Whitney Hempsey – Photographer + Breastfeeding Advocate on a Culture of Shame

Women from all walks of life have one thing in common: we want to give our children the best start possible. For some of us that means breastfeeding our babies. Some for a year or two, some longer. Whatever we choose to do as parents, the goal is giving our children the absolute best we have to give. It saddens me that women are shamed into feeling like they need to hide away in order to feed their children. Go to the bathroom, sit in your car, lock yourself away in a bedroom where no one is at risk of seeing part of your scandalous breasts. It’s just not right.

Breasts were created for babies. Breasts not only provide the perfect food for newborns and infants, they also provide amazing supplemental nutrition for toddlers and older children, they help regulate the child’s body temperature, they provide immunity, and all this for free. So why does our culture have such a problem with breastfeeding?

I hear the same things over and over, “I’m 100% pro breastfeeding, but….” Well, if there is a “but” then it’s not 100% is it? “I’m pro-breastfeeding, but just cover up.” Why? Many babies refuse to nurse under a cover and can you really blame them? In most cases when a woman is nursing there is nothing showing that wouldn’t be visible in a bathing suit or low cut top. Living in a beach town, I can confidently say that I see way more breasts on a trip to the beach or grocery store than I do in a group with an entire room full of breastfeeding women. So if those women walking around in their bikinis and revealing clothing aren’t being harassed into covering up, then why are breastfeeding women?

I can confidently say that I see way more breasts on a trip to the beach or grocery store than I do in a group with an entire room full of breastfeeding women.

Or what about “I’m 100% pro-breastfeeding, but that baby is too old.” Where exactly do people come up with these ages where a child is “too old”? Is it because it looks strange? Well yeah, because in our society we have been taught that breasts are sexual objects even though that is not backed by science. Yes, it is going to look out of place to see a three-year-old breastfeeding, because that isn’t something that is common in our society. I do not choose to parent based on society’s opinion of what I should be doing, but rather based on my own research, instincts, and intuition. Thankfully I have science on my side since both the AAP and the WHO recommend breastfeeding until AT LEAST two years of age and continuing as long as it is mutually desired by mother and child.

Science says breastfeeding toddlers is good, even normal. So why the fuss? I’m not sure, but whatever the reason, it needs to stop. Babies need to be left alone to eat in peace whenever, wherever, and however they are comfortable without fear of ridicule. I want women to be able to answer their babies’ cries of hunger wherever they are without feeling like they need to hide away.

READ MORE ARTICLES IN THE SERIES
Click titles below.

1. Celebrating Amazing Women + Addressing the Cultural Assault on Breastfeeding Mothers
2.Public Shaming for Breastfeeding Moms. Raising Awareness and Acceptance through Art.
3. ORIGIN Photographer’s Feature: The Bodies of Mothers by Jade Beall

The post Indecent Exposure – A Culture of Shame Against Breastfeeding Mothers appeared first on ORIGIN Magazine.

Alicia Juniku, of Wilmington, North Carolina on Public Shaming, Raising Awareness and Art.

At the mall, hanging in the window is a huge banner display of a woman in lingerie, beautiful curves on display for all to see. In front of the store there is a bench, a woman sits breastfeeding, her shirt shifted just enough to allow her daughter access to the milk that keeps her thriving. One of these scenes is entirely accepted by modern social standards, while the other is cause for bullying and shame.

Here in my current home state of North Carolina, lactation activists and breastfeeding families alike are fighting an uphill battle in our struggle to feed our children whenever and wherever they need, as NC is a traditionally conservative, non-baby-friendly area known for its sometimes backwards politics (the recent LGBT discrimination law passed in March). For me, this stands in stark contrast to the state of my birth and where a large part of my heart resides, Oregon. My daughter was born in the Willamette Valley, in a city full of midwives, birth and postpartum doulas, and lactation consultants. When I nursed my daughter, it was wherever we happened to be, without shame or concern.

Here in Wilmington, I know of far too many mamas who have been publicly shamed for breastfeeding in public, sitting at cafes, at the waterfront, in the store. “Cover yourself!” “That is to be done at home!” “You just want men to see your boobs!” Luckily, this environment has built a fire and forged a certain type of woman: She is strong, she is confident, and she is not afraid of thebacklash.

I made this series of photos for a fundraiser for the Port City Breastfeeding Project, which aims to bring awareness and acceptance of breastfeeding in Wilmington, NC. Over the course of three days, I photographed 66 individual mamas breastfeeding and nurturing their children. These women have shared these images on their social media pages, in their homes and pass on to their children, who refuse to put a blanket over their child so they can eat.

READ MORE ARTICLES IN THE SERIES
Click titles below.

1. Celebrating Amazing Women + Addressing the Cultural Assault on Breastfeeding Mothers
2.Indecent Exposure – A Culture of Shame Against Breastfeeding Mothers
3. ORIGIN Photographer’s Feature: The Bodies of Mothers by Jade Beall

The post Public Shaming for Breastfeeding Moms. Raising Awareness and Acceptance through Art. appeared first on ORIGIN Magazine.

Have we as a society accepted the unnatural as natural, and the natural now seems obscene to many? Women’s bodies are used every day as objects, exploited to sell products, but when we use it to nurture our children, most mothers encounter reactions of anger, disapproval or disgust.

