That’s pretty much it. They’re legally two people and can get certified for things independently. They both have a driver’s license for example. However, as teachers they can only teach one class at a time. It’s all just the nature of their problem. Though I will say it seems like the college probably could have worked with them a little bit given their unique situation.
No offense but… What? Are you asking if I’d rather be healthy and live like these two women than have my condition?
If so, then… no. Partially because by my understanding they are not, and cannot, be healthy. They each have control of only one leg and arm. They have reduced lung capacity, and one has pretty severe scoliosis. I think they live in a not insignificant amount of pain.
Even if they were healthy, no. I enjoy my privacy too much, and I can’t even imagine what my childhood would have been like. Mine sucked, don’t get me wrong, but.. as much as I resent how much my body and mind have been shaped by my condition, this would be on another level.
I normally respect the privacy aspect of a health condition, but in this instance out of curiosity why even bring it up? Then to act like someone who asked a question is dumb when you don’t elaborate beyond “chronic illness” is odd.
It shuts down any chance at conversation because no one knows what we could be talking about, so unless you’re just fishing for “get well soon” comments I really don’t get it.
Someone having a chronic illness and mentioning that illness isn't invitation for invasive questions. We live with these conditions, they're going to get brought up. Like the fact that disabled people have little to no benefits in such situations, like they originally commented. Mentioning disability or illness isn't fishing, nor is it an invitation. Imagine mentioning that you are married so someone asks you if you'd rather date your husband or his brother. That wasn't inviting that question.
No, I was literally pointing out that their question doesn’t make any sense. As in, I honestly wasn’t sure what they were asking.
Is the “that body” they reference my body, or the girls’ in the photo? Was an “effective timeshare control” assuming they each have full control of their body? Because they don’t. (And yeah, I think it’s a little bit insensitive to assume that they do, but I can concede that ignorance might justify the question.)
Also, just to point out, I brought it up because the guy I replied to assumed institutions would give a shit if you’re disabled, and I saw a chance to make light of that, as laughing is often the only option.
Because the reality is that they don’t, whatsoever. Almost no one does. Family does sometimes, for the lucky ones. Friends, if you try hard enough. But institutions? Only when they’re both legally required to and there are regularly enforced consequences.
Like fuck, these girls have photos of them just walking in public posted on the internet, and here we are talking about it.
Edit: Jesus, you’re a five day old account. I’m not interested in interacting with you. Goodbye.
I'm chronically ill and very disabled! I'd say that given the option, I would not share my body with someone to have a healthy body. My health is horrible and I can't walk without a wheelchair or cane, but having independence is something I have to work so hard to maintain. Giving it up for a working body would give up on one of the only things that keeps me going.
I have experience with both. university trying to accommodate to health conditions and at the same time doing actions that can go with the tag: "fuck the handicapped".
A college?! Working for the education and benefit of all?! Working towards inclusivity and compassion?! Giving a damn?! Absolutely not!
NOW PAY YOUR FUCKING LOAN PEASANT!
It's not like the 'two' students could be in two different classrooms at the same time. Or that they take up two seats in a classroom. They can't even take tests independently.
It's so predatory of the school its something you would think only an evil oligarch would think to do.
Maybe the two tuitions they paid was already less than one a normal person paid? Do we just not consider that realitunis not the rage bait everyone thinks it is?
I mean, it feels extremely stingy not to. Granted, there’s lots of students that could use a break on tuition and they can’t do everyone, but surely some college somewhere should be willing to hire them part time as disability ambassadors or something for tuition offset. Then again perhaps they’d rather do their own thing.
To be fair, they only have one body to feed and one house to rent.
They also have the benefit of having two husbands living with them, sleeping either side of them iirc.
So it's like four people to one house. Three salaries. If anything it's a benefit.
It's also one airline seat I'd imagine?
Actually I don't know, maybe two. But they take up one seat. If they make obese people pay for two seats, surely these should pay for one? But I don't know, they're two people. Hmm. Maybe just cover the second head with a hood or bag and fly as one.
