• tetrabrick [xey/xem, she/her]
    ·
    11 months ago

    not American but, why mowing the lawn is a manly thing?.It's just pushing a machine with wheels.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      11 months ago

      It has a history that goes back over a century, starting with a crude imitation of the old gentrified English idea of "you look rich and successful if you have carefully maintained grass instead of edible crops on your property" and it expanded into a mass produced obedience ritual (propagated on actual TV programs and "educational" propaganda before feature films in the 1950s-1960s) where every homeowner was expected to show their Protestant Work Ethic pride by maintaining an inch-high fuzzy rectangle of obedience in their front yard, sometimes while drenching it in chemicals to further strip it of an actual ecosystem.

      Ultimately it's manly because it adheres to pretenses of manliness. In Burgerland, obedience is manly.

      • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        crude imitation of the old gentrified English idea of "you look rich and successful if you have carefully maintained grass instead of edible crops on your property"

        American lawn culture makes gardens that look awful. A country estate's garden is supposed to be a work of art. this is what it's supposed to look like

        My local aristocrat would be embarresed if his sheep were seen on a garden that looks like this

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          ·
          11 months ago

          My local aristocrat would be embarresed if his sheep were seen on a garden that looks like this

          That truly looks like death to me. Or Phoenix AZ. same-picture

          • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            11 months ago

            not to praise this aristocrat you understand, the EU gives him all the rural support money because he owns all the land and he spends it all on his Hitler painting collection. Well gave he shall have to find some other way of paying for Hitler paintings now

            which is a big part of why I think the EU's rural areas support didn't really work in Britain as it was designed for countries where more rural people actually own land

    • KarlBarqs [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      11 months ago

      At least in the case of my own father, lawn care is an activity that takes several hours to complete and can be strategically timed to ensure he never has to help out with any other indoor chores like laundry or cleaning - you know, "less manly" things