Whether we chose to breastfeed or not, we are all in this together. We are all responsible for protecting each other. The world changes and shifts when women protect other women. It is time for women to rise, together.

Angela McElwee with Kirra, 13 months, Austin, Texas.
Mother. Vice President of Sales Operations, Gaia Herbs.

I have nursed my daughters on trains all over Europe, on flights across the US, on boats in the Caribbean and Mediterranean, in the fields of organic farms, and in Gaudí’s spectacular Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona, while tucked into a quiet alcove. I have also nursed far more frequently at home, up all night, sitting in the rocking chair, half asleep, weary, and wondering if sleep would evade me yet again. The intensity and totality of having an infant depend on your body for their every meal is deeply profound, and also incredibly sacred. It’s a spiritual practice of sorts, I think. A moving meditation.

It didn’t take long before I realized that my decision to feed my baby with my breasts (which were designed for just this purpose) was highly offensive to some, despite being profoundly natural to me. We were in a small town in the Texas Hill Country, visiting a pumpkin patch. My daughter was hungry, and at only one month old, I was feeding her constantly. I stopped and sat down to nurse, mostly covered by a white and pink blanket. A couple walked past us, the woman snorting with disgust. “That’s revolting!” she said. The man with her responded, “What kind of person does that in public?” I was stunned. Normally assertive, I was so shocked by their comments that I couldn’t even muster the words to defend my baby’s right to eat in public. They walked away, and she continued to nurse, eyes closed, mouth working hard to take in enough of my milk. A sigh escaped her lips, and she began to relax, tiny fists unfurling and softening, trusting me to cradle her as she drifted into sleep. This is the act that had been so insulting? All those months of nourishing her from my body, all over the world, at all hours of the day and night. The movable feast that I brought with us everywhere, always ready to feed, soothe, and nurture. So controversial and polarizing in our modern culture, but as old as the human race.

My baby needs to eat, and so I feed her. This is not a political act, or a stunt for attention. If you saw me on the beach, you’d see more of my breasts there, but somehow the act of breastfeeding causes some to feel uncomfortable enough to react in anger or disgust. I am proud of my strong, healthy, imperfect body, and the fact that it has grown and fed our daughters. I am grateful that I can nurse to satiate my baby’s hunger, to calm her teething fevers, to soothe her when she is overtired. I am thankful for the time I have to connect with her like this, and the trust that she has because of our bond.

This is what a strong woman looks like. Empowered, confident, and unapologetically herself, whether that is in the act of breastfeeding her baby, leading a business, running a marathon, or planting a garden.

Angela is an executive, mother, wife, and lover of Life. She has been writing poetry for 22 years, loves ethnobotany, vegan baking, and tending her overgrown organic garden. When not burying her hands in the dirt or responding to a million emails, she can be found practicing hot vinyasa yoga, making salted maca cacao truffles, and going to bed early. Angela lives with her husband Jeremiah and their four young daughters.

Molly Venter, New Haven Connecticut

Why do you think many in our culture treat public breastfeeding mothers negatively?
I’ve noticed several people become uncomfortable when I’m nursing in public. I imagine some of them are a bit turned off by seeing a breast in a way that’s not explicitly sexual, just a boob in a baby’s mouth! I also think arousal is somewhat mysterious, and that some find the scene a little bit… stirring, and are made uncomfortable by that. The impulse is to shut it down. But this whole messy human experience, especially anything around procreation, is inherently a little bit sexual. Better to learn to feel and hold whatever feelings arise for us than to shame that which stirs us. Side note: I’m lucky that breastfeeding works for us, some moms can’t and then get shamed for bottle-feeding. Good grief!

Photo: Anthony Decarlo

Nicole Riviere, Woodland Hills, California

Chelsea Richer + Owen

What have you faced when trying to breastfeed in public?
The first time I breastfed in public, I was at a restaurant with a few of my girlfriends. I had always been a fierce supporter of public breastfeeding. During pregnancy I often envisioned myself telling off anyone who might discourage me from feeding my baby openly. For some reason, though, when my moment came, I got nervous. Despite feeling quite encouraged by those close to me, I used a scarf to cover myself. I think about that moment with fondness: a short blip in time of feeling what so many women before me have felt, the innocence with which I operated out of fear that a stranger would judge me; the recognition that I had a challenge to overcome. It took a few more public tries before I began to own the fact that covering myself further embeds the impulse that breastfeeding is taboo. Shaming of public breastfeeding is learned, not inherent. People who have learned to feel uncomfortable by seeing a woman feed her baby are the ones in an unfortunate position. Not me. Only if we collectively and openly speak the breastfeeding language will the future hold space for more women to feed their babes with comfort and confidence. I am incredibly fortunate to be given the gift of nurturing my little one now with such unbounded joy and freedom.

