The well-behaved, asexual, uncomplaining subject

"I recall being uneasy as a student when teacher after teacher explained that therapy was pointless or operation unnecessary because the patient was old, had had his time, could not expect miracles, and so on. Some moved the age of expendability far forward: at fifty five or sixty the genital system became expendable (“he or she won’t need it now”); at sixty-five further therapy was to be limited to encouragement. 

The image of later life was that of the well-behaved, asexual, uncomplaining subject, patiently awaiting the next world, to be kept as a pet if cheeringly vigorous, if not, to be jollied and avoided."

Alex Comfort, 1980 (1920-2000)

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photograph by Tony Ray-Jones via

There are consequences with age ...

"There are consequences with age, so you have to evolve. I've loved becoming a filmmaker. But I would love to continue modeling, and there isn't really any job for me. It's being marginalized - that's the sad part."

Isabella Rossellini"

photograph via

Not the Usual Gender Pay Gap

According to top modelling agent Elizabeth Rose, male models are paid 75% less than female models. While all the top ten female models make millions, only the top three male models make over a million.

The world's highest paid female model made 35 million pounds in 2015 (source Forbes), the highest paid male model made 1.15 million pounds in 2013 (the years compared differ because there was no data compiled for male model incomes in 2015). The discrepency is not only there when it comes to top models. In an interview (2016), Rose mentions: "I had a brief today that came in and it was 'male model, [pay] £1,500', and the female model was £5,000, for the same usage.'" 

An inverse gender pay gap might come as a surprise. What is little surprising are the traditional ageist patterns prevalent in the industry. Female models do make more money. However, they are discriminated against based on their age at an earlier stage. Men have a longer career path and make the most when they are in their thirties - when a great many female models seem to be sent into retirement (via and via).

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photograph of Capucine via

Domestic Violence and Gender in Numbers

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (as of 2023), 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men experience physical violence at some point during their lifetimes. Intimate partners stalk 6 in 10 female and 4 in 10 male victims. 1 in 5 women and 1% to 2% of men experience attempted or completed rape at some point in their lives.

It is estimated that 1.5 million intimate partner female rapes and physical assaults occur every year (vs 800.000 male assaults annually). Intimate partner violence has decreased by more than 60%, from 10 victimisations per 1.000 persons to 4 per 1.000 (n = persons aged 12 or older) (via).

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photograph via

Multilevel Relationships between Perceived Age Discrimination and Happiness

Abstract: The present study examines how contextual age discrimination moderates the individual-level association between perceived age discrimination and happiness among older Europeans. In this endeavor, we test two opposing views: 1) the "social norm" hypothesis that predicts the association between perceived age discrimination and happiness to become weaker in areas with a higher average level of age discrimination; and 2) conversely the "contagion effect" hypothesis that predicts the association to grow stronger in such areas. 

Using data from the European Social Survey (2008), we estimate two- and three-level mixed effects models to test these opposing hypotheses. Our findings from multilevel analysis lend support to the social norm hypothesis. Specifically, the negative link between perceived age discrimination and happiness is weaker in subnational regions where the proportion of victims of age discrimination is higher. (Hyun Jung & Hyun-Soo Kim,  2023)

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- Hyun Jung, J. & Hyun-Soo Kim, H. (2023). Does Misery Love Company? Multilevel Relationships between Perceived Age Discrimination and Happiness among Older Europeans. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 42(6), 1234-124, link
- photograph by Flip Schulke via

Devaluing the Elderly, Devaluing Residential Long-Term Workers

As of 2022, in the United States, the median hourly pay for workers in nursing homes and residential care facility industries is 15.22 dollars (vs the US median hourly wage of 20.7 dollars). 7.2% of these workers live in poverty (vs 5.3% poverty rate for all workers) and 6.9% are covered by a union contract (vs the rate of 11.9% for the overall workforce). Compared to workers in general, residential long-term care workers are also less likely to be covered by employer-provided retirement and health insurance benefits. 80.9% of the workers are women, a disproportionate number (22.4%) Black women and immigrant women (12.8%). (via)

“For too long, our society has devalued the elderly and people with disabilities as well as the workers who help them lead more enriched and independent lives. It is no coincidence that women—particularly women of color and immigrants—perform much of this hands-on care work, both paid and unpaid, in homes and in residential long-term care settings.”
Julia Wolfe

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photograph by Flip Schulke via

Age and Heat-Related Disability

Abstract: This study examines how functional disability worsens among older adults exposed to extreme heat, particularly those socially isolated. Analyzing data from over 35,000 older adults aged 50 or older from the Health and Retirement Study from 1996-2018, this study found that more frequent exposure to extreme heat is associated with an increase in the number of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) that older adults find difficulty in performing over time. 

