Time As We Know It. By Marna Clarke.

I am 81 years old, my partner 92. On my 70th birthday, I woke from a dream in which I had rounded a corner and seen the end. This disturbing dream moved me to begin photographing the two of us, chronicling our time together, growing old. 

Now, 11 years down the line, he and I face numerous physical challenges: decreased mental acuity, especially memory; the diminished quality of our skin, hair and teeth; mild disfigurement; as well as the need to tend vigilantly to our balance, hearing, sight, physical agility and getting adequate sleep. Inside we are learning to accept it, sometimes going from anger, impatience, sadness or fear to seeing the humor in the idiosyncrasies of aging. We realize that if we can be comfortable with our own aged appearances and limitations, then the potential exists that others will become more comfortable witnessing this transformation and possibly become more comfortable with their own. 

I have entered a taboo territory: aging and death. The creation of these photos is part of my own way of dealing with the inevitability of dying by bringing attention to it and accepting it. I have come to embrace the photographs as a tribute not just to our lives but also to the demanding and courageous task of growing old gracefully, graciously, and aware. A certain wisdom is evolving from years of living and observing, eventually unveiling previously unseen associations, patterns and similarities. I am gaining a much-appreciated perspective that was not available to me previously.
Marna Clarke

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photographs by Marna Clarke via

Drummies

London-based, South African photographer Alice Mann started her series "Drummies" after reading a newspaper article about drum majorettes in 2017. Mann photographed eleven teams (school teams and club teams) in two provinces in South Africa. Some of the girls are from underprivileged backgrounds. To them, being a drum majorett means a lot since, as Mann notices, it can open doors (via)

“As a young, white, South African photographer, I am very aware of my position when making photographic work, and I always try to let this awareness affect my process. The ways that images have been used in South Africa, as a tool of colonialism, as a tool of apartheid, has a very violent history. So it is important to me that I can create work that empowers and elevates the people I work with. Particularly as I am often working with women, and with younger people, I need to ensure that the resulting images are challenging the representation of these individuals as victims.”
Alice Mann

“I’m interested in examining the relationship between community versus individual identity; how does a sense of belonging affect the way we perceive ourselves? I think wanting to belong is something that everyone identifies with, and this is an idea I return to often in my work… I’m fascinated by the way that feeling a part of something can reinforce an individual’s sense of self.”
Alice Mann

“The sport is a very empowering one for young women to be involved in. You can see how being part of the team creates a powerful sense of belonging and is a safe female space where the girls are very supportive of each other. There are a lot of accolades associated with being a drum majorette, and the discipline and hard work required says a lot about the person who can commit and put in the hours. The girls feel very proud to be majorettes, and this pride is evident.”
Alice Mann

“Photographs are so ubiquitous, and these images have such a powerful role to play. As an image-maker, I wanted to contribute in a way that might prompt people to re-examine the set ideas we have, because of what we are used to seeing,”
Alice Mann

photographs by Alice Mann via

The Demolition of Ableism. By Linda Williams.

"To the Government Agency whose top down directives erase, speak over, and maintain ableism in our society: we are calling you out. This is the demolition of Ableism. 

To the Charity whose top down directives erase, speak over, and maintain ableism in our society: we are calling you out. This is the demolition of Ableism. 

To the Medical “Expert" whose top down directives erase, speak over, and maintain ableism in our society: we are calling you out. This is the demolition of Ableism. 

To the Executive Teams whose top down directives erase, speak over, and maintain ableism in our society: we are calling you out. This is the demolition of Ableism. 

To the Media, Print, Film, and Television Industry whose top down directives erase, speak over, and maintain ableism in our society: we are calling you out. This is the demolition of Ableism. 

To the Consumer Goods Industry whose top down directives erase, speak over, and maintain ableism in our society: we are calling you out. This is the demolition of Ableism. 

To the Education Systems whose top down directives erase, speak over, and maintain ableism in our society: we are calling you out. This is the demolition of Ableism. 