Photo: Kate Broussard

Melissa D’Antoni + Sophia Flora,7 Days Old, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

Photo: Traeger di Pietro
Firetreestudios.com

Jaden Davis, Austin, Texas

Why do you think many in our culture treat mothers breastfeeding in public negatively?
Breasts have always been a haven for baby mammals. However, we humans have branded breasts as sexual objects, which often is what people see them solely as being. I think that many people subscribe to the patriarchal belief that a woman’s body is not her own. This belief has perpetuated the concept that women do not get to make the rules around their own bodies, including how they feed their babies. Somehow, our culture’s ideas about women has created this story that a woman must always be hypersexual and a virgin, all at once. Perhaps this is why breastfeeding is so controversial? Perhaps it is that a baby suckling at a breast is a clear indication that this woman is breaking those subtle patriarchal rules. She is, at once, NOT a virgin and is living proof that her breasts are not (solely) sexual objects. The act of breastfeeding is political because it shows that a woman is more than just a sexual being. It shows that a woman’s body is not reduced to being only for the enjoyment of others. It shows that her body is a monument, a work of art, a source of nutrition and a safe haven for her children. Most importantly, it shows it is her own.

Photo: Samantha Larson

Jenn Falk, Somerville, Massachusetts

Breastfeeding has been one of the most profound and deep experiences of my life. A version of yoga that goes far beyond the mat. The power that it gives me as a woman is remarkable. I have now solely nourished two humans to life! The connection I have with my children is indescribable. The entire experience has made me so proud to be a woman and more willing to support and fight for women’s rights than ever before.

Photo: Cara Brostrom

Heather Gallagher, Austin, Texas

Breastfeeding is my greatest gift to my child and to myself. It keeps us connected to our bodies needs and it roots us in nature. It is easily taken for granted, but when I’m able to step back and look at our whole experience, it makes me so incredibly proud of my body, my will, and the bond my son and I have formed.

Photo: Heather Gallagher

Nicole M Henning McNeil + Collette, Shanghai, China

Even after years of treating it badly, my body provided me with a beautiful daughter. When she came into this world, I took my newfound realization of love for my body and nature and put it into action through breastfeeding, and again my body and nature provided. Breastfeeding provided all the nutrition and antibodies that nature intended, and my milk changed according to my daughter’s needs. We built an amazing bond. A bond so wonderful that words cannot express its beauty. Breastfeeding to me is getting back to the basics, trusting and loving my body and knowing that if you allow nature to lead, the results are magical.

Photo: Barefoot Photography·

Jennifer Andrau Shpilsky, Los Angeles, California

Breastfeeding represents a great achievement for me, and an experience that was beautifully primal and fulfilling. Early on, in the throes of postpartum isolation, it represented an opportunity to connect with the purest living form that I will ever come in contact with in my life, without the distraction of the too-busy world around us. It slowed me down and in that presence I was able to truly understand the gravity of this being in my arms. We were enmeshed with each other while the world around us faded and blurred into the background. With both my children it was not easy in the beginning: there was frustration, doubt, and feelings of inadequacy, but when I overcame the dependency on breast shields and bad latches, I felt a cathartic freedom and bliss in my ability to nurture and feed my child. There are so many emotions in those first few weeks and months after childbirth. In the end, what matters is the hungry mouth that needs to be fed and a mother that is answering that call whenever and wherever that may be.

Photo: Studio SLB

Kylie Ruszczynski, Paris France

Breastfeeding for me was the chance to give my baby the fullest of my mothering capabilities, to know that I was doing everything I could to feed this new little person with everything she needed. To give her a share of my friendly microbes for her tiny little gut, to have the privilege of bonding with my daughters, being their everything. I can’t imagine not having been able to give my milk to my babies. Every child deserves to be fed naturally by its mother, if possible. Of course it requires time and sacrifice, staying at home every night because they need their mummy to fall asleep, or popping out a boob on a busy bus to give them some comfort. They need to know their mummy is there and being present. Feeding them my milk communicates this.

Photo: K. RUSZCZYNSKI

Victoria Alvarado-Haase, Austin, Texas

Photo: Lara Gale

Megan DiSabatino, New York, New York

Kassondra Coxson, Mount Dora, Florida

What have you faced when trying to breastfeed in public?
I get a lot of looks when I am nursing in public. Not only am I feeding my child (or children) but I happen to be a plus-size woman of color and I don’t fit the crunchy, peaceful, mother nature look that many people associate with breastfeeding. My breasts are large. Nursing a small child is difficult in the most comfortable setting, but manipulating my breast in an unfamiliar place is really tough. I’ve received all kind of looks—annoyed, confused, disgusted—and that made it difficult when my first child was young. I was not confident in my abilities and I’ve always been self-conscious, so people looking at me was something I tried to avoid. After a while though, I decided I didn’t care about people’s thoughts on the subject. They need me for food and/or comfort. I am here for them. I am also my own person and what I need is to not hide out at home for however
many months or years my children need me to breastfeed them. My family needs to have nice dinners out and go to the zoo and shop and do all the things that other families do, and we deserve to feel just like everyone else when we do them. Now if I get a look when I am nursing in public, I just smile pleasantly in return. They can waste time and energy getting upset. I won’t let them ruin my day.

Photo: Jen Pritchett

READ MORE ARTICLES IN THE SERIES
Click titles below.

1. Public Shaming for Breastfeeding Moms. Raising Awareness and Acceptance through Art.
2. Indecent Exposure – A Culture of Shame Against Breastfeeding Mothers
3. ORIGIN Photographer’s Feature: The Bodies of Mothers by Jade Beall

The post Celebrating Amazing Women + Addressing the Cultural Assault on Breastfeeding Mothers appeared first on ORIGIN Magazine.

