At this Valentine’s Day show, I do not like it.

Before we begin, I know, I know: where do I get the criticism from the first lady for decorating the White House lawn with giant Valentine’s Day hearts, while she, and even the softest message of positivity, is such a huge improvement over her represents predecessor?

And yet I will criticize. Because I do not like these hearts. When they first came across my feed this morning, I thought I was looking at a photo of the White House that someone had covered with stickers. But no, they are really there, a Valentine’s Day offer from Jill to us: a series of big, flat white, pink and red hearts with words like ‘kindness’ and ‘compassion’ spelled out on it.

Giant signs on the lawn generally seem like a strange choice for a place like the White House, but it especially looks like it was built by a middle school theater crew. If they’re supposed to evoke candy hearts – I guess? – well … there is room for improvement.

And even when it comes to messages, some of the words at heart – ‘healing’, ‘unity’ – seem more focused on the pandemic and politics than Valentine’s Day. Since when has Valentine’s Day been about unity? I tend to agree with one review I experienced on Twitter: was it not just spreading messages of healing and unity by placing signs in your garden that say ‘healing’ and ‘unity’ and call it a day ‘ ? It really is not that different from hitting a bunch of stickers on the White House.

I was excited to say goodbye to Melania Trump and her blood trees and see what aesthetic Jill Biden would bring to the White House, but I expected to expect something more elegant. If these hearts are a harbinger of what is to come, I am not optimistic.

When I boldly expressed these opinions to some of my colleagues, some argued that they liked the home-bound nature of the signs, found a certain charm in their toughness, and that any words of comfort felt at all like a relief in this cruel time. Maybe I was wrong, and these aspects of Jill Biden should have been adopted rather than criticized: she’s from Philly, a city that’s proud of its scarcity; she is an educator and here she decorated the lawn of the White House like in a classroom. While we are on the verge of being an educator, should she waste time on this first lady decorating nonsense anyway? Maybe it’s even refreshing that she’s either not good at it or not really giving in to it.

These are definitely points. I think I am most compelled by the latter. Why must is it Jill’s responsibility to decorate? Where was the second Mr. Doug Emhoff in all this? Why does he not act to work from the sexist grumble to being a presidential or vice-presidential spouse now that he exists so historically? (Maybe he can help his daughter from art school to raise the footage just a little bit?)

Instead, he just tweeted the first lady again. So I changed my mind; I have no problem with Jill anymore. Doug, you’re on notice though.