To the Demagogues, Charlatans and Profiteers of disability whose top down directives erase, speak over, and maintain ableism in our society: we are calling you out. This is the demolition of Ableism. 

Real social change begins in ways that are not always stylistically graceful. It is unruly, messy, and very real. But this is how we start."

Linda Williams, Invisible Disability Project

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photographs (A Self-Portrait of Depression) by Jenn Terrell via

The Holy Week Uprising

After Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in April 1968, riots erupted in nearly 200 US-American cities. During the days that followed his death, the U.S. experienced the greatest wave of social unrest after the Civil War (via). These riots were a direct reaction to King's assassination. His assassination is, however, not seen as "the" reason. Tensions had already been high before King's death. Segregation was officially over but still part of everyday life. Being Black meant discriminatory housing policies, income dispartities, poverty, and lacking job opportunities. Due to these conditions, Black US-Americans often had to move to (Black) low-income areas which were not only poorly maintained but also meant being hassled by local police (via)

(Above: "A crowd described as "militant, dancing and chanting" takes part in a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. in Garfield Park on April 7, 1968. This photo was published in the April 8, 1968, Milwaukee Sentinel. The banner depicts black activist H. Rap Brown, who famously said the previous summer, "Violence is as American as apple pie.") 

58,000 National Guardsmen and Army troops assisted law enforcement officers in handling the violence. 43 people were killed, around 3,500 were injured, 27,000 were arrested and 54 of the cities affected saw more than 100,000 dollars property damage, Washington D.C. experienced the most property damage. There, twelve days of unrest meant 1,200 fires and 24 million in insured property damage (174 million dollars in today's currency). It took decades for some neighbourhoods to fully recover. The fires had destroyed buildings, made thousands of people homeless and jobless, too many had died in burning buildings. In Baltimore, which came second to Washington in terms of damage, crowds first gathered peacefully to hold a memorial service. After a couple of small incidents, 6,000 National Guards arrived and protests erupted (via).

“If I were a kid in Harlem, I know what I’d be thinking right now. I’d be thinking that the whites have declared open season on my people, and they’re going to pick us off one by one unless I get a gun and pick them off first.”
President Johnson

"America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. (A riot) is the language of the unheard."
Martin Luther King

"For years, many white Americans mistakenly conceived of racism as a “Southern problem” and believed that Jim Crow only resided south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The racial violence of the 1960s throughout the country rudely awakened the nation to the speciousness of this belief. 

Yet no sooner had that belief been discarded than it was immediately replaced with a new and equally false one: that America’s race problems extended only to our large cities and their inner-city ghettos, but not beyond that. The terms that we used — and still use — contributed to the misunderstanding of what was taking place. By using the term “riots,” we reinforce the notion that these acts of “collective violence” were spontaneous and apolitical and that they were disconnected to the protests for civil rights in the South. But a closer examination of them, individually and collectively, proves otherwise. 

This flawed understanding had real consequences. Focused on large cities, the national media gave sparse coverage to the revolts in York and other midsize and small cities, despite the fact that the majority of them occurred in such places. In 1969 alone, revolts rocked midsized cities like Hartford, Conn., Harrisburg, Pa. and Fort Lauderdale, Fla."
Levy, Washington Post

photographs via and via and via and via and via and via 

Distraction

“The very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.”

Toni Morrison

photograph of Toni Morrison by Jill Krementz (1974) via

Home for the Golden Gays

The Home for the Golden Gays is a Philippine non-profit organisation founded by lawyer and activist Justo Justo (1941-2012) in 1975. Justo envisioned "a care home for aging members of the outcasted gay community". After his death, the community were evicted and some members became homeless. Only in 2018, they started renting a house again (via and via and via). Its status, however is still precarious since the shelter depends on irregular and insufficient donations. The elderly residents continue working, giving performances or side gigs as street vendors or haircutters. It is no coincidence that the official slogan they chose is "Don't get sick" (via).

