By Eli Bartra, courtesy of Peninsula 360 Press
April 2020. A very dear friend of mine who lives in Paris tells me an anecdote about her daily life in the middle of the pandemic. She goes out to the supermarket near her house to buy the essential groceries for survival, as fast as she can, according to her. It turns out that she can't go very fast. She stands in line for 40 or 50 minutes on the street, since very few people must be inside at the same time. Finally she enters and finds the little old ladies strolling down the aisles with all the calm in the world and studying every shelf, every product, as if it were the Louvre Museum. They gloat, enjoy themselves, in front of the cans of peas as if they were works of art. The more time they can spend there the less they will be in their solitary confinement in a small, and perhaps dark, Parisian apartment. They should regulate the time they spend in the store, thinks my friend, who has already reached her seventh decade of age, just like me! But the old ladies are the others.
The life of lonely and old women in the midst of the covid-19 contingency in Europe is sad. As sad as the whole situation is. Those who are not in nursing homes - where the situation is perhaps worse since they are dying like flies - lead a difficult existence. Everything is complicated, going out to shop is a risk, not going out, too. Loneliness and limited mobility are taking their toll. Old women are absolutely disposable in our societies, they are only good for being grandmothers, if they are doing well.
I am in Barcelona where I decided to spend my sabbatical. Since the pandemic started in Spain, which came out of the blue, without really being expected even though it was in China, and without knowing what it meant - because Italy and Spain were the first places in the old continent where it took on horrifying dimensions very quickly - from the moment it started, it was clear that it was a disease that was going to affect, first and foremost, the elderly population.
Women live longer than men and, therefore, there are more elderly women than elderly men; furthermore, more men die from the virus, which means that the female population, in this age group, is at lower risk in terms of gender. Where does this lead us? Well, it is above all the elderly women.
The dreadful decisions that health personnel must make are a moral issue of the first order. If necessary, saving the life of a 30-year-old is privileged over that of an 89-year-old. In principle, because one has many more years to live than the other. By virtue of what is one worth more than the other, the number of years to live? Is age the only important thing? There is little social significance in the experience of one or the other or in the service to humanity that they can render.
In Barcelona, the confinement can be very heavy for old women who have to do the shopping, because, in general, they are in charge of these tasks. Often, it is a young family member who does this task. It is said that older people will have privileges in terms of buying groceries, for example, on the Internet. Let them stay at home. Hollow words, because we older people have a lot more trouble shopping on the Internet. We don't manage like fish in water as young people do. And some are frankly cybernauts. Lucky those of us who have help from young people, but who doesn't. How do they shop online? I'm having a hard time getting food week to week and it's an additional source of anguish, in case another one is needed.
You have to hope that no evil lasts a hundred years? with patience and? you will get out of this.
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PhD in Feminist Studies, Master's Degree in Women's Studies and Research Area Women, Identity and Power of the Department of Politics and Culture, UAM-X.
