Do you have a go-to Father’s Day gift? Maybe it’s a Bunnings voucher, or some form of your father figure’s favourite alcohol. Personally, my siblings and I like to give our Dad mint-flavoured lifesavers (I’m sure that hasn’t gotten old since he first mentioned he liked them over 15 years ago! Sorry Da.).
A few months ago I put together a blog detailing 8 Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day, without any issue coming up with that many suggestions. So, when I came to write an equivalent blog for Father’s Day (aware that my standard gift could do with some revising), I was left feeling a little puzzled as to why those suggestions weren’t flowing out of me, and further to this, why the list couldn’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t actually be very similar to that for giving to Mums. So, we thought we’d delve into the sparsely populated world of ‘Gifting Flowers to Men’, and have a look at why it’s not the ‘done’ thing.
Firstly, we should just highlight how seldom men receive flowers, when compared to women. This isn’t something that’s just mildly real. It is for realz real. Looking briefly at a random sample of EEFM sales, it was immediately evident that the overwhelming majority of our customers are sending to female recipients. In fact, on a randomly selected day, less than 5% of orders were going to male recipients. And of this 5%, less than half of these recipients were receiving flowers, with plants and terrariums being the favoured gift choice for people to send to men. This confirmed our suspicious that lots of people think of flowers as more of a feminine thing, but we wanted to work out why.
Why is it that men men don’t like flowers as much as women do? Or perhaps more to the point, why don’t people think men like flowers as much a women do?
We decided to ask a bunch of dudes their opinions. Firstly, we wanted to know if these guys even liked flowers and secondly, how they’d feel if they received them as a gift, as well as why they thought they might feel that way.
Here are a couple of the responses we received.
“Yeah, I like flowers. I like how they superficially lighten up a room and how they are simultaneously so luxurious and so commonplace (they just grow out of dirt!) On a more philosophical level, I like them because of that Japanese principle of wabi-sabi (temporary or disposable beauty) which I think is cool. If I was given flowers I would feel loved, considered and mildly inconveniences (vases, maintenance, eventually throwing out etc). On the scale of gifts, I would think of it as more thoughtful than chocolate or a generic bottle of wine.” Gent, 33
“Yeah I like flowers; more natives than anything else - love a king protea, not a big fan of roses and other traditional stuff. I would be happy [to receive flowers], but may be a bit confused too. I guess it’s not that conventional for boys to receive flowers, so may be a bit puzzling. It’s also weird because I don’t really feel the same way about plants, if I got a plant as a gift I wouldn’t feel confused at all. Maybe I just think they’re a bit more masculine?” Guy, 20
“I love flowers. Absolutely would like them as a gift. Why? Not totally sure. For me they feel more personal, like a living piece of art that changes every time you get another bunch. They just seem to mean more, especially if it’s random and not for a so called special occasions. Oh and don’t forget the scent of the flowers, beautiful.” Chap, 64
“Yes I like flowers. I would feel surprised to receive flowers as I think there’s a perception that flowers are a gift for women more so than for men.” Lad, 30
There were some surprising aspects to these responses, however perhaps some of the most resounding messages we took away from this casual feedback was that, generally, men do in fact like flowers. Hell, lots of them would like to receive them as gifts, as they would make them feel loved and considered. There were also those who said they’d feel a bit confused to receive flowers, but were able to recognise that this was simply because of the preconception that flowers are a more feminine thing, which when you think about it, doesn’t make all that much sense really.
We did a lot of chatting about this idea with women too and quite a few were surprised to hear that men would want to receive flowers as a gift. So we’re here to set the record straight. Flowers are not only good gift ideas for lady-folk. In fact we know females who don’t care for receiving flowers. More to the point though is that gender really needn’t have any role in selecting gifts. Instead, finding out what the recipient does and doesn’t like would be a better idea.
So perhaps instead of going with your standard Father’s Day gift this year, consider whether your father figure might in fact feel loved, considered and valued if they were to receive flowers this time around. After all, there’s nothing exclusively feminine about the wonders of nature. And anyway, isn’t it fun to question the status quo? We think so!
Rosie X
(Father's Day Range: The King)
Spoil your Father Figure here