Ben Harper: On Healing our Pain, Feeling Everything, Reuniting with the Innocent Criminals, How Hiding is Not an Option, and the Role of Art in Social Change

Interview: Maranda Pleasant

NEW ALBUM: Call It What It Is, OUT NOW!

To go through  this life and see it through—what it really is—and not be insane or addicted is a minor miracle for anyone.

Maranda Pleasant: Hi, Ben, how are you?

Ben Harper: Great!

MP: Through your work, you can tell that you’ve gone through some shit in your life, and you’ve reflected on it, and you’re so close to the rawness, I think, more than any other artist. And when I tell people you’re going to be on our cover, they tell me their personal connection to your music. They say, “Oh, did you hear that part in ‘Skin Thin’? Those lyrics had a huge impact on me or got me through a rough time.” You’re considered a visionary who can put words on pain for deeply-feeling people, and those of us who have gone through a lot in our lives. When I hear your music, I find it very healing and people seem to connect with you in a way that is different from other artists.

BH: I just feel really fortunate that there’s someone out there that gets it. You know, because some do, some don’t, some will, some won’t. You just hope it hits the mark and it reaches a destination. I appreciate that something I’ve done has found a safe place to land.

MP: Your music is vulnerable and so strong at the same time.

BH: The good news is at this point as I get older, the load has gotten heavier but my shoulders have gotten wider because I’ve gotten happier so it’s a damn good thing. For other people it goes the other way and they’ve got to check out other things and methods, but to go through this life and see it through—what it really is—and not be insane or addicted, is a minor miracle for anyone.

MP: That’s amazing: to go through this life and not be insane or addicted is a minor miracle for anyone.

BH: To look at it straight in the eye is brave, if you’re really clocking it and if you really care and how easy and pleasant it would be to not care or not feel . . . there is a wonderful fatalist argument to be had. It will be another species’ turn next, but you’re not living next. You’re living now; this is it. You’re living life in real time, man, and we’ve got a good amount of work to do for each other. Hiding is not an option and you’re going to step out and you’re going to make mistakes. I’m going to look stupid. I’m going to say things I want to retract. I’m going to sing notes I wish I could have back, there’s just no getting around the stumble, but if you stumble enough times you’re going to fall off the edge and have no choice but to freakin’ fly.

MP: Well, you’re describing my week. And this is why you just let Ben Harper talk.

BH: But you’re on the front lines. I don’t kid myself in thinking that I’m on the front lines. I know the people who are on the front lines. I mean there are people in some freakin’ significant places making on-the-ground social front line change. I’ve marched. I’ve put feet on the ground for what I believe and what I’m against with no compromise. And there are people who are risking a whole hell of a lot more than me to make change, that’s for damn sure. So, I don’t kid myself but I also don’t kid myself in regard to the role of art in social change.

MP: Can you tell me about a struggle you’ve had and if there’s something that has helped you transform that?

BH: What’s at the core of my struggle—that’s really the question. I can’t not put myself in the shoes of every person I pass. I don’t know how to not become every person I walk by. That makes it a little tough.

MP: Are you a water sign?

BH: Yeah, Scorpio.

MP: Oh shit, you feel everything. I’m a Cancer so we’re screwed; we feel everything. Do you mean your core struggle is that you feel deeply?

BH: Yeah. And also, I’m not sure—regardless of experience, therapy, good fortune, privilege, blessings, whatever, that can somehow make a difference for the better in anyone’s life— I’m not so sure as a species if we’re able to completely heal because I went through some shit as a kid, as everyone does, and I want to be able to not be that person. I want to try to not be the child that had to go through too much too young. I want to be who I am now and not who I was then. I want to try to be who I am today, not who I was yesterday. So, you know, I’m fighting the fight not to be that child who had to react at too young an age to too deep a pain.

MP: I was just having the same conversation about how when you start leading things, you have to make sure you’re not leading with the wounded child.

BH: That makes so much sense to me. And when aren’t we? How couldn’t we?

MP: I think pain has been my greatest teacher and then getting to the point where I can’t fucking repeat this thing in my life one more time because I won’t survive my own self-induced cycle of heartbreak. It’s amazing work, how the pain of childhood, how much of yourself, if it’s not checked, keeps repeating our reactions. I don’t know if it can be completely healable, either.

BH: But we’re working it out, that’s where the best conversation and dialogues come from, so it’s necessary. What we’re doing now is necessary. If interviews are just interviews or if music is just music, why are we even doing it? You only get so many hours in a lifetime, man. I mean, David Bowie just left us, for crying out loud. Let’s not hold punches and waste time here. If I’m going to talk to someone and this someone just happens to be yourself and clearly we’re in this together. This is great, there’s got to be a back and forth here. I just can’t waste time with anyone; neither can you. So, to be able to come this far and to meet at this time in both of our lives is great.

MP: What does love represent for you, as a person and as an artist?

BH: Love for me is my North Star. It’s the highest form of grace. And I love that there’s different levels and different ways of showing it, and different representations of it. Whether it’s love shown to a stranger, love to a sibling, your child, your parents, your partner. It turns out that there is something more magnificent than nature. It’s love.