I feel like it must be a relationship with both, but anti-polygamy laws means on paper he can only marry one. It would be impossible to have any intimate or private moment while totally ignoring one person. Every memory you make together is with both.
So which one is getting paid on paper? If they both have SSN they should both be getting paid, if not then the second one not getting paid is an unpaid laborer which is against the law 😂
I have a morbid curiosity to know about their marriage.
I would read a book about it.
Like how does this work. Does one wear a night mask and ear plugs when the other is having sex with their husband? Would it be a poly household if the other decides to get married.
Oh wow she's kind of screwing her sister, it's going to be much harder for her to find a husband now. Not purposely ofc.
For some reason I have a false memory of them having two husbands. Maybe it's a different TLC show about two sets of twins dating I'm thinking of or something.
I won't pretend to know their situation, but given laws on polygamy I reckon it's likely they're both with the same guy but only one can be publically/legally married to him.
That's what I gathered, as well; that they are both with him, and that he loves them both, too, but could legally only marry one - I suspect they chose alphabetically, (but I have no proof of that). Regardless, they all seem happy together, so I am happy for them :)
if that really is the situation (I also think it is) they can't talk about it at ALL
Is this really true? There are laws against entering the legal contract of marriage with more than one person but AFAIK there isn't any law that states you can't be married to someone and then have a relationship with someone else as well. That other person just isn't eligible for any legal benefits of marriage.
they share endocrine system, there's no way only one of them is into him, at least physically. worst case, one of them doesn't like him as a person but agreed she's good enough for sister lol
My unhinged plan to make polygamy legal is that you can marry a person but they don't have to marry you back. Instead, they marry a third person, and that third person marries you. Only completed loops are allowed for power balancing. Probably wouldn't work here tho since they're siblings
I think in this situation, instead of going alphabetically, you just marry the dominant head. Obviously that looks better on paper than signing a contract with one meekly leaning off to the side.
Imagine chicks with two heads is your very specific kink, and you happen to end up with combined twins. Not judging him, but this man hit the romantic lottery
Yeah, saying they deserve one pay because they have one body sound like they think short people should make half as much as tall people.
Plenty of jobs have people team up on a single task and they still each get their own paycheck. Just because they teach the same class doesn't mean they can only focus on one student at a time, or that they can't discuss lesson plans or how to handle situations. It's the same as getting an opinion or help from any other coworker.
The problem is the job they chose. If they'd done just about anything that's largely done on computers I think they could be earning two paychecks, just put them in a cubicle with two computers side by side. Left twin does her tasks right twin does her's, that's two people's output and worthy of two people's pay.
As teachers they can't spilt up to help more than one group of students at a time, one of them can't cover another teacher's classroom in an emergency, they have to have the exact same schedule all the time. They are, at most, 1 1/2 teachers. They can look in two different directions, it's probably not too difficult for them to talk to two students separately, but two separate people can do that and more. At no level of teaching is having two attached people worth paying two whole paychecks.
Each twin has full control over one arm, one armed people all over the world successfully hold office jobs. Two PCs side by side, left twin uses one with their left arm, right twin uses one with their right arm.
I believe the expression is "mouths to feed" not bodies.
How do they decide which is the "second head"?
But yeah, it's interesting to consider all the ways the assumption that one body = one person is built in to our society. Probably less interesting for them.
Now that I think about it, how do they split income for taxes? Would they go 50/50 assuming they have their own SSN? Plus they both can file married while benefiting from needing only one income for the two of them.
While it sucks that they only get one salary the tax implications vs cost of living is very good when it works out.
To be fair, they only have one body to feed and one house to rent.
That does not make it fair at all. They have different wants and dreams. If one wants to go to a vacation at the beach and one wants to go to NY, they have to pay for 2 vacations.
Stop thinking about the space they occupy, thats an idiotic way to try to decide 'fair'
You probably picked the worst example to support your argument. Many people in relationships can only choose one vacation and they may not have the same preferences so they find a middle ground or take turns choosing. They both still experience a vacation and they only have to pay for one plane ticket. You can’t expect a school to have enough money to pay double salary for one teacher.
