Beechgrove Garden inclusivity.

[Karensalright]

Liked this programme as a bit quirky and old fashioned in its ways up In the challenging environment of Scotland.

So tonight we had a lovely segment on the Afghan community allotment project followed, and how they were growing food that they. Traditionally eat, some of which i had not heard of.

Then bugger me we have a segment on LGBTQ gardening???? Well Q actually.

They had nothing to offer in terms of gardening tips, or what they actually grew, just a bit of, well i dunno really, hello we are here, and gardening can be queer.

What has your dress sense, and identity have to do with gardening.

Did anyone else see it?

Great - you didn’t watch it, but you’re here to cheerlead for not allowing queer people to be on it, just in case they talk about their feelings.

It sounds like you’re lumping all non heterosexual people together, and implying they are a threat to children - but maybe you just phrased it badly.

If you read 'some (a minority)' as remotely implying that then I think you're gratuitously misreading.

(And also, nowadays quite a few people identifying as 'queer' are heterosexual)

There's obviously absolutely nothing wrong with LGBT people being on a gardening show. There's probably been loads over the years (though some might find the term 'queer' offensive due to being used as such). But they'd be on it truly inclusively rather than 'othered', for their gardens and gardening skills not for being queer.

What's so hard to understand about that?

Yeah, most people probably haven't heard of Foucault.

What does a french physicist who demonstrated the Earth's rotation have to do with FWR?

Is a gay garden like the gay Gordon’s?

only greener?

It’s not a show about feelings, straight, queer or anything in-between - it’s a show about gardening. No-one watches BG to hear any of the presenters talk about how they feel about their sexuality, gender identity or biological sex fgs - their feelings are about the weather or their poor strawberry crops, that kind of relevant garden related stuff. No-one is prevented from being on the show - they’re all welcome to talk about gardening.

@FlippingFliperoo did you actually read what I said?
I'm a regular viewer of Beechgrove, it's full on gardening- lots of technical stuff, comparing different varieties/ fertilizer and whatnot, I just missed that episode.

Did I say that anyone should not be allowed to take part? No I didn't- I specifically said that anyone talking about gardening should be able to take part

It is absolutely though not the sort of program that discusses personal feelings, if the "queer" or "trans" or whatever person was on there to talk about actual gardens then so what, tell me how you plant your tomatoes for best results, I don't care how you identify if you have a cure for blossom end rot or can rid my greenhouse of snails!
It's almost as if you want to stir things up, by deliberately misinterpreting what people say.

Exactly that SirChenjins.

@FlippingFliperoo

It doesn't have to permeate everything, this is what pisses people of. Certainly nothing to with non heterosexual people not being able to express themselves. There's a time and a place for everything, gardening isn't it.

What does a french physicist who demonstrated the Earth's rotation have to do with FWR?

Michel, not Léon.

Michel Foucault, philosopher, post-modern thinker, deconstructionist. Foundational to the idea that words create reality rather than describing it. See Judith Butler and queer theory.

Beyond this, I am completely out of my depth!

Léon Foucault is the maths/physics one.

So when we mention Foucault, we need to be clear which one we are talking about.

Foucault can Fouc Off out of my garden.

🤣

I switch off the TV or radio as soon as I hear the long string of letters now as it’s very rare that anyone’s sexuality / self-proclaimed identity is relevant to the story or news item. I couldn’t care less about an enby feeling “safe” in a garden - whatever this actually means.

It has been creeping in for years, mainly through the links between the Greens and Horticulture.

This was a session on a previously respected [by me] professional group from 2023.

If we had 'queer botany' then we'd have no fucking food to eat.

This was completely embarassing and I am still not over it.

The screenshot from Alison above is idiotic.

In the interests of accuracy, though, I have to say I watched the programme and it was a perfectly nice little segment about a community garden and a veg box scheme. There was no detailed discussion about planting, preferred varieties or anything else, but in that respect it was just like the segment about the Afghani community garden earlier on. It was about how having this space gives people with common interests and backgrounds a meeting place and a shared activity of a kind that is particularly good for mental and physical health. There was no discussion whatsoever about anybody's sexuality or gender identity. No problem with any of this.

@AlisonDonut That paragraph reads like something in Private Eye. “Queer botany”!

I wonder if it was an attempt to make botany sound more exciting by pointing out well-known differences between plant and mammalian reproduction, e.g. some plants produce both male and female gametes. This is no more relevant to gender ideology and 'queerness' in humans than our old friend the clownfish.

Gardening is and has always been for everyone, and there never has really been a gender divide in it either.

Fizzadora · Yesterday 11:57

I joined a local Facebook gardening and plant swap group recently and was asked to introduce myself and my pronouns to the rest of the group🤔

I've asked my plants if they care how I identify. They haven't said.

Your mashed potato squash and runner beans are judging you silently, you massive bigot!

AlisonDonut · Today 09:18

This was a session on a previously respected [by me] professional group from 2023.

If we had 'queer botany' then we'd have no fucking food to eat. This was completely embarassing and I am still not over it.

What do they do? Scurry about "fertilising" all the male flowers with a modeller's paintbrush, then rip them all off, before they can contaminate the female one? Fuck's sake!

I remember that. It was utter bollocks. I wouldn't have minded if he'd actually been shown gardening, the plants he's grown, tips etc but it was just him wafting around at a plant show in a dress 😂

I have absolutley no fucking idea!

I sat there at the time the session was going on, thinking I should have just attended but knowing I'd lose my rag.

It was specifically seed saving.

You know, like when male pollen fertilises the female flower and a seed is produced!

I used to work with the bloke that ran the project that generated this conference, I know he knows how seeds work.