MP: And we can have love in nature, even better. {Laughs.}

BH: And then there’s that, right? I mean, for crying out loud, between the two of us we’ve probably seen some views, and imagine the most beautiful view you’ve ever seen and it pales in comparison to love.

You’re living life in real time, man, and we’ ve got a good amount of work to do for each other. Hiding is not an option and you’re going to step out and you’re going to make mistakes.

MP: How does this album feel different? Were you in a different place emotionally writing and creating this album?

BH: Yeah, the place that this record was written from is different than any place I’ve ever been, and of course, we’re always moving forward in different places physically and psychologically. But the place where this record was written from was incredibly grounding. I was very grounded, very centered, and to come back to that sense of home, with
the guys, with the band and everything we had come through together, collectively being put into the sound, the songs, the record, the community, the conversation. It’s all in here in a way that I think is fresh and it’s grounded in, anchored in, a sound that is highly recognizable from this collective, but it’s taking what I hope is a step forward creatively, as well.

MP: Is there a particular song for you that was like, man, that one ripped me apart? I know it’s like picking a favorite child, but is there a song that was unique in some way?

BH: Yes, the title track, “Call It What It Is,” and also “Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye to You” is another one. Like you said, it is a challenge at this stage to pick one over another, but those two in particular, if I had to start.

MP: Wow, I don’t know how to say goodbye to you? I’m going to have to meditate before I listen to that one.

BH: I think I did before I wrote it.

MP: I think healing is serious fucking business. Is there anything you want to say about healing?

BH: It’s amazing all the different perspectives and directions and angles that healing encompasses. It’s so infinite. I don’t want to be reckless in discussing something that is so important, but it’s easy for me to say, “There’s so much there, there’s so much to heal for.”

MP: That’s beautiful, there’s so much to heal for.

BH: It can depend on what you have to heal from as to how much there is to heal for; those two are somewhat inextricably linked. Don’t let what you have to heal from blind you to how much there is to heal for.

I went through some shit as a kid, as everyone does, and I want to be able to not be that person. I want to try to not be the child that had to go through too much too young. I want to be who I am now and not who I was then. I want to try to be who I am today, not who I was then.

 

Photos: Danny Clinch

The post Interview: Ben Harper: Musician. Poet. Environmentalist. Activist. Prophet. appeared first on ORIGIN Magazine.

Climate  Change: The Greatest Threat to Humanity: In a Global Effort, Well-known Activists Unite in Their Mission to Act on Climate Change Now

Project + Photography: Mathias Braschler & Monika Fischer in support of the work of UNFCCC & UNEP

Act Now! is a major photography project to raise awareness on climate change by the critically acclaimed creative duo Braschler/Fischer. The photographers have shot portraits of influential and trendsetting climate activists. The project aims to raise more awareness for this pressing problem in partnership with UNFCCC and UNEP.

Richard Branson

Virgin Group Founder

Taking bold climate action now has the potential to unleash the full power of business and lift millions of people out of poverty at the same time. We’re the first generation to recognize this and the last generation that will have this opportunity.

Gisele Bündchen

Model. United Nations Environment Programme Goodwill Ambassador

Climate change is real. In order to alter this reality, we need all hands on deck. Cleaner, more sustainable energy is possible and can transform our lives, our
economies, and our planet. We must make living in harmony with the Earth a priority. This is our home… the only one we have!

James Cameron

Film Director

Climate change is critical to me because I’m a parent; I feel a sense of responsibility to the future. I’m not going to be around to see its worst effects, which are going to be hitting in the 2030s, ’40s, ’50s, but my kids will. Everybody is always talking about droughts and sea level rise, but when human civilization, with more crowding and greater resource depletion, is under that much stress, it translates into wars and huge displaced populations. The Syrian refugee crisis is just a first taste of what it’s going to be like. I don’t want my kids growing up in that kind of world.

Mark Ruffalo

Actor

We are living in revolutionary times. The good news is we have everything we need to leave fossil fuels in the ground. All we need is for you to join the rest of the world to bring about a cleaner, more stable, and peaceful future. Join the #SunlightRevolution, #100isNow.

Vivienne Westwood

Fashion Designer
The migrants are not a temporary crisis. The crisis is mounting. There are many war refugees and three times as many climate refugees. All of them are people who can no longer live where they were born. I hope we face reality in time to save ourselves. We will all be migrants soon

Ian Somerhalder

Actor. UNEP Goodwill Ambassador

Collaboration, partnership—the ultimate intertwining of skills, shared passions, and knowledge—is what concocts the most shatterproof forms of change making. Let’s unite our impassioned voices to combat climate change. The time is now.

Nikki Reed

Actor

The degradation of our environment is undeniably a direct result of our lack of regard, lack of accountability, and
lack of responsibility. If we don’t start acknowledging our correct position as nothing more than a part of the planet as opposed to this perception that we’re superior, then we won’t have it much longer. We’re facing a very turbulent, war-torn, drought-ridden existence for future generations unless we act now.

Michael R. Bloomberg

U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities + Climate Change
Former Mayor of New York City

Fighting climate change isn’t just an obligation we owe to future generations. It’s also an opportunity to improve public health—and drive economic growth—in the here and now. After all, the same steps that reduce carbon pollution also clean the air we breathe, which saves lives and reduces disease. Cities with clean air also gain an economic advantage, because where people want to live and work, businesses want to invest. By speeding the transition to cleaner energy, we can improve the lives of billions of people, while also reducing the risks we face from a changing climate.

