From Girl Talk HQ: A new feminist retirement home in Paris has been built to celebrate aging and counter the societal narrative that growing old is an illness. Unlike at traditional state-run nursing facilities, the residents of the new home all care for one another, and there are no paid professional staff or nurses; the women focus on staying active in their community to prevent isolation and mental health deterioration.
“From the messages coming out of Hollywood as well as the fashion and beauty industry, women are taught from an early age that growing old is not cool. Endless campaigns imploring us to “stay young” with a new brand of lotion, and films and TV shows relegating older women (read: anyone who can no longer legitimately play the role of sexual ingenue) to background, sideline, or virtually invisible roles, while older men seem to gain more respect, with age are the norm.
There needs to be a huge culture shift in the way we value our elderly population, especially women and minorities. When did we decide that being invisible or far away from the mainstream was the right way to treat people of a certain age? One particular retirement home in France was built to be an antidote to the negative messages around aging and celebrate women as they get older.”
