on shower assistance
Sep. 28th, 2024 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kossaisort of hard to talk about experiences with shower assistance because ... really is just , someone help with shower - not much detail to talk about and help people learn from . like , assistant will wash hair , will soap up , rinse off , everything that just normally do in shower .
would say real difference to talk about is just , different people have different approaches even in same sequence of events ?
some do just bare minimum if honest - basic shower done is better than none of course , and know this particular agency understaff and overwork , so do not really hold against anyone there ... but yeah , sometimes find not always best . others really try to make sure not just clean , but comfortable too - offer extra shampoo , offer time to sit under spray , and so on .
as well - some like to chat , some just stay quiet , some do little bit of both . never really know who will come until actually happen though , so that can frustrate sometimes if just need quiet time but chatty assistant come around .
there is also extreme gender imbalance in this particular agency , and think true in general with these agencies .
there is this sort of cycle , of course - people see caretaker as role of woman , and have discomfort or distrust of man , despite train and perform equally to women .
thus , men in position tend to get more suspicion or outright rejection from clients , and eventually have to find work somewhere else in order to make money to live from .
so then , even some of people who want to work in this job , might not actually be able to - and so continue cycle of overwork and understaff .
sometimes fair number of immigrants work in these places , too - wonder how much that change things , if some of these workers feel need to " settle " with home care job because stereotypes and racism make this easy to hold onto , while anything else hard to get . in that respect , there might be even perception this work is " below " status of white women , and further cycle will continue .
hard and dirty stuff just to get clean .
would say real difference to talk about is just , different people have different approaches even in same sequence of events ?
some do just bare minimum if honest - basic shower done is better than none of course , and know this particular agency understaff and overwork , so do not really hold against anyone there ... but yeah , sometimes find not always best . others really try to make sure not just clean , but comfortable too - offer extra shampoo , offer time to sit under spray , and so on .
as well - some like to chat , some just stay quiet , some do little bit of both . never really know who will come until actually happen though , so that can frustrate sometimes if just need quiet time but chatty assistant come around .
there is also extreme gender imbalance in this particular agency , and think true in general with these agencies .
there is this sort of cycle , of course - people see caretaker as role of woman , and have discomfort or distrust of man , despite train and perform equally to women .
thus , men in position tend to get more suspicion or outright rejection from clients , and eventually have to find work somewhere else in order to make money to live from .
so then , even some of people who want to work in this job , might not actually be able to - and so continue cycle of overwork and understaff .
sometimes fair number of immigrants work in these places , too - wonder how much that change things , if some of these workers feel need to " settle " with home care job because stereotypes and racism make this easy to hold onto , while anything else hard to get . in that respect , there might be even perception this work is " below " status of white women , and further cycle will continue .
hard and dirty stuff just to get clean .
no subject
Date: Sep. 29th, 2024 09:38 pm (UTC)The racial & gender aspect of this kind of care work is something very familiar to me. As with any industry it's got its own broader societal dynamics at play dictating how it shakes out.
no subject
Date: Sep. 29th, 2024 09:53 pm (UTC)some days have to wait hours later than usual because staff shortage require someone to take extra long day and another list of clients - which push those clients back later , naturally .
and yeah ... with male assistants in particular , women tend to worry this is just strange ploy to ogle , but realistically ... any of female assistants could be lesbians ? just fail to understand problem - agency shower assistance is extremely unsexy haha !
no subject
Date: Sep. 30th, 2024 12:39 am (UTC)My understanding is that in response to widespread patriarchal violence and other abuses, a lot of women are taught to fear and be suspicious of men as a whole. It's not always a "they're going to sexualize/get gratification from me" so much as an exercise of sexual force for power's sake - something that patriarchy fosters and enables. I am sure that a nonzero number of care workers have done so, especially because multiple marginalizations will do that. But I also think that men can trusted to Be Decent about this, and that getting there will be part of the project to eliminate gendered oppression.
It's a topic I have a strange position on as a trans man. It's interesting.