Alternative titles:
Sharing social-emotional burdens in the age of outsourcing or Labor, Labor, Everywhere, and not a minute is free...
I experience a jarring mindfuck almost daily when I am getting paid for care work. It doesn't last long! And it usually ends in a feeling of gratitude to be financially supported doing the work that I feel is ethically important to me, as well as spiritually fulfilling. But what would happen if I knew the family that needed my care could not afford to pay me?
Would I do this work for free?
Most definitely. Because I have done this unpaid labor. For 15 years and counting.
Care work is not viewed as True LaborTM by the industrialized world. We have the gross habit of undervaluing care workers across industries. This is not a mistake. The overwhelming majority of these care professionals are women. Many of these women also occupy further marginalized identities. Black women, Latinx women, immigrant women, and women from lower class backgrounds are somehow the backbone of our economy, but the last consideration when wages are being distributed. There are no accidental structures of oppression in the patriarchy. This imbalance of resources is often reinforced by a powerful guilt trip... Why would you want to demand higher pay for such an important job? You should do it for the love of ______ (insert any/all of the above: children, elderly, disabled, sick, family etc etc etc). Barf.
By continuing to strip away the value we invest in this necessary labor, we manifest a scarcity of care that is violent and irresponsible. Depending on caregivers to do the heavy lifting of supporting our most vulnerable populations without adequate resource investment upholds a vicious cycle of burnout, trauma, poverty, and class division.
The Care Collective writes beautifully about "promiscuous care." Care that is expansive and multiplies outside of kinship bonds. The Care Manifesto demands we restructure our economics by building disruptive markets around caring infrastructures.
Fuck. Yes.
Wait. What can our communities do while we wait for universal basic income... or the imminent collapse of capitalism?
My plan is to keep doing the care work I have spent the last 15 years researching, learning, and practicing.
Opening The Bonus Room Care Collective in my home will afford me more space to professionalize without the financial risks involved in opening a traditionally funded market space. Starting small is agile and clever and subversive. Capitalistic markets don't really know how to wrangle and commodify the intimate work of care in the ways I want to experiment around. This is a risk I am willing to take. I'm excited to hear how many people in my community have resonated with this idea.
The facts are:
• Labor is Everywhere
• Unskilled Labor is a lie
• Communities deserve care, even when the crimes of capitalism pillage Labor Resources for sexier profit margins.
::The Bonus Room Care Collective Enters the Chat::
Opening December 1st • Mon-Thurs 9am-5pm
Initial Offerings
Hot Drinks
Hearty Snacks
Comfy seats
toys, games, and books
limited drop-in childcare
Event Rental
Radical Community Care
Democratic Growth Opportunities
This new iteration of Bonus Room asks what if all the domestic tasks and expectations of caregivers were done in community? How would it feel to experiment with the intimacy of community support in a Third Place? How can I offer an extra set of hands for baking? How can I empower more messy art projects? How many people can I read aloud to at once? Who is looking for a supportive guide to share skills between households? Who needs an adult on standby when they just want to use the toilet in peace?
and:
How can I be more promiscuous in my care for community?
I'm kicking off this opening on December 1st with my third Clothing Swap. Your RSVP would mean the world to me and you can find it here.
Thanks for caring, comrade. I'm excited to share space with you soon.
XO Jen