anomalocarisJul 30, 2023

Here's a botanical gripe that drives me up the wall every so often: using gendered terms for plants. We talk about male and female parts and while reproduction-wise it's understandable how it got to be that way, it's actually massively unhelpful because people can't stop themselves from having all these connotations of gender roles, just like they do for people, but for plants. Which isn't just my conjecture - historically, women were prohibited from being botanists because of these gendered ideas, because of female eggs being impregnated by pollen from male parts, flowers with anthers and styles being described as a bed with so many men and so many women... it was all considered far too hot and steamy for the suggestible female mind.

Which is why for centuries, European women were generally only able to enter the field of botany by becoming illustrators. Most great botanical illustrators from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were women.

(1/3)

Show threadM 🇵🇸
@anomalocaris thank you for raising awareness! yet another way in which rigid gender roles harm all of us. and just to think - such stories permeate every profession, every hobby, every facet of human existence. and most of us are unaware of most of them, until someone with specialised knowledge speaks up the way you did just now. we've been deprived of so much.
Jul 30, 2023 at 9:05pmWeb
Show threadanomalocarisJul 30, 2023
@tosaynothingofthecat You are precisely right, thank you for putting it so well - every facet of human existence. It's up to all of us to drag every last bit of it out into the light of day, point to it and declare to the world "no more of this!" No small task, but we will get there in the end, and the world will be that much more beautiful.