Popular Articles
Today Week Month Year


The Guardian (UK) says “gardening” is non-inclusive because it’s “loaded with cultural baggage”
By Ethan Huff // Sep 06, 2022

Writer James Wong penned a piece for The Guardian (United Kingdom) the other day that says gardening is an "offensive" term that excludes people, suggesting it should be scrapped.

Brighteon.TV

The word gardening "might seem inoffensive," Wong says, but "it's actually loaded with cultural baggage" that in today's "woke" world simply does not fly.

A horticulturalist himself, Wong has a fascination with natural beauty and "green spaces," as he calls them, but struggles to figure out why more people – and particularly younger people – are not all that interested in gardening. (Related: Young people are also avoiding the military as well, but probably because it is too woke.)

"I've been sitting on panels for more than a decade as industry bodies, media outlets and charities try to address the increasingly worrying question of how few young people are interested in horticulture," Wong writes.

"With garden societies closing, course places going unfilled and nurseries shutting shop, it's becoming quite urgent."

All over social media, people who like plants post about their at-home endeavors, but rarely, according to Wong, use the word gardening to describe the process.

This, he contends, is because the word gardening is non-inclusive and should probably be abandoned entirely because it connotates that green activities need to be "proper," which he hints at being a privileged concept.

"These younger plant geeks generally don't consume traditional gardening media, rarely visit the major shows and have developed their own horticultural norms and culture in a few short years," Wong says.

"The really encouraging (and yet perplexing) thing is, this is entirely a grassroots movement created not because of, but I'd say almost in spite of, the world of traditional gardening."

What's next: Is nature itself "racist?"

Instead of calling it gardening, social media nature acolytes are calling it things like urban farming, or giving themselves crazy names like "plant daddy" and "crazy plant lady."

"The words 'gardener' and 'gardening' feature rarely on these accounts which, ironically, are all about gardening," Wong says, perplexed about the matter.

The only thing he can conclude is that the cultural baggage that comes with the idea of gardening is keeping younger people away from identifying with it – so he wants to scrap it entirely.

"Despite having worked in the horticultural industry for almost two decades as a trained botanist, even I am rarely called a 'proper' gardener when I attend a horticultural event," he further writes.

"The higher the event's perceived status, the less likely it is to happen."

Wong says he worries that the next generation of gardeners who do not want to be called gardeners for cultural baggage reasons will miss out on the sharing of information, skills and plants themselves, leaving a hole in modern horticulture.

"My question to plant lovers is: Do we need to ditch the term 'gardening' to reach new people?" he asks. "Or do we need to reclaim the word by demonstrating it to be more inclusive? I am tempted to say the former, but rather hoping for the latter."

At no point does Wong suggest that gardening is a White thing, but that seems to be the connotation, especially since gardening is a popular pastime in Great Britain, which started out White.

There seems to be a woke crusade taking place against pretty much all things White, which now apparently includes the simple act of gardening. To make it less White, the term itself is now on the chopping block.

More related news about the Leftist quest to redefine words and even language itself to suit the "inclusive" agenda can be found at Wokies.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheGuardian.com

NaturalNews.com



Take Action:
Support NewsTarget by linking to this article from your website.
Permalink to this article:
Copy
Embed article link:
Copy
Reprinting this article:
Non-commercial use is permitted with credit to NewsTarget.com (including a clickable link).
Please contact us for more information.
Free Email Alerts
Get independent news alerts on natural cures, food lab tests, cannabis medicine, science, robotics, drones, privacy and more.

NewsTarget.com © 2022 All Rights Reserved. All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. NewsTarget.com is not responsible for content written by contributing authors. The information on this site is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice of any kind. NewsTarget.com assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. Your use of this website indicates your agreement to these terms and those published on this site. All trademarks, registered trademarks and servicemarks mentioned on this site are the property of their respective owners.

This site uses cookies
News Target uses cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using this site, you agree to our privacy policy.
Learn More
Close
Get 100% real, uncensored news delivered straight to your inbox
You can unsubscribe at any time. Your email privacy is completely protected.