Greetings all,
I am attempting to bring a disability perspective to a project dealing
broadly with the subject of state recognition and support for "Close
Personal Relationships between and among Adults". The scope of the project
is very broad -- a good deal of it focuses upon status accorded (or not
accorded) to various conjugal relationships -- but the section that prompts
my posting this evening relates to non-conjugal adult relationships where
one of the adults has a disability and the other provides some level of
personal care or support, either for payment or not.
Traditionally, these have been called "caregiving relationships". I am
finding myself quite aversive to the language of caregiving -- somehow for
me it carries far too much baggage of one-way dependence, and does not
recognize the reciprocity of many of these relationships (or,
alternatively, identifies caregiving as "special" to the domain of
disability, denying that it is integral to the mutuality of most close and
personal or intimate adult relationships).
If any of you share this view, I would be most interested in hearing your
suggestions for a more appropriate (and accurate) language and/or frame.
Alternatively, if you think my concerns are unfounded, I shall be receptive
to any reassurance.
Thank you.
Catherine Frazee
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