What does a farmer look like?

I've starting the day pondering: What does a farmer look like?
It's dress like a farmer day at my daughter's school, so it was a topic I had to negotiate with a five-year-old this morning.
In her mind farmers are just people (✅) but that to dress up like a farmer you need a straw hat (❌). Considering how many straw hats I saw at drop off this morning I think there may have been some discussion about straw hat costumes in the playground yesterday.
As you can see, my daughter wore gumboots (because it's muddy and they're easy to clean - think biosecurity), jeans with unicorns on them, her RB Sellars shirt with our farm logo and a jumper and jacket because it's cold. It's fairly standard farm attire for her.
You may notice she's not wearing a straw hat. That was my win for the morning. A broad-brimmed hat is certainly part of our "farm uniform" in summer, but it wasn't happening just to perpetuate a stereotype.
In the past she's worn a lot of tutus in the cattle yards, pyjamas in tractors and dresses on hot days. I reminded her of this. Mum and Dad and Nan and Pop are farmers and they all wear different clothes. Farmers can look like anyone. When they're working their clothes must be safe and protect them from hazards - but that's the only rule.
The "little farmers" I saw today all had plaits, flannies, straw hats and I even saw one child with drawn-on freckles. I never thought I could be offended by primary school children's dress ups, but I was. Is this really how the world sees us?
Farmers are often highly educated multitasking geniuses. They care for animals, operate, maintain and repair machinery, they're vets, chemists, mechanics and accountants. They're so much more.
They also sometimes have careers outside of the farm - doctors, engineers, lawyers, politicians, business owners, the list goes on.
Farmers are men, women, young, old, all shapes, sizes, colours and creeds.
I say this as a freckled, fair skinned, straw-hat-wearing farmer that is happy the school had an opportunity to raise money for its agriculture department - that's important. There's nothing wrong with a day to highlight farmers. The problem is how farmers are seen.
As a society I would have thought that we had moved beyond the stereotype of wheat stalk chewing, flannie wearing hicks. This shouldn't be happening, especially in regional Australia.
Children dressing up like this aren't responsible for their actions. Their parents - and the society who informed those parents - are.
Importantly if kids think this is what a farmer looks like and behaves like - that farmers talk slow, with a twang, or only want to ride horses and throw chook food on the ground - why would they ever want to be one?
Getting the message out that farming is a diverse, satisfying and important career, is crucial. The future of farming depends on it.
Natasha 💚🌱

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