Plants Are Allowed to Be Diverse but Not Humans
The other day, I went to buy plants with my grandmother and I had an epiphany. Have you ever wondered why we accept plant diversity, but not diversity in humans? That's the thought that popped into my head as I was walking through the rows of plants.
When you look at plants in a Garden center, you see all types of different plants, but even among the same type of plant, they’re also all unique and different from one another.
For example, I know a few people who have an aloe vera, a type of succulent. If we were to put them on a table and line them up we would realize that they are very different, despite being the same type of plant. Some of them are bigger, some are smaller, some have longer ‘branches’, some are shorter. Some are mostly straight and some curl up.
Why do we look at plants and never question the fact that they are all different in their own way, but when it comes to humans, we can’t accept that humans are all different shapes and sizes?
Instead, we are told to fit this extremely narrow mold that barely anyone fits in. Everyone is told to look the same. Right now, someone assigned female at birth is told to have hips, a big booty and a small waist. Someone assigned male at birth is told to be lean and muscular. Those are only some of the many societal pressures to conform us to specific beauty standards. The LGBTQIA2S+community receives their fair share too.
Isn’t it also ironic that when our plant gets bigger, we celebrate because it’s a sign that it’s happy and healthy, but when a human gains weight, we shame them? We don’t even consider that that could be that person’s healthy weight. We always associate being in a bigger body with being unhealthy or lazy when someone’s size does NOT determine someone’s health status or their traits.
We accept diversity in nature quite often. From dogs, cats, plants, mountains, wild animals, waterfalls, etc. Why can’t we accept that humans are meant to be diverse too?
When we go out for a drive or a hike, we often take a moment to admire the trees and we may notice that they’re all different shapes and sizes. They’re all unique in their own way. We call that the beauty of nature.
Why can’t we accept that humans have different shapes and sizes as well? Isn’t human diversity, the beauty of nature too?
Everything in nature is created to be unique and different. Not one snowflake is ever the same. Why would we expect humans to be the same?
Frankly, the main theme of this article was body diversity, but this goes far beyond that. We want humans to be the same: white, thin, straight, cisgender and able-bodied. When a human is different, the world is different for them.
We treat them differently, they experience discrimination, they don’t have the same opportunities as those who have all the privileges mentioned above. They have more difficulties getting jobs and getting a house. They may not receive the same medical care. They may not be able to go places because they’re not accessible to them.
So, let me ask you: why do we accept that nature is full of diversity, but when it comes to humans, we discourage it and discriminate when someone is different?
I urge you to not look the other way and to take the time to answer this question. The more we understand the root of this discrimination, the more we can help dismantle it.
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