They were originally getting two different but related degrees (both to do with teaching I believe) and some of the courses overlapped but were only charged once for those credit hours. It’s just a meme Reddit loves to repost
started with same major and different minors but they gave up on doing different minors because there wasn't enough time in the day to get them to both sets of classes and do their homework. not sure if they went with the same minor or bailed on minors. https://youtu.be/M36jxR_6lIE?feature=shared&t=184
I saw a documentary on this a while back. People say they get one salary but that’s not exactly correct. They each have a contract and each get paid, but neither of them get paid what a normal teacher makes.
That’s what I was thinking. If they are legally two separate people, wouldn’t they each need their own tax ids and forms for the job? Then both need to be paid
Their situation definitely does lend itself to some very interesting questions. I’m not sure what would happen in practice, but I suspect the other twin would get charged as a coconspirator.
One of them controls the left leg and arm, the other the right leg and arm. It’d be literally impossible to commit a crime like that without the other being complicit.
Plenty of people can type with one hand. It's well possible to commit digital crimes like wire fraud.
Full agreement on crimes involving physicality. One of them isn't about to graffiti gang signs to the wall of the local school without the other one knowing about it.
Can’t send a wire if you can’t get to a bank or computer to send it, or actively have another person sabotaging your efforts. She can type with one hand, so can the other, all they have to do is keep putting in random inputs into the computer or scribble on a paper to prevent it from happening.
Easy fix. You build them a house connected to the prison by a single wall with a hole in the middle. One stays in the cell, the other one gets to stay home. With slightly limited mobility.
If they're legally two people then they must both be getting paid to go to work, otherwise that would violate labor laws? And if they're getting paid a half salary each you'd think that would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.
I mean, they’re taking the same classes getting the same degree, and taking up one desk. It seems like a college could get some good press by working with them, but what do I know.
Two hands is the main issue, not the minds; very few business models where this is an inherent advantage.
If they got into software engineering, mathematician, etc. and actively used their two minds to scale off each other... potentially could see two paychecks; pair programming is a very common thing and having that extra pair of eyes really does improve the overall quality of the delivered product.
Throw "them" onto a sustainment team and they'll easily run the show (barring both have the skills for it).
The other question I have is... do they both share in sensation? do they both operate the limbs? or is one a talking head and the other has actual bodily control.
That plays a factor into things as well... if only one can control the body... it lowers the value even more.
Realistically speaking... doubt you would even get hired at my workplace; that comment just made think through the entire 2-3 campuses of staff and I don't think we have "anyone" that is missing a limb.
We do have folks in wheel-chairs... but they have their hands.
My "guess" is that HR would simply pre-screen them out, never even make it to the interviewer.
I don’t see how missing a limb would stop you from working a desk job, the only issue I can think of is typing speed, as if that matters in most jobs anyway.
I'm not an expert but I believe the defining aspect of whether something would be considered discrimination against a physical impairment (in the US) is if a job can be performed with what are considered "reasonable accommodations." So if a particular job requires someone to answer a phone and use a mouse and a keyboard at the same time in order to use multiple programs on dual monitors it wouldn't be a good fit for someone with one arm.
But would it be discrimination not to hire them- it probably would if the applicant could prove it but there'd no way to do so. A lot of the online typing tests and whatnot would filter them out, the company wouldn't even know the potential employee just had one arm- they'd just know that they type slower than most of the other applicants.
co teaching is a thing too, we just don't value teachers or teaching like we do programmers so it happens less cuz who wants to pay two teachers in one room https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-teaching
A big advantage of co-teaching is having two separate bodies that can do two different things in the classroom. One can be teaching up front, while the other is preparing the next activity, or quietly helping a student with something, etc. Two people tied to one body really doesn’t provide the same benefits.
Though I will say it seems like the college probably could have worked with them a little bit given their unique situation.
