For Immediate Release:
Contact: David Rossi Phone: 310.568.0066 Email: Bonoboville@gmail.com
Hallmark’s Fake News:
Valentine’s Day is really Lupercalia
Los Angeles, California: February 9th, 2017 —Is the sugar-coated hard-sell of Valentine’s Day hype giving you a toothache? If the stress is enough to make you want to whack someone, even your special someone, you might want to whack, smack and whip it up (with enthusiastic consent, of course) for the original Valentine’s Day, Lupercalia. Less pressure, more pleasure—and no sugar crash.
In a world of fake news and “alternative facts,” maybe it should come as no surprise that even Valentine’s Day isn’t what we’ve been sold to believe it is. According to international sex therapist Susan M. Block, Ph.D., a.k.a., “Dr. Suzy,” the idea of celebrating exclusive, romantic love on the High Holiday of Love that we call Valentine’s Day is a relatively new invention, essentially concocted by Hallmark and its 19th century American greeting card industry antecedents, now blossoming to immense multi-corporate proportions.
However, the tradition of honoring all-inclusive, natural lust around the 14th of February pre-dates classical times when ancient Romans put on the Lupercalia, an archaic festival of Faunus, the Roman Pan, Greek god of the wild. Instead of the exclusive, commercialized romance of Valentine’s Day, Lupercalia celebrated inclusive, collective joy, the true meaning of the heart (a well-whipped set of buns), the rush of hormones, the howl of the wolf, the crack of the whip and the coming of Spring.
Needless to say, all that wild whipping and howling were (and are) a lot more interesting than Valentine cards, candy and engagement rings. In fact, it was a little too interesting for the early Catholic Church which squelched Lupercalian enthusiasm by not only making it illegal, but by literally demonizing Pan, turning him into the Devil and rebranding his celebration as “Satanic.” Then it placed the more Church-friendly, rather chaste Valentine’s Day right around the time of the lusty old Lupercalia. Pretty clever con-game, eh? Even better when you think of all the hope-filled, tear-stained cash it has raked in for Hallmark, See’s candies and De Beers diamonds.
That’s why every year, around Valentine’s Day, Dr. Suzy celebrates Lupercalia, opening her Bonoboville community up to fellow revelers, fetish stars and friends, telling the Lupercalia story on The Dr. Susan Block Show (now in its 33rd year of live broadcasting) and whipping everyone up for Spring. For information and to make reservations for Lupercalia 2017, click here or call 310-568-0066.
Best-selling author of the critically acclaimed book The Bonobo Way: The Evolution of Peace through Pleasure (Gardner & Daughters Publishers), Dr. Suzy see the Lupercalian Pan as the patron saint of the bonobos, their Latin classification being pan paniscus. Lupercalia—Valentine’s Day—or World Bonobo Day, as the folks at the Bonobo Project have taken to calling it, it’s the High Holiday of Love and a great time to support the “Make Love Not War” great apes.
As described in The Bonobo Way, our “kissing cousins,” the bonobos, can show us humans the way to peace through pleasure, an urgent lesson in our increasingly war-torn society. Ironically and tragically, these “Love Apes” are highly endangered in a world of war and ecological destruction. If you want to help the bonobos, donate to Lola ya Bonobo or the Bonobo Conservation Initiative, or give the gift of The Bonobo Way to someone you love, even if that someone is you. A portion of all proceeds from the book, as well as Lupercalia and the Dr. Susan Block Show goes toward these organizations and others in helping to save the bonobos. Let’s keep the bonoboesque momentum going. #GoBonobos in 2017: Year of the Cock. Practice resistance, the Bonobo Way, via peace through pleasure, female empowerment and love.
Though she loves Lupercalia, Dr. Suzy grew up on Valentine’s Day, and old rituals die hard. Thus, before whipping it up for the Lupercal on February 18th, she will take time out to celebrate V-Day the good, old-fashioned romantic—and yes, sometimes stressful, but always meaningful—way, with her “prime mate,” executive producer and husband of almost 25 years, the inimitable Captain Max.
For information about Lupercalia, Valentine’s Day, Bonoboville or the Bonobo Way, or to arrange an interview with Dr. Susan Block about any aspect of sexuality, please call 310-568-0066.
Contact: David Rossi Phone: 310.568.0066 Email: Bonoboville@gmail.com
Web: drsusanblock.com