Let's boycott flowers this Valentine's day

[sharptoothlemonshark]

Why are we still indulging in this outdated misogynistic behaviour of men giving women flowers and women accepting them?

The industry is rotten to the core, with women in Africa getting their lungs burnt out by pesticides so women in Western Europe can look at something useless but "pretty" ( - if you consider the forced, unnaturally bred genetically mutated exaggerations "pretty").

The environmental damage done by transporting them from country to country is immeasurable, never mind the sacrifice of land that could be used to grow food and lower food prices.

And how is it people who object to pesticides being used to grow food are ok with soil being smothered in the stuff to grow flowers? It all enters the same water course.

And what a waste of money it is! Surely your partners could use the money or something more personal and thoughtful?

YABU - I like receiving forced, genetically mutilated, unnatural instruments of environmental damage and disabling of women.

YANBU - lets inform our partners these are not acceptable Valentine's day gifts.

An angry rant really isn't the way to get your point across (if it is actually something you are passionate about or do you just want to start a row before valentines day).

Quiet day in virtue signal land. So OP found this topic to lecture people on. So sad that people have to resort to these pathetic tactics to get clicks.

of course it is only the rich and privileged that have flowers! They are a luxury item.

Daffodils cost £1 a bunch.

@sharptoothlemonshark calling women shallow for liking pretty things is misogynistic

And making less money, and paying workers less.

If you want to campaign for something campaign for Fair Trade flowers and safer working conditions.

we don't need flowers. We do need more food

What a lot of nonsense.

Where I live, er in Africa btw, many people grow their own fruit and vegetables, as a means to eat well and as a way to support themselves. Guess what else they grow?Flowers. Yes flowers, because they like them. In their homes. The pride they have in their homes made from steel sheeting or breeze blocks shows by the spotless home and bunch of flowers inside, always.

Is she rich or privileged. Not even close to either.

Off you trot with your big shouty attitude. You still didn't say where you are btw. In a first world country with all the other amenities you need close to hand by any chance?

This thread has made me actively buy more flowers! 😂

Amazing, isn;t it. I was going to say 'only on MN' but it's not. Women's lives and health mean very very little. So long as some people can have 'pretty' things to look at (for a short length of time).

And of course it is only on MN that the OP is always wrong, and is usually a legitimate, easy, target for less-than-critical thinkers. Op is 'virtue-signalling, wants to take away a (totally meaningless, useless) thing from our houses, wants to remove a pleasure'. How about having a think, a real think, about the women who supply these modified, pretty, air-mile-heavy flowers? Think about the risks to them, their health, their environment? Our environment?

What about your clothes? Do you say 'oh but i like it' when you pickup a blouse made in a Chinese (or anywhere) sweatshop by children? Or do you put it back down and buy something more ethically produced?

Oh and of course you can pick flowers from your own garden ffs. They are presumably not covered in pesticides, forced into growth out of season, flown halfway round the world - to sit in your vase on the coffee table? Jesus. Way to miss the fucking point.

And flowers really are a luxury! A bunch of daffs may be only £1, but so is a loaf of bread.

Where do we stop? When the earth is really fucked and we are all starving/poisoned/full of microplastics and living knee-deep in long-discarded wet-wipes?

well, it takes a particular type of person to actively choose to do something harmful to physically hurt another human just because they don't like the tone of voice or whatever, of the person who asked them not to.

There will always be a small number of people like this, and you just have to account for that in your judgement of what the human race is like

The OP is making a an interesting point but she completely undermined it by calling flower buying misogynistic and calling women who like flowers as lacking depth.

Had you bothered to read the whole thread you would have seen that some people acknowledged the issues and that many of us are already mindful of where we purchase our flowers and are actively choosing ethical, and locally sourced/grown flowers.

We don't need more food.

A third of all food goes to waste, the world produces enough food to feed all 7.5 billion people.

Poverty is the single biggest cause of hunger - and you want to make people poorer?

The biggest cause of famine is war and conflict.

Please stop making things up and quoting them as facts. To stop buying flowers grown in Africa would make the lives of those who rely on that income worse not better.

It's YOU proposing to harm people.

@ElaineMBenes @ciderhouserules the OPs supposition is incorrect.

We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day,
personal choice. Same as its personal choice to those who do. I do love flowers though and DH often buys them, I’m not about to stop him because some random on the internet doesn’t like it 🤷‍♀️

I bet your typing on a phone / tablet not concerned that people die in the making of lots of items you consume, including your phone/tablet... but the big bad flowers 😂

Completely agree.

I can get onboard with the environmental and human exploitation impact of flowers / the flowers industry might have (I've not really considered it in the past).

It's just a shame you had to conflate what could have been a really valid / educational post with the rubbish about masogony and the 'all men are bastards' vibe in your OP.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

But chocolates are also a thoughtless, temporary gift that just please women because they're yummy? And other more permanent things are stuff that might end up in landfill one day. Lots of spring flowers are grown here. I think DH might be getting me seeds for our garden...does that make him even more of a bastard though for getting me pretty things that I have to put effort into myself 😂

Shock horror the OP has cherrypicked which comments to reply to and completely ignored all the ones which address the blatant hypocrisy.

🙄Is this an earnest student wind up??? It's half term in some parts of the country. Just saying...
By this mad rationale, I used to be a florist so that's tantamount to being a pimp or murderer probably 😄

Ooh, you will hate my DM then. She uses her allotment to grow flowers. I love getting cut flowers from there. It is personal, and all grown with love.

Flowers make me smile. They brighten up my otherwise dingy house. I don't want chocolate (am trying to diet) and I don't want some 3ft teddy holding a heart either.

I am not talking about what people use private gardens or allotments for, I am talking about what agricultural land is used for internationally

Including mine asking where OP lives.