Don Cheadle

Actor. UNEP Goodwill Ambassador

I pray that our leaders stop pointing fingers and playing the blame game and seek a real solution for the good of the planet and all who inhabit it. It is the least represented among us who will be the most affected first. We have a moral responsibility to protect them.

Moby

Musician

For me the two biggest issues are climate change and animal welfare/animal agriculture. And oddly enough animal agriculture is such a contributor to climate change. According to the United Nations, 25% of climate change comes from animal agriculture, so every car, bus, boat, truck, airplane combined has less CO2 and methane emissions than animal agriculture. So to me, one of the easiest ways of addressing climate change and potentially remedying climate change is to stop subsidizing animal agriculture

Mary Robinson

U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Change
Former President of Ireland

The changing climate is a threat to human rights. The fossil-fuel-based development model has not benefitted all people and those who have benefitted least are now suffering great harm in the face of climate change. But tackling the issue of climate change presents us with an inflection point in human history—a climate justice revolution that separates development from fossil fuels, supports people in the most vulnerable situations to adapt, allows all people to take part, and, most importantly, realise their full potential.

Darren Aronofsky

Film Director, Screenwriter + Film Producer

I fear our descendants will look back on us at this moment in time, on people who lived in the 20th and 21st centuries and they’ll ask, “What the fuck were you thinking?” We all have to help. Because for too long we have been taking, and the Earth has been giving. But that free-for-all, that all-you-can-eat buffet, it’s over. The salad bar is closed.

Achim Steiner

Executive Director, UNEP

We are at a pivotal moment in our shared history. The global goals of a healthy planet, social equality, and economic opportunity for all are within reach. But we cannot prevaricate. Our vision of a sustainable future will only materialize through action taken today.

Photography: braschlerfischer.com

The post Climate Champions: The Greatest Threat to Humanity. Act Now! w/ UNFCCC & UNEP appeared first on ORIGIN Magazine.

STRONG WOMEN SHARE the LABELS and WORDS LEVELED AGAINST THEM and WHY it is SO IMPORTANT to EMPOWER WOMEN + GIRLS RIGHT NOW

Sally Kohn
CNN COLUMNIST + POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, POLITICAL ESSAYIST, SOCIAL JUSTICE POINEER + OUR HEROINE

“We are worse off – all of us – including men and boys – if our society is not developing and empowering 100% of the resources of humanity, including women and girls.” –Sally Kohn

READ MORE

sallykohn.com

Lauren Fleshman
Veteran Professional Distance Runner for Oiselle. Won Loads of State Championships, NCAA titles, USA Championships and Finished as High as 7th in the World so far. Business Owner, Picky Bars. Author. Activist.

“We can’t expect to effectively move forward with half the population carrying sandbags.” –Lauren Fleshman

READ MORE

AskLaurenFleshman.com

Amy Richards
FOUNDER/PRESIDENT, SOAPBOX, INC. and FOUNDER, THIRD WAVE FUND / FEMINIST.COM

“Our world loses out when the leadership doesn’t reflect those who are being led.” –Amy Richards

READ MORE

soapboxinc.com | feminist.com | feministcamp.com | makers.com

Jaclyn Matfus Harper
HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST, FEMINIST, ALL AROUND BADASS

“It’s incredibly important to empower women and girls now more than ever because we are finally being heard in a meaningful way.” – Jaclyn Matfus Harper

READ MORE

newlightindia.org

Sally Bergesen
FOUNDER/CEO, OISELLE

“Transformation comes from knowing that there is no change without conflict and being vocal will always be met with some form of backlash.” –Sally Bergesen

READ MORE

oiselle.com | sallybergesen.tumblr.com

Amanda Stuermer
Founder, World Muse, Muse Conference, Muse Magazine

“Labels are intended to keep us small, and I refuse to be kept small any longer.” –Amanda Stuermer

READ MORE

theworldmuse.org | amandastuermer.com
Photo: Heaven McArthur

Sarah Pool
Founder /CEO, Pacific Superfood Snacks

“The greatest lie we are told is about what “beauty” looks like and it’s reinforced every minute of the day.” –Sarah Pool

READ MORE

pacificsnacks.com | sarahpool.info

Melissa Jun Rowley
Founder, Humanise, Inc.

“When females are educated and empowered, families are healthier, poverty cycles are broken, and economies become stronger. The bottom line is that from local communities in the developing world to the corporate ecosystem, when women are in leadership roles, the return on investment is higher than when they’re not.” – Melissa Jun Rowley

READ MORE

humanise.global | thetoolbox.org

Joanna Lohman
Badass soccer Player, Washington Spirit, the National Women’s Soccer League. Coach. Mentor.

“I do realize, however, while striving to be your true self to the level I do, there will push back, resistance, and misunderstanding.” –Joanna Lohman

READ MORE

joannalohman.com | washingtonspirit.com | athleteally.org

Angie Aker
Upworthy.com Badass. Feminist Changemaker. Abuse Survivor. Rockstar Single Mom. Former Editor-in-Chief of MoveOn.org.

