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Tuli Together's avatar

Excellent points, as always! My 95-year-old grandfather has lived in two assisted living homes and he has always been one of only THREE or FOUR male residents in the entire facility. This piece underscores the connections with patriarchy in such a clear and powerful way. Thank you for sharing!

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Victoria Navarra's avatar

Thank you!! That sounds exactly like my mom's facility!

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Debbi's avatar

The patriarchy is why I changed all of my AI assistant voices to men. Let men serve me. Let men do the work. And yes, that’s silly and inconsequential, but it works for me to have that male voice work for me!

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Victoria Navarra's avatar

Haha I do that too!! It's the little things. I want my brain to know that men can ALSO help and assist. I'm not going to reinforce the patriarchy anywhere!

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Alyson Buckman's avatar

Exactly right. Now look at who is profiting from these living centers… predominantly men

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Alyson Buckman's avatar

So I looked it up to make sure my assertion was correct. Out of the top five companies in charge of nursing homes, all of which have 40,000+ employees, two are run by women. All five are run by white people.

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Victoria Navarra's avatar

Ugh, of course they're all white too. And nearly everyone in most assisted living facilities is white, EXCEPT, surprise, the nurses, CNAs, and cleaning women. Many are also immigrants.

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Alyson Buckman's avatar

Exactly, kiriarchy at work

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Alyson Buckman's avatar

Kyriarchy

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Kim Schebler's avatar

I've never made this connection either, but now I AM SO ENRAGED WITH YOU.

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Victoria Navarra's avatar

Right?! I'm so angry and I can't stop thinking about it now!

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