To be old and LGBT can be particularly difficult. Official statistics on the elder LGBT community remain scant, but a survey of LGBT-identifying Filipinos aged between 50 and 74 released in June found that 40% of respondents lacked money for necessities like food and medication. According to the survey, 48% of the respondents feared losing their homes within 2022. Some were unstably housed and others said they lived on the streets or in parks. (via)

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photograph by Hannah Reyes Morales via

Cultural Ageing Stereotypes in Europe

Abstract: A growing body of literature acknowledges the association between negative stereotypes and individual components of active aging, but very few studies have tested this association, at both individual and population levels. The Stereotypes Content Model (SCM) states that the cultural aging stereotyping of higher warmth than competence (called paternalistic or ambivalent prejudice) is universal. Our aims in this study are to test the extent to which the universality of this stereotype is confirmed in European Countries as well as how far "positive", "negative" or "ambivalent" views towards older people, and other negative attitudes such as prejudice and behaviours such as discrimination, predict active aging assessed both at individual and population levels. 

We have analyzed data from the European Social Survey-2008 (ESS-2008), containing SCM stereotypical and other appraisal items (such as direct prejudice and perceived discrimination) about adults aged over-70 from 29 European countries. First, SCM cultural stereotypes about older adults ("friendly", "competent", and "ambivalent") were calculated; secondly, after developing a typology of countries based on their "negative", "ambivalent" and "positive" views about older adults, the universality of cultural stereotypes was tested; thirdly, taking into consideration ESS data of those older persons (over 70s) who self-reported indicators of active aging (health, happiness, satisfaction and social participation), multilevel analyses were performed, taking our inter-individual measure of active aging as dependent variable and our stereotypical classification (positive/negative/ambivalent), direct prejudice and perceived discrimination as predictors; finally, relationships between stereotypical and appraisal items on older adults were examined at population level with country data from Active Aging Indexes. Our results show cultural stereotypes about older people (more friendly than competent) are widespread in most European countries, and negative cultural views of older adults are negatively associated with active aging both at individual and population level, supporting that negative cultural views of older adults could be considered as a threat to active aging. (Fernandez-Bellasteros et al., 2020)

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- Ferndandez-Bellasteros, R., Olmos, R., Perez-Ortiz, L. & Sanchez-Izquierdo, M. (2020). 

Cultural aging stereotypes in European Countries. Are they a risk to Active Aging? PLoS One, 15(5), link

- photograph by Vivian Maier via

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

Beautiful Disruption. Nadine Ijewere's Photography.

Nadine Ijewere is a London-born photographer with a Nigerian-Jamaican background. With her approach, she aims to help establish "a new standard of beauty" (via). For her commissions, she usually does most of the casting herself choosing models who (apart from age) do not conform to the traditional industry standards and who are ethnically underrepresented (via). In 2019, she became the first Black woman to shoot a cover for Vogue (via).

My work is all about the celebration of diversity without creating a representation – particularly for women, as we are the ones who are more exposed to beauty ideals and to not being comfortable in who we are.

Nadine Ijewere

I find beauty in all its facets. My work is about showcasing different forms of beauty that I believe our society could do a better job of representing. We are so different, and I think it is especially important to show this in the world of fashion. I follow this principle when I cast models and also by exploring my own origins and identity.

Nadine Ijewere

Excerpts from an interview:

Looking at these images, I wish that I saw these kinds of images and people that looked like me when I was growing up. It’s such an important thing and it’s exciting that there are more Black creatives now using their culture and heritage to create amazing images that can be used for research or reference because it wasn’t necessarily available for me. Even now, it’s in a questionable quantity and finding images for inspiration is quite difficult, but it’s nice that the images we create can inspire the next generation. 

Positivity is important because for so long there have been negative connotations around the Black community and Black women and it’s something that we don’t really see celebrated or portrayed in a beautiful way. In the past, when you did see women of colour, there was always an element in place to make them conform to what the beauty ideal was – whether it’s straightening their hair or lightening their skin. It’s important for me to reframe that and show women of colour in a positive light, that’s what my work is all about.