 

This heat-related disability progression is greater among those living alone and not working. However, findings indicate that maintaining contact with children and receiving higher levels of support from friends can alleviate the risk of IADL disability progression amidst extreme heat days for older adults with limited social relationships at home and work. By examining various aspects of social isolation and their nuanced effects, this study underscores the need for social support and assistance for older adults during extreme heat. (Hyunjung et al., 2024)

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- Hyunjung Ji, Su Hyun Shin, Alexandria Coronado 1, Hee Yun Lee (2024).Extreme Heat, Functional Disability, and Social Isolation: Risk Disparity Among Older Adults. Journal of Applied Gerontology, link
- photograph by Flip Schulke (1930-2008) via

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was a policy on military service that allowed homosexual and bisexual US-Americans to serve their country as long as they kept their sexual identity secret. Part of the act was - and that was a crucial change - that superiors were not supposed to initiate investigations of service members' orientation as it had been common practice before. Signed in 1993 by Bill Clinton (who knew that it was "not a perfect solution"), the policy was seen as a compromise between "those who wanted to end the longstanding ban on gays serving in the U.S. military and those who felt having openly gay troops would hurt morale and cause problems within military ranks".

It was seen as a liberal step, as an approach to allow queer US-Americans be part of the military. At the same time, they were forced into secrecy since only closeted members or applicants were protected from discrimination. People who were said to "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" were not allow to serve in the armed forces as their presence would "create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability". Coming out of the closet meant being discharged.

In 2011, Barack Obama announced the repeal of the policy. In 2016, the ban on transgender service members was lifted (via and via).

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photograph (Contemporary Muses) by Kameliya Stoeva via

Flowers at Your Feet. Texas Isaiah's Archive.

Texas Isaiah is a Black transmasculine photographer and the first trans photographer to shoot for the cover of Vogue and Time. His project "Flowers at Your Feet" started in 2020 and is about memories, gratitude, beauty, and healing;. It is a collection of Black transmasculine portraits, the flowers are the people themselves (via).

Excerpts from an interview:

I was interested in developing a more concrete archive because I had lost a significant amount of people in an eight-month period. People from childhood had passed away, my coworker, and the last person was my grandfather.

Looking back, I didn’t have a visual archive of these people. I just had my memories, and there was a visual loss that resonated with me deeply. I started to think more about what it would look like to contribute to an everlasting archive. Black and brown POC trans people weren’t being imaged a lot during that time, so I thought about the ways I can do that differently that weren’t immediately tethered to media or traditional aspects of representation.

When I was creating the archive, which was Black trans people in general, I didn’t feel a full connection with a lot of the [other trans-centered] work that was being created, especially of just masculine people in general. There are so many reasons why there isn’t a lot more Black trans representation in the media. It was not so much that I wanted to be seen, actually. I wanted to be able to extend space to people who felt invisible, who felt that they didn’t deserve to be imaged. When we look at media, the transmasculine people that are popular and who are extended resources are white transmasculine people.

It’s so important for people to see themselves so that they are able to heal and grow from the things they’ve been taught. There is so much that is projected onto us, and the reality is that we haven’t always been in proximity to the most healthy terrains of masculinity. But I believe that Black transmasculine people — in the ways that we have cared and loved throughout history and today — are really shifting the perspective of what it looks like to be a person of good character who is also masculine.

The beautiful thing about Flowers at Your Feet is that it mostly highlights transmasculine people, which includes trans men. I think that there is so much nuance there because not everybody has the same relationship to their masculinity — not everybody identifies as a man.

And I’ve learned myself that other people desire specificity. I don’t need that for myself because I don’t think that there is always language to describe our existences, and I’ve made peace with that. Those gray areas are really beautiful to me, because that means that I don’t have to lock myself into something that I may grow out of. There’s such a deep desire to keep that open.

Inherently, I view transness as, like, such a deeply spiritual space. I believe that, you know, the spirit doesn’t have to have any specificity. I think that’s such a beautiful thing.

It (Flowers at Your Feet) was something that someone I dated a long time ago used to say to me. I asked them, “What does that mean?’ They said, you know, ‘I’m just giving you your flowers. I’m offering you gratitude.’” And when I was thinking about a Black transmasculine archive, and also the masculine archives that exist today, it was during that era where people were creating a lot of images of Black masculine people and flowers.

That was so beautiful aesthetically, but I don’t think that conversation went as far as it could have. I think it stopped at aesthetics. I decided to use that title for the project to offer my gratitude to Black transmasculine people — past, present, and future — but also to contend with the images made at that time. There aren’t any flowers within the images I make; the flowers are the Black transmasculine people themselves.

Texas Isaiah

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photographs by'Texas Isaiah via and via and via

Disability and the Housing Cost Overburden Rate

While the housing cost overburden rate for people with no disabilities living in the EU was 8% in 2022, the rate for people with a disability was, on average, 10.6% (from 2.7 % in Cyprus to over 20 % in Denmark, Bulgaria and Greece) (via).

photograph of the wonderful Futoro House via