How do we know they didn't? Maybe they were charged independently for brain stuff but jointly for body stuff. Like, maybe charged 2 tuitions since theres two brains. But only charged 1 dorm room since they only occupy 1 bed. Only charged 1 meal plan. Etc.
If they're two different people, but are only being paid as one, what's stopping them from only having one of them officially employed? The other could not pay back her loans. Hell take more out and go into more debt. Nothing to garnish, but she'd still be able to live her life off her sister's paycheck, still be in the classroom all day and get to help kids.
Also, I'm now curious if you could jail them if only one committed a crime.
The problem them going to college though, is the workload the teachers put in to get their degrees is the same as any other 2 students. They both individually take tests that both need grading. They are both getting their own diplomas. Would be different if only 1 of them was taking it and the other was just along for the ride.
If they both had to be qualified for the job on their individual merit, if both have to invest into the job mentally as individuals, they both should get paid separately. Especially giving consent as individuals, which as far as I know they have no issues with that. Also not considering the physical coordination it takes to do this job bc both twin controls her own side, such as in driving. Unless one of the twins takes a more passive role willingly bc she’s not into it.
People can say they’re doing the job of 1 teacher, but actually, from reading more into the story, they’re essentially doing the job of 2 teachers:
Abby told the BBC: “Obviously right away we understand that we are going to get one salary because we’re doing the job of one person.
“As maybe experience comes in we’d like to negotiate a little bit, considering we have two degrees and because we are able to give two different perspectives or teach in two different ways.”
Brittany also added: “One can be teaching and one can be monitoring and answering questions. So in that sense we can do more than one person.”
I think when they say they’re doing the job of 1 teacher, they mean they’re fulfilling the single teaching position for their class, which is common in elementary school. Because they go show what fulfilling that role actually means and what they bring to table, which is being able to have 2x the teaching skills and higher ability to multi-task than 1 solo teacher.
But if you’re solo teacher of 1 grade (unless it’s very small) doing all their academic subjects with diligence and care, you’re already being underpaid + doing the work of more than 1 teacher. People need to remember that Abby and Brittany teach a whole grade (or a section of that 5th grade), not just a single subject.
There will be somebody that says the school should accomadate them with like a divider in the middle of the room so that they can teach two classes at one like Michael and Pichael
In elementary school I had a blind teacher. She had a help (which not just helped her, but also supervised us). They got two salaries for one job. This is kinda the same for me oO
tbf there are technically jobs that they could have worked separately. for example, they could hypothetically work on separate tasks on separate computers...
Do we really know the entire college situation. I assume they both wanted to apply and get graded and recieve degrees separately. It's an odd situation for the college.
I would argue that they only take up one seat in the classroom, and therefore should have only had to pay 1 person's worth of tuition, despite being two people. But of course the people with money rarely do the right thing when it's not monetarily to their benefit.
I still feel like they could get more work done than a single teacher. For example they can both grade papers at the same time. Idk it just seems really unfair that they have to split a single salary :(
Then legally they should be payed as two separate people. They are legally two people so companies and the government have to treat them as such with two paychecks. Having one main body doesn't matter legally.
Either the other one has to wear noise canceling headphones and an eye mask for every lesson/lecture/whatever while the other is getting their degree in their field, or they’re both getting both degrees. I agree though, some kind of deal could have been made for this extremely unique circumstance.
So when they wrote a test at school, did the school make actually sure they couldn't cheat by helping each other out with answers? And what happened if one failed graduation while the other didn't? Sounds like a dick move to just charge them twice tbh. It's the only strength they got.
No, they share a single driver's license. They are a single person in the eyes of the law. They were likely charged for 2 separate degrees at college, like anyone earning multiple degrees would be, not charged for being 2 separate students.
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u/ThtPhatCat 1d ago
That’s pretty much it. They’re legally two people and can get certified for things independently. They both have a driver’s license for example. However, as teachers they can only teach one class at a time. It’s all just the nature of their problem. Though I will say it seems like the college probably could have worked with them a little bit given their unique situation.