I would have been a lot less self-conscious because growing up, I was always the sort of person who tried to fit in and change something about me. My hair was a big issue because I grew up in an environment that was predominantly white and went to a school that was the same so I was always trying to assimilate to fit in. 

I would straighten my hair a lot and would wear weaves and extensions instead of my natural hair because in fashion and beauty you never really saw girls with tight curls or Afro-type hair being portrayed as beautiful. If you did, it would be the images in Black hair salons of girls on relaxer kits with silky, straight hair. It was the image that was constantly shoved in your face, so of course you felt insecure because that’s not the hair you had. Even protective styles which are natural like cornrows and braids were seen as not beautiful or unprofessional. 

You become very restricted in a sense and you lose your sense of identity because you’re trying to fit in and be somebody else. I struggled with that for years, but having images like the images I see now would be incredible because it shows beauty as being multifaceted, there’s different kinds of elements and layers to it. It shows it in a different way and celebrates it across the board and that’s super exciting.

Nadine Ijewere

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photographs by Nadine Ijewere via and via and via and via

Beautiful Boy. By Lissa Rivera.

‘Beautiful Boy’ is an ongoing series of photographs of my lover. It began as a confession between friends. On the subway one evening, my friend shared that he had worn women’s clothing almost exclusively in college, but after graduation struggled to navigate a world that seemed both newly accepting and yet inherently reviling of male displays of femininity. I thought that photography could provide a space to experiment outside of isolation. Taking the first pictures was an emotional experience, and I connected to his vulnerability. Over time he became my muse and eventually my romantic partner. Soon we began taking photos like addicts, setting up several shoots every weekend. 

When taking the photos, I feel the same as when viewing a film where a director and actress share a deep connection to the fantasy captured. It is thrilling to see my partner transform into countless goddess-like forms. The project is a canvas to project our desires. At times the images even become self-portraits. The camera transposes our private experiences into public expression.  

Often, I construct sets in my studio. Other times, I seek out locations that feel as if they are sets. I spend a lot of time conceptualizing the costumes, which I piece together from thrift shops, ebay, and discount fabric outlets. I think it is important that the images not be seamless, but more like an assemblage where you can see the glue, revealing contemporary identity as a collage of the visual language of the past. Although I art-direct the images and come to each shoot with a strong aesthetic intention, my partner inhabits each costume and set in a thoughtful way, embodying the scenario with a sense of openness. 

It is important to show his femininity as strength. I want to feel empowered as well, and to have an intimate muse. Together we investigate feminine fantasies presented throughout the history of photography and cinema. The project is a way to ‘step-inside’ images that we have found alluring and examine what it is like to live each scenario out. We explore both our captivation and our ambivalence towards these depictions of femininity. By presenting my partner within the lineage of great beauties and populating the media with our images, we are reclaiming our voice in what is attractive and beautiful.

Lissa Rivera

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photographs by Lissa Rivera via and via and via

Dementia in Transgender Population: Case Vignette

In their paper, Beehuspoteea and Badrakalimuthu (2021) shortly discuss the lack of research on dementia in the transgender population and the specific need for carers to be provided with the psychoeducation necessary to better understand the impact dementia possibly has on transgender persons. They also mention the higher level of stress carers of transgender people might experience and the higher level of stress transgender persons might have when developing dementia. In order to illustrate the complexity of this intersection, the authors present a case vignette:

