I am in Vancouver for a long weekend!
Of course, my sister Hayley ferried over to spend a few days. We did the usual activities- Namely, ate our weight in sushi, drank our weight in sake, beer, and bubbly, and weaved our way down the waterfront and pilfered like thieving sots from every bar we went to. Hayley accumulated a nearly full set of Hoegaarden glasses, while my purse was filled to bursting with assorted pub-specific cardboard coasters, to be later tiled and epoxied in a creative burst of utilitarian domesticity.
Aside from exploits in sashimi and binge petty larceny, we did a perfectly tourist acceptable side-adventure to the Aquarium (Corey had never seen Belugas!) and saw the heart-burstingly adorable sight of an adult sea otter napping with a wee blanket on his back in the water.
Post-drinking day was comprised of sleeping and powerade to soothe the cranial purgatory I'd landed myself in. Corey likened the experience of towing me back to the hotel as 'herding a drunken cat', and apparently I caused all sorts of ruckus on the sky train, giving him a persistent if unpersuasive litany of woe regarding my desire to remove my boots. He forbade my doing so.
Hayley arrived for dinner, which was pizza and pop and movies ("Like we're 12!") and more recovery. She spent the night, and as Corey was required to be at work today, she and I trotted off to a late brunch at the The White Spot followed by Blendz, which brings us to the current heading which so caught your attention.
Blendz now offers the "Blendz Red Band" where, having acquired your drink, you can select this bright red cup sleeve instead of the usual nondescript Blendz sleeve, thusly signalling to the world at large your availability for romantic flirtation and possibly marriage and babies to fellow Blendz aficionados. The "Blendz Red Band" poster warns you that intense flirtation and attraction may occur. It turns out, upon investigating the website, that this is an annual pre-valentines campaign which aims to give single people the chance to meet and flirt over coffee. Discretion is advised. Yes, a scarlet coffee sleeve to announce your perceived inability to find a partner certainly is discreet. Not to say people are unable to find partners- but that's the kind of vibe the advertisement gave. The bright red band was a bit reminiscent of the bright red 'A'. A few hundred years ago, being an adulterer was reprehensible. Now, being without a significant other is.
Hayley and I discussed our mutual annoyance at the continually pervasive insistence that people who are single must naturally be desperate to meet someone, and can't possibly be happy and fulfilled with themselves, and are therefore eager to put on a red coffee sleeve inviting the attention of others. Being a fan of Blendz, I don't necessarily think that's the impression they want to give people, and the idea on the whole is, like most hook-up platforms, a well intentioned bit of fun. But it does buy in to the everyone-needs-a-partner mentality that is so completely stirred up in our pop culture, and a good deal of the negative associations and made-and-broken relationships that supposedly litter everyone's lives might be a bit lessened if we maybe spent all the time we spend assuming we need someone to putting out the idea that, you know what? You're kind of ok alone, and if you meet someone, awesome! But if you're happy and not too fussed about coupling then that's cool too.
Disclaimer: Of course, Blendz is not insisting single people use a red sleeve- its a cheesy advertisement, and I can't imagine a lot of people would anyway, yet... it's the buying into the culture that says "Oh, single? Here! Let's fix that right away, because you must be dying inside, amirite?" that sticks.
Either way, if you are single and happy, swell! Please, please, continue to ignore the nigh-on continual propaganda against singleness, and be a living demonstration to the contrary.
If you are single and don't wish to be? Also swell. Go about your business or onto a dating site and see if you'd like to participate. You can go to Blendz and snag a red coffee sleeve on the way- perhaps the warnings will prove correct, and a cute red-banded coffee-swiller (a mating strategy a la Baboon, colour-wise) will mark you as their future.
No comments:
Post a Comment