Babayaga's House opens in Paris

http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20130305-babayagas-house

It’s a self-managed social housing project devised and run by a community of dynamic female senior citizens who want to keep their independence, but live communally.

“To live long is a good thing but to age well is better,” says 85 year old Thérèse Clerc who dreamt up the project back in 1999.

“Growing old is not an illness,” says the elegant, feisty Clerc. “We want to change the way people see old age,” and that means “learning to live differently.”

(Love the name)

How nice. And affordable. I could move in right now if they'd let me--and feel like a little girl too! Ahhhh!

It's interesting, isn't it, how the first problem mentioned is "seeing" old age, how it is perceived. The thing is, it's not just the problem of the very old--in this totally mediatised society it starts at the point where we stop being the focus of the media. For women it would be in our thirties, because as a class we don't possess the political and economic power older men do. From a mediatic point of view a 45 year old woman might be 85, for all the interest and respect she commands.

It's an odd thought, but many women will be old twice, even three times as long as they were young. As they were seen to be young.

As a rule I have a high degree of affection for these experiments in re-envisioning community living. But it's not without a bit of hypocrisy on my part -- I don't do well in communal situations and I've always been the type who wanted to live away from everyone else where people couldn't bother me. :)

I'm pretty much the same, but it's just possible I'll change my mind if I ever hit 80...

The founder, Thérèse Clerc, has died at 88--I can't find any articles in English, but it's prominent on many French websites--I wonder whether any obituaries of feminists in English would proclaim "militant feminist" so nonchalantly:

http://www.liberation.fr/france/2016/02/16/deces-de-therese-clerc-militante-femi...

http://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2016/02/16/mort-de-la-militante-femin...

http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2016/02/16/therese-clerc-militante-feministe-morte-...