It’s rather brilliant, actually. Just when most freshmen have resigned themselves to spending Valentine’s Day with a pint of Chunky Monkey and “Sex and the City” DVDs, personally addressed Valentines arrive in their mailboxes. Excited by the prospect of a secret admirer, they open the cards—only to discover that they were taken in by an advertising gimmick.
“Why wait? Because you’re worth it,” reads the card. “Yours, True Love Revolution.” Back to spending Valentine’s with Ben and Jerry.
The student organization True Love Revolution has entered the Harvard scene with a bang, targeting freshmen in its First Annual Valentine’s Day Abstinence Awareness Campaign. The group was founded last June in opposition to what co-President Justin S. Murray ’07 calls the “hook-up culture” that’s ruled Harvard as of late, which places greater value on sexual attraction than on commitment. “The quality of sex in a relationship depends so much more on the love that you have for somebody,” says Murray.
Sorry ladies, but Murray is already taken by none other than Sarah M. Kinsella ’07, the other co-President of True Love Revolution. Mixing business and pleasure seems like a formula for disaster, but Murray is serene. “In general, we work together extremely well,” he says.
Publicity Manager Andrea L. Daniel ’09 believes the group is needed at Harvard. “People don’t really date anymore,” she says. “Instead, they meet people at parties and have one-night stands.”
But don’t expect the Revolution to be handing out chastity belts outside parties. “We’re not necessarily trying to change people’s minds,” says Daniel. “We just want to be among the choices that people can make.”
“We believe that the positive aspects of abstinence speak for themselves,” says Kinsella. And they do—at least until the kegs roll out.