"A 76-year-old female transgender person was diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia in 2014 with MOCA (MOntreal Cognitive Assessment) score of 17/30. She was treated with donepezil 10mg OD and prescribed mirtazapine 15mg ON to treat insomnia and low mood. She underwent male to female gender reassignment surgery, including bilateral breast surgery completed in 1960s, and hormonal treatment with estradiol. She considered her sexual orientation to be towards the same sex, and she was in a long-term relationship with a female partner. Her medical history included migraine and she was on propranolol 80mg OD. There was no other significant psychiatric history. She resided in her own flat and her partner lived in a separate flat in the same block. The couple had two of three surviving adopted daughters, both in their forties. The patient's primary carer was her partner and there was no formal care input. In 2016, her MOCA score dropped to 11/30 and she had impaired hygiene and nutrition. In 2018, she started wandering and bringing men to her flat and engaging with them in sexual activities leading to a high risk of vulnerability to abuse culminating in Mental Health Act assessment and admission to a dementia unit. MOCA was not performed due to receptive and expressive dysphasia. In the unit, she presented with insomnia, agitation, dysphasia, having sexually inappropriate conversations with staff about being interested in men, which was a continuation of new behaviour that was identified in the community, as well as making innuendos to female members of staff while talking about herself as a ‘man’. She presented with toileting behaviour that would identify her as male gender, for example standing to urinate as if using a urinal, interpreted as reversal towards biological gender identification. Her partner felt devastated by behaviours exhibited by the patient, which could be identified as male-gender based behaviour aligned with biological gender by birth."

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- Nirja Beehuspoteea & Vellingiri Raja Badrakalimuthu (2021). Dementia in transgender population: case vignette. Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry, link
- photograph by Lissa Rivera via

"I feel like a caged pig in here." The Role of Ethnicity in a Nursing Home.

Abstract: Racial disparities in nursing home (NH) quality of life (QOL) are well established, yet, little is understood about actual experiences shaping QOL for Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) residents in NHs. This gap extends to BIPOC residents with limited English proficiency (LEP). 

Drawing on Kane's (2001) and Zubristky's (2013) QOL frameworks, this case study examined QOL experiences for Hmong NH residents, an ethnic and refugee group from Southeast Asia, in a NH with a high proportion of BIPOC residents. Methods include four months of observation, interviews with eight Hmong residents and five NH staff, and one community focus group. Thematic analysis revealed significant challenges in QOL. Exacerbated by language barriers and racism, many residents reported neglect, limited relationships, lack of meaningful activities, and dissatisfaction with food. These experiences fostered a sense of resignation and diminished QOL among Hmong residents, highlighting the need for additional supports for this group. (See Thao, Davilla & Shippee, 2024)

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- See Thao, M., Davilla, H., Shippee, T. (2024).  "I feel like a caged pig in here": Language, Race, and Ethnic Identity in a Case Study Hmong Nursing Home Resident Quality of Life. Journal of Applied Gerontology, link

- photograph by Flip Schulke via

Safety in Housing for Older Adults

Abstract: Housing solutions for older adults aim at providing a safe environment to live in. The construction is heavily based on aspects of physical safety, often disregarding the social aspects of feeling safe. The older adults themselves are looking for a living environment that supports their individual capacities and social networks. 

The living environment can contribute to their physical, social, and emotional safety by providing accessible housing and spaces for community building. Interviews with older adults who had recently lived through a building fire highlighted the importance of the community in daily life, in emergency as well as in recovery from hazards. The results show that community building is related to access to common-use spaces and daily interaction with neighbors. The shared spaces in the immediate surroundings can enhance community cohesion and generate peer support. The common-use spaces and public facilities in urban environment have a significant role in emergencies and in the process of recovery from adversities. (Verma, 2024)

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- Verma, I. (2024). Safety in Housing for Older Adults - A Qualitative Study. Journal of Applied Gerontology, link

- photograph by Flip Schulke via

The Lavender Scare

The Red Scare, the witch-hunt against Communists during the Cold War, was accompanied by what was later dubbed the Lavender Scare. In 1947, the U.S. Park Police launched the so-called "Sex Perversion Elimination Program" targeting gay men. The following year, an act was passed that facilitated the arrest and punishment of "sexual psychopaths". Homosexuality was seen as a subversive threat, just like Communism. In 1950, Senator McCarty directly linked Communism and homosexuality. In his speech, he claimed to have a list of 205 Communists working at the State Department. McCarthy went into details about some individuals who he branded as "unsafe risks"  Two cases, "Case 14" and "Case 62" concerned homosexuality.  

