The Age of Houseplants

The whole essay is very much a history and exploration of the significance of plants in homes. To reduce it to “overstating for identity politics points” is to do a disservice to the writing, at least in my opinion.

From the next paragraph after:

> “Are those stereotypes fair? No! Do they nonetheless undergird how we think of plants in the home in this moment? Yes!”

The author is overstating stereotypes for comic effect / hyperbole. I don’t think she’s literally claiming that men are being seen as feminine just for having plants. Just that stereotypes around plant ownership do exist and do subtly affect the way we talk about these things — as they do many areas of human life!