the female population give to men this Valentine’s Day?

Get your mind out of the gutter. I mean why is there so much emphasis on making women feel good about themselves on the 14th?

As a woman, I feel sorry for men.

Society pays so much attention to the insecurities and complexes of girls because they think we can’t handle seeing airbrushed, anorexic models in magazines.

This Valentine’s Day, let’s try to make the guys feel good about themselves. Sunday is a day that should be celebrated by making everyone feel desired. After all, Cupid’s arrow doesn’t discriminate. I’m sure boys would love to hear that we think they’re looking good.


E-mail: jzaslow@indiana.edu