“As older women, we went through the decades of feeling shame and uncertainty about ourselves. Imagine how much faster we could have gotten on with our lives, callings if we had known how much of that toxic negativity wasn,t about us,but about the society we live in.” –Angie Aker

READ MORE

upworthy.com/angie-aker | angieup.tumblr.com

Kyleane Hunter
Former U.S. Marine officer and combat Cobra helicopter pilot. Co-founder /co-director of the Think Broader Foundation.

“I have the power to be in control of how I perceive myself, and how I present these perceptions to others. My strength as a woman is not dismissed by the changes in outward form. –Kyleane Hunter
READ MORE

Rose Marcario
PRESIDENT + CEO, PATAGONIA

“Having more stuff does not make for a happier life. The planet has limits and we need to recognize that and change our own habits to protect what we love.” –Rose Marcario

READ MORE

PatagoniaWorks.com.

Photo: Amy Kumler / Courtesy of Patagonia

The post Origin: Fem Series – Ignitors. Rebels. Mavericks. Feminists. Agitators. Pioneers. Change Makers. Innovators… appeared first on ORIGIN Magazine.

Sally Kohn: CNN COLUMNIST + POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, POLITICAL ESSAYIST, SOCIAL JUSTICE POINEER + OUR HEROINE

ORIGIN: What sets your soul on fire?
Sally Kohn: People fighting for justice. I’m so moved when I see everyday Americans standing together, against all odds, to make their lives and communities better—whether it’s organizing against big factories polluting their air or against big banks corrupting our economy and political system. The fire in the bellies of the good people who work for a more fair and just world for all of us—that spark never fails to inspire me and warm my heart.

ORIGIN: What labels have been used to describe you and how do you use them for good?
SK: What haven’t I been called? Every antigay, misogynist, anti-Semitic, anti-liberal smear you can think of. I don’t think I can transform those smears; I can’t even repeat them! But I proudly embrace the identities beneath them. Hell yeah, I’m a woman and a lesbian and a feminist and a Jew and so many other things, and those identities are a source of pride and strength for me.

What haven’t I been called? Every antigay, misogynist, anti-Semitic, anti-liberal smear you can think of. I don’t think I can transform those smears; I can’t even repeat them!

ORIGIN: Any relating to your body or appearance? How did you transform them?
SK: I have never, not once, gone on television and not received some email or tweet or comment about my hair. Without fail. Isn’t that absurd? All it does is make me want to shape my bangs into a sort of middle finger-like sculpture.

ORIGIN: Why is it so important that we empower women + girls right now?
SK: That’s like asking why it’s important we breathe. Women are more than half of our globe, more than half of our promise and potential. And we have been not only underusing that resource but suppressing it. We are worse off—all of us, including men and boys—if our society is not developing and empowering 100% of the resources of humanity, including women and girls.

ORIGIN: What causes are you passionate about?
SK: There’s too many to list, but I would say that I think racial justice—and addressing the sick and enduring legacy of structural racism—remains one of the greatest challenges of our time, and one that’s particularly important for more and more white people to speak up about.

SALLYKOHN.COM

READ THE WHOLE FEM SERIES HERE! Click to see all featured women!

The post ORIGIN FEM SERIES: Sally Kohn – CNN Columnist appeared first on ORIGIN Magazine.

Diggin’ Deep with Bonnie Raitt, Legend, Activist, Musician, On the need for a New Revolution, Clean Energy, her Sobriety, the need for a Political Revolution, Equality for women, Protecting the Earth, and Taking Personal Responsibility in our Lives

I was raised with the blessing of being involved with peace and social justice, and the environmental movement. I have my parents to thank for that

Maranda Pleasant: You’ve done so much with conservation. You’re a heroine for so many who work in conservation, and with endangered species. You donate so much of your time. Is there something that makes it personal for you?

Bonnie Raitt: There are so many people out there working with great grassroots and global and national organizations that are unsung heroes to me. And those of us with a microphone who are blessed with the gift of being in the public eye have a special opportunity to give voice to all those groups whose activism is sometimes ignored or put on the back pages with the the dumbing down of television and the tabloidization of journalism. As Ralph Nader called it, “sound barks,” not even sound bites.

Really important issues are getting lost, so I can say I’m glad to be a citizen of the planet and do my part. I think that we have a unique opportunity as performers and artists to be kind of the town criers and also to get more people to listen, so that’s a blessing and a responsibility that I take very seriously. I have to stay informed about the issues across the board, between gun control and Native American rights, women’s rights, safe food, plastic pollution, safe energy, clean air and water, our resources, and conservation and efficiency.

I don’t know if I’m a heroine; I’m just somebody that can cheer the troops by singing to folks, and have receptions after the show, and tithe a dollar of every ticket sale for all kinds of different great charities and social action groups. There are a lot of people that never get their stories told.

MP: Is there something that makes it deeply personal for you? Is there some issue that you feel really personally connected to that makes it personal?

