How a man created Galentine's Day: the story behind Parks and Recreation's unknown legacy
The words “Valentine’s Day” strike fear into the hearts of single people and couples alike; a consumerist nightmare which forces you to either spend a fortune on flowers and dinner for someone else or on wine, three pizzas and ill-advised movie rentals all for yourself. But in recent years a more heartfelt – and in many ways more romantic – alternative has emerged on February 13: Galentine’s Day.
It’s a day for women to ditch the significant other and celebrate the female friendships in their lives – and it’s all thanks to the US sitcom Parks and Recreation. In 2010, a mere 22 minutes of bureaucratic-based humour birthed a trend – nay, a movement – that lives on to this literal day.
Greg Daniels and Michael Schur’s series had been on air for just under a year when Galentine’s Day made its first appearance. While Parks and Recreation had started as an Office-style mockumentary about local government, it was gradually morphing into a platonic rom-com about the perky gold-haired and -hearted public servant Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and her new friend, “beautiful unicorn nurse” (Leslie’s words) Ann Perkins, played by Rashida Jones.
When Ann demands action on an unsightly pit outside her house, Leslie swears she will turn it into a park. Friends don’t come much more dedicated than Leslie. As well as keeping her professional word, the deputy director of Pawnee’s Parks and Recreation department wraps Ann into her world.
It took just four minutes for Galentine’s Day to be born. The women of the Parks Department – a motley crew including angsty intern April (Aubrey Plaza) and the brassy, brilliant Donna (Retta) – share waffles and tell each other how magical and great they are without a man around to ruin anythings. In typical Leslie Knope style, she distributes gifts that are thoughtful, personal, and wildly overdone: hand-crocheted flower pens, a mosaic portrait made from the crushed bottles of her friend's favourite diet drink and a personalised 5,000 word essay about why they are individually so awesome. To quote Knope, Galentine's Day is “like Lilith Fair, minus the angst”.
Luring in just under 5 million viewers, Galentine’s Day was one of the most-watched episodes of Parks and Rec’s second season and coincided with an upward trend in the quality of the show. Originally intended to ape The Office, the first season suffered by playing for obvious laughs and erring on the side of pettiness in its local government setting.
But within a year Parks and Rec had found its feet and its soul; Leslie became less of a ball of irritating energy and more of a champion, a good-hearted if occasionally overzealous do-gooder relentlessly striving to drag the entire town of Pawnee up with her. Her colleagues may have started life as stereotypes but became fully rounded characters that we could believe formed deep and meaningful connections, usually over breakfast food.
Does it matter that the first Galentine’s Day episode was written by – gasp – a man? You can thank the show’s producer and writer Mike Schur for writing Galentine’s Day. In a message posted on Smart Girls – the website formed by Poehler to empower girls and young women – Schur explained the thinking behind it: “‘Galentine’s Day’ was conceived of as a way to show that Leslie cared as much about Ann, and her many other girlfriends, as she did about her romantic partnerships.
So every February 13, she took them out to brunch, gave them personalised presents, celebrated their successes, and generally made a fuss about how wonderful they are.”
It helped, however, that Leslie actress Poehler was – off-screen – one half of the most enviable best friend pairing in the world and a feminist activist in her own right. Her dazzling and reciprocated love for fellow comedian Tina Fey, whom she met right at the beginning of her career as part of Chicago improv comedy group Second City, is well-documented. Fey and Poehler’s friendship seeps into their comedic prowess – their chemistry during their stint as Golden Globes presenters was undeniable.
Furthermore, Poehler really does support “gals” – her Smart Girls initiative began as a YouTube series and has become a sprawling online community that aims to help girls find their place in an uncertain world; videos, articles and essays help boost “confidence in their own aspirations and talents”. Such efforts give credence to her fictional counterpart’s tireless efforts to shut down sexism in small town America.
On the campaign trail, Leslie memorably told a group of ‘Meninist’ activists, “You're ridiculous, and Men's Rights is nothing.” In the Galentine’s Day episode, Poehler’s breaking into the fourth wall - to warn Jennifer Aniston to “stay away from [recent ex] John Mayer – had a cunning timeliness: just days before the episode aired the musician admitted to making racist and sexually inappropriate comments.
Schur may have coined the phrase, and Poehler gave Galentine’s Day conviction, but nobody could have facilitated - nor predicted – how women around the world have brought the fictionalised holiday into their real lives. There was near-instant admiration for the concept from the minute it appeared on-screen in 2010.
“I wish Galentine's Day was a reality”, bemoaned Twitter user Jenn Diniz, on Valentine’s Day that year – three days after the episode aired. Little did she realise that other women around the US were already beginning to make it so.
Admiration for the concept snowballed. By 2011, writer Brodie Lancaster was tweeting her Galentine’s Day dinner plans. The year after, Galentine’s Day had taken on even more altruistic significance, as people co-opted the occasion for fundraising and donations of underwear, toiletries and sanitary products for homeless women. People started making cards and hosting waffle brunches. Somewhere, without doubt, a 5,000 word-essay of support was being written.
It is perhaps unsurprising to see that some real world Galentine’s celebrations in 2018 took on a #MeToo bent. Take Nasty Galentines – a New York-based group who formed in the wake of Donald Trump calling Hilary Clinton a “nasty woman” – who last year held a female-orientated networking event and panel discussions.
The movement has also caused in female friendships on screen to be re-evaluated more widely; in 2018 the BFI dedicated a whole season dedicated to female friendship this spring, including a special Galentine’s Day screening and Q&A of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, arguably cinema’s archetypal shambolic best friends.
If the true sign of a successful capital-H Holiday is the creation of a Hallmark card, then Galentine’s truly has arrived, following in the footsteps of brands such as Interflora, Target and even Disneyworld, who hopped aboard the best-bud-bandwagon and commercialised the otherwise good intentions behind February 13, just as they have its romantic namesake.
But the truest expression of Galentine’s love comes from the non-corporate; the Twitter threads rivalling International Women’s Day for celebrating our most inspiring chromosomally endowed humans, the home screenings of Romy and Michele, the handmade cards referencing Knopisms (“Ovaries before brovaries”), Beyoncé and the gushing group chats that we don’t even hear about. So, yeah, thanks Mike – but honestly, we can take it from here.