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 09:53 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.