According to a top intelligence official, so McCarthy, "practically every active Communist is twisted mentally or physically in some way". That included the two cases he had mentioned since homosexuals were susceptible to Communist recruitment due to their "peculiar mental twists". One week later it was reported that 91 homosexual employees of the State Department had been dismissed for the sake of national security. Political rhetoric was more and more characterised by linking "Communists and queers", assumptions about Communists were mirrored beliefs about homosexuals. What they were said to have in common was that both groups were: morally weak, godless, psychologically disturbed, undermining the tranditional family, shadowy figures with secret subcultures. From the 1940s to the 1960s, thousands of gay employees were fired from the federal workforce (via).

In 2023, on the 70th anniversary of the Lavender Scare, the White House published a statement calling the decades-long period of investigation, interrogation and firing of up to 10,000 queer Federal employees one of the darkest chapters in US-American history (via).

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photograph (John Paul Evan's photograph of his own marriage) via

Inspiration Porn

The term "inspiration porn" was coined by disability rights activist Stella Young (1982-2014) in 2012. Here are some excerpts from her TEDx talk in which she explains why disabled people are no objects of inspiration, no objects at all.

I grew up in a very small country town in Victoria. I had a very normal, low-key kind of upbringing. I went to school, I hung out with my friends, I fought with my younger sisters. It was all very normal. And when I was 15, a member of my local community approached my parents and wanted to nominate me for a community achievement award. And my parents said, "Hm, that's really nice, but there's kind of one glaring problem with that. She hasn't actually achieved anything." 

 And they were right, you know. I went to school, I got good marks, I had a very low-key after school job in my mum's hairdressing salon, and I spent a lot of time watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dawson's Creek." Yeah, I know. What a contradiction. But they were right, you know. I wasn't doing anything that was out of the ordinary at all. I wasn't doing anything that could be considered an achievement if you took disability out of the equation. Years later, I was on my second teaching round in a Melbourne high school, and I was about 20 minutes into a year 11 legal studies class when this boy put up his hand and said, "Hey miss, when are you going to start doing your speech?" And I said, "What speech?" You know, I'd been talking them about defamation law for a good 20 minutes. And he said, "You know, like, your motivational speaking. You know, when people in wheelchairs come to school, they usually say, like, inspirational stuff?" "It's usually in the big hall." 

And that's when it dawned on me: This kid had only ever experienced disabled people as objects of inspiration. We are not, to this kid -- and it's not his fault, I mean, that's true for many of us. For lots of us, disabled people are not our teachers or our doctors or our manicurists. We're not real people. We are there to inspire. And in fact, I am sitting on this stage looking like I do in this wheelchair, and you are probably kind of expecting me to inspire you. Right? Yeah.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you dramatically. I am not here to inspire you. I am here to tell you that we have been lied to about disability. Yeah, we've been sold the lie that disability is a Bad Thing, capital B, capital T. It's a bad thing, and to live with a disability makes you exceptional. It's not a bad thing, and it doesn't make you exceptional. 

And in the past few years, we've been able to propagate this lie even further via social media. You may have seen images like this one: "The only disability in life is a bad attitude." Or this one: "Your excuse is invalid." Indeed. Or this one: "Before you quit, try!" These are just a couple of examples, but there are a lot of these images out there. You know, you might have seen the one, the little girl with no hands drawing a picture with a pencil held in her mouth. You might have seen a child running on carbon fiber prosthetic legs. And these images, there are lots of them out there, they are what we call inspiration porn.  And I use the term porn deliberately, because they objectify one group of people for the benefit of another group of people. So in this case, we're objectifying disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people. The purpose of these images is to inspire you, to motivate you, so that we can look at them and think, "Well, however bad my life is, it could be worse. I could be that person."

But what if you are that person? I've lost count of the number of times that I've been approached by strangers wanting to tell me that they think I'm brave or inspirational, and this was long before my work had any kind of public profile. They were just kind of congratulating me for managing to get up in the morning and remember my own name.  And it is objectifying. These images, those images objectify disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people. They are there so that you can look at them and think that things aren't so bad for you, to put your worries into perspective. 

