Everyone knows about Valentine’s Day, but to be honest, the better “holiday” comes one day before, on Feb. 13: Galentine’s Day! From the fabulous mind of Leslie Knope, Galentine’s Day is a time to celebrate your lady friends. So of course we wanted to find out how our favorite feminists honor their BFFs.
What does your ideal Galentine’s Day look like?
“One of my besties and I took a Galentine’s Day vacation together last year. We left our partners at home and ran off to Iceland together for a full week of quality friend time. It was the best. Iceland was very much a one-time special thing, but I’d love to do similar lady-friend trips in the future, particularly timed around Galentine’s Day. I live far away from a lot of the women I love most, and finding a way to see them for a few days of distraction-free time is the most special Galentine’s treat.” — Carrie Nelson
“Whenever I think of Galentine’s Day, I think of the kind of love and celebration I experienced with five of my best friends when I turned 40. I hadn’t had a vacation in 10 years, so this group of amazing, badass, hilarious, loving women all came to Vieques with me, where we shared a rental house for a week. We cooked all our meals together, lazed around on the beach, swam, talked politics and sex and pop culture and love and revolution, played feminist-house-rules Cards Against Humanity, hugged 400-year-old trees, karaoke’d at an ex-pat bar, laughed until we couldn’t breathe, gave no f***s about how we looked and created what felt like our own temporary little feminist utopia. The most amazing part? Most of these women didn’t know each other going in to the trip, but all became great friends right away. I can’t usually afford to go on Galentine’s getaway trips, but the spirit of how we bonded that week will always exemplify a high-water mark for me of what female friendship can be.” — Jennifer Pozner
More:Being my grandmother’s pen pal changed my life
“I have mine all planned out for the weekend after Valentine’s Day! I’m having some of my favorite ladies over to my house. I have made them little handcrafted love notes and baskets full of glitter and hearts. I am making them brunch with crepes and mimosas. There will be speeches about how wonderful they all are. And a banner that says ‘Femme Friends Forever.’ The only thing that would make my plans better is if I could include the people that don’t live near me in the festivities!” — Seraphina Ferraro
“Probably the way we spend most of our days together: filled with red wine, chocolate and cheese, general disdain for humanity.” — Helen Androlia
“Lots of wine (or other favorite beverage of choice for my non-drinking loves) and endless Netflix viewing in leggings and sweatpants. Netflix viewing preference given to feminist favorites like Degrassi, Grey’s Anatomy and Jessica Jones. Absence of bras not frowned upon; in fact, they are welcome. Pizza Hut delivery is a must.” — Wagatwe Wanjuki
“Having a close-knit group of female friends who I actually see regularly, and whenever we hang out, we forget we have cellphones.” — Lane Moore
“Brunch (of course) with one of my closest female friends, where we’ll almost certainly kill a pitcher of mimosas and end up yelling about the patriarchy. So basically standard Galentine’s procedure!” — Hanna Brooks Olsen
More:The definitive list of things women shouldn’t say to one another
“I would be really into a Galentine’s date with all my BFFs that involved doing each other’s hair and makeup for pinup-style photo shoots. Then we’d go through the best photos and high-five each other for how gorgeous and sexy and perfect we are, exactly how we are, with zero need for further affirmation on that from men.” — Emily Bingham
“Drinking male tears with my favorite misandrists and planning for a world without men.” — Britni de la Cretaz
“I would throw a party and revive an old tradition of mine: the Worst Valentine’s Present contest. The rules are, you can only spend $20, but you should find the ugliest, most pathetic, least romantic or just all-around worst present a store is selling for VD. If you can’t afford it, some exceptions are made if you take a picture. (One year I nearly won with a picture of a statue I found in a Catholic store of a nun holding up a heart hopefully. It wasn’t even that she was a nun — it was the look on her face of desperate romantic hope. It was SO HILARIOUSLY STRANGE.) The decision about the winner is usually unanimous, and the losers will either buy her a drink or dinner. What’s great about the contest is that people in all kinds of relationship stages can enjoy it — it’s about mocking the saccharine nature of the holiday and most especially how desperately driven by shameless capitalism it all is.” — Laura Stokes
“For me, it’s finding the time to make a batch of personalized Galentine’s cards and getting them in the mail so my favorite gals know how much I love them.” — Therese Shechter
“My idea of a lovely Galentine’s date would be a day spent talking to each other, really listening and catching up, affirming each other, sharing most pressing concerns and most exciting work. A day spent in self-care, whether it be treating ourselves [to] pedicures, hunting for new library books that we will spend the next weeks making time to read on the couch with the spring sun coming in the windows, eating real Italian gelato together with no talk about calories or “being bad” or all of the above. Loving ourselves enough to give ourselves the gift of loving and appreciating each other.” — Maia Butler
More:Yes, you can celebrate Valentine’s Day without losing your feminist card
“I’m finally going to finish all 10 seasons of Beverly Hills 90210 with the kind of serenity that only someone who has not almost died in a fire, been in a cult, got addicted to cocaine and was nearly single-white-female killed can possess.” — Jenn Tisdale
“My ideal Galentine’s Day would be spent doing the things I already do with my gal pals: poetry readings, awesome drinks, indie films and coordinating world takeover plans. Happy Galentine’s Day!” — Shaindel Beers
Before you go, check out our slideshow below:
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