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Self-care.: I am curious how this term is being used to individualise social problems and put responsibility on the individual to manage and respond to community, work and societal strains. There is some value to the idea but I often think it requires certain privilege...
The term was coined in 1950’s 59 describe activities that allowed ‘institutional patients’ to preserve physical independence, tasks that helped nurture sense of self worth such as exercising and personal grooming...
1960’s it was recommended for people in careers that involved repeated exposure to pain or trauma, such as firefighters, social workers and health care providers...
1970’s the Black Panther Party began promoting it as essential for all Black citizens as a means of staying resilient while experiencing the repeated injuries of systemic, interpersonal and medical racism...
Definitely going to be doing more reading and learning about the Black Panther Party and movement...Audre Lorde’s famous words on self care among black women are as poignant today as they were in 1988...
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare”...despite some of these lovely political and resistance roots the concept seems to have been co-opted, depoliticised & individualised...
What would collective radical ‘self care’ look like?