And life as a disabled person is actually somewhat difficult. We do overcome some things. But the things that we're overcoming are not the things that you think they are. They are not things to do with our bodies. I use the term "disabled people" quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses.  

(...) 

I really think that this lie that we've been sold about disability is the greatest injustice. It makes life hard for us. And that quote, "The only disability in life is a bad attitude," the reason that that's bullshit is because it's just not true, because of the social model of disability. No amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp. Never. Smiling at a television screen isn't going to make closed captions appear for people who are deaf. No amount of standing in the middle of a bookshop and radiating a positive attitude is going to turn all those books into braille. It's just not going to happen. 

I really want to live in a world where disability is not the exception, but the norm. I want to live in a world where a 15-year-old girl sitting in her bedroom watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" isn't referred to as achieving anything because she's doing it sitting down. I want to live in a world where we don't have such low expectations of disabled people that we are congratulated for getting out of bed and remembering our own names in the morning. I want to live in a world where we value genuine achievement for disabled people, and I want to live in a world where a kid in year 11 in a Melbourne high school is not one bit surprised that his new teacher is a wheelchair user. 

Disability doesn't make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.

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photograph (Isle of Wight Festival) via

Can I Keep My Job? Adult Children Caring for their Elderly Parents

In the 1970s, studies started showing to what extent public services can support parents when it comes to combining caring for their children with participation in employment. Only in the 1990s did researchers begin to focus on the impact adult children's caring for their elderly parents can have on their participation in the labour market. According to research, the need (or wish) to care for older parents can lead to adult children losing their jobs, more absence from work, increased use of part-time work or more difficulty concentrating at work (due to being worried) and negative effects on productivity, promotion and salary.

Adult children are important care providers, most of the non-professional care is provided by daughters of older people. In other words, a great many women "in their fifties and sixties are now both working and having to care for their parents", hence "more likely than men to withdraw completely from the labour market" or work fewer hours - either because they need the time to care for the parent(s) or because of health problems resulting from attempts to combine care work with job. "Public expenditures on eldercare appear to affect both intergenerational support and female labour market participation."

Gautun and Brett (2017) investigated the connection between adult children's attendance at work and public care services for older people. 

We test the hypothesis that the detrimental effect on attendance at work of having an older parent in need of care is moderated (reduced) by the parent’s use of a public nursing homes, possibly also by home care services.

The study was carried out in Norway (n = 529, employees aged 45 to 65). A majority of respondents (80%) had provided support to their parent(s) in mostly practical form, e.g. purchases or transportation. 16% ha given nursing assistance. 58% of those reporting to have helped their parent(s) during the past year said that it was difficult to combine care and work. 

The results are interesting and probably not extremely surprising:

Institutional care for older people in need of care (i.e. nursing homes) was associated with improved work attendance among their children—their daughters in particular. Data also indicated a moderating effect: the link between the parents’ reduced health and reduced work attendance among the children was weaker if the parent lived in a nursing home. However, the results were very different for home-based care: data indicated no positive effects on adult children’s work attendance when parents received non-institutionalised care of this kind. Overall, the results suggest that extending public care service to older people can improve their children’s ability to combine work with care for parents. However, this effect seems to require the high level of care commonly provided by nursing homes. Thus, the current trend towards de-institutionalising care in Europe (and Norway in particular) might hamper work attendance among care-giving adult children, women in particular. Home care services to older people probably need to be extended if they are intended as a real alternative to institutional care.

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- Gautun, H. & Brett, C. (2017). Caring too much? Lack of public services to older people reduces attendance at work among their children. European Journal of Ageing, 14, 155-166,, link
- photograph by Dorothea Lange (1938) via

Quoting Betty Friedan

"Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength."

Betty Friedan

photograph of Betty Friedan via

It's not ...

“It’s not how old you are. It’s how you are old.”

Jules Renard

photograph by Harold Feinstein via