BR: Absolutely. Part of the reason I had such a drive to be an activist, and support other activists, is because I was raised Quaker and my parents kept us very much informed and involved as kids in civil rights and the conservation movement. A dear family friend started Save the Redwoods League, up in the Palo Alto region of California, and I just remember being very much aware of the efforts to protect the water, the quality of water, and later in my adult years, the threat of oil rigs in California. It’s very personal in California to live within hours, and sometimes just a few miles, of earthquake faults when nuclear plants were being built. Between the redwoods, growing up and enjoying nature, camping on almost every vacation, and getting to go to summer camp in the Adirondacks, it was really very apparent to me that we had to preserve what we had on the earth. I learned so much from studying Native American approaches to balance with the earth, and I have to say that since I was a kid, I was raised with the blessing of being involved with peace and social justice, and the environmental movement. I have my parents to thank for that

MP: Well, I love you even more! [Laughs.]

BR: Oh god. Well thank you for saying that, but when they were putting oil rigs up and down the California coast, the whole issue of safe energy and the addiction to fossil fuels really came into focus. The connection between toxicity and cancer and safe air and water and food, all of that was important all along, as were women’s and human rights issues, but the nuke issue and the safe energy movement became really important to me in the mid-’70s.

MP: What’s the new revolution now?

BR: Well, there’s so many amazing articles coming out all the time and because of the internet circulating great writing—even if the writers don’t get paid enough most of the time, unfortunately—but there’s never been a more amazing flow of information on all of the issues. I would love to see a revival of what we had against the war in the ’60s—we could do these teach-ins on the internet, live and split screen, and have real in-depth debate between people that are on the “other” side of issues—nuclear, gun control, whatever. We could really be having a much more democratically involved and exciting debate with people emailing their questions and having a virtual town meeting. I think it would be a really exciting way to re-engage and engage this new generation—many of whom are really angry and frustrated and have grown up with nothing but ineffective government and money hijacking the whole political system. They don’t know it any other way. I mean, those of us who grew up in the ’50s and ’60s, we had the dream that this could be turned around, and the earth could be back in balance, and that we could level the playing field with men and women and pay, and you know, minority groups having equal opportunity. We just magically thought this was all going to happen: we were going to have clean food, and organic this, and conscious that, and it just didn’t happen. We need the people who are doing the hard work in the forefront, like Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio. There’s so many people working to get more attention in the press and it seems to be working.

MP: Tell me about your work with women becoming more powerful and equal. Is there anything you wanted to say around that, about women’s issues?

BR: I have been really heartened by how much coverage there has been about inequality of pay across the board, between the entertainment industry and almost every industry worldwide. And just the problem of young women not getting an education, not being able to have an equal position in the cultures all around the world. There’s been just a fantastic explosion of articles that I haven’t seen in many, many years and films coming out like Suffragette. There’s a lot of synchronicity that’s blowing open the issue and I think it’s engaging across the aisle politically— whatever religion or political affiliation you are, whatever race you are, whatever age you are, everybody is concerned about it. So I think people speaking out on all levels in every different profession is really helping out. I’m encouraged by it.

MP: What is something that you’ve struggled with in your life and what’s something that really helped you work through it or transform it? I’m all about vulnerability and suffering.

BR: Yeah, well in my case I’ve been sober for 30 years. You know, a lot of people feel that sobriety is about just stopping using whatever it was that you appeared to be addicted to, but it really has to do with a way of looking at your life and taking accountability. The big turning point for me was being unconscious to the way that my behavior was impacting myself and other people. I tended to think, “Oh, if only this person would act better this way or the record company would do this,” putting that focus on an explanation or the blame outside of myself, that was a lot of my my story, a lot of the self-pity involved—it led to my feeling that I needed comfort or I needed to vent or this or that. But I started to understand that the kinds of personalities and backgrounds that lead you to have a little bit more of something, whether it’s a dependency on overworking, or sex, or gambling, or substance abuse. Understanding how we become unbalanced that way and addicted, and what that personality is, has been a real eye-opener for me. The challenge of course is in sobriety and that’s been the blessing, to realize, to take accountability for the ways that your own thinking impacts your happiness, and your serenity, and your ability to be a productive and a loving, giving member of your family and society. So the same thing that was my problem has become a silver lining, really.

MP: My personal mantra. I think sometimes I slip into that, not realizing how much I’m responsible for the energy I bring into a room or a situation.

BR: Yeah, exactly, and we become those personas, you know. Whatever role we were in our family of birth, we take on this persona and in your 20s and 30s in particular, you end up thinking that’s you and that isn’t necessarily you. You’re all kinds of things: you’re still eight years old, you’re still the 90-year-old along with the current 66-year-old, so there are all these playful and cranky and flawed and magnificently strong and vulnerable . . . all those things at the same time and just learning how to be realistic and not let yourself coast too much and go numb, and abusing whatever it is that makes you go numb to not deal with stuff. It’s a lot harder to be clear-headed, but the good stuff is when you start realizing who’s really you. I don’t want to sound like a self-help book, but it really has been transformative for me to take a look at my relationships in a new way and see my part in them. Everybody’s going through that. The women’s movement resurgence of standing up for so many things that were kind of sleepy there for a decade or so, there’s been a reawakening and I think the consciousness movement in general is dovetailing with a lot of recovery and self-empowerment. There’s so much power and support in a support group of any kind, whether it’s your closest friends or an actual group you attend because you had a problem and you want fellow people that are as twisted as you are, or whatever. The fact is that this conversation is going on at every level at every age, we’re all going, “God, what a jerk I’ve been,” “How could I have married that guy?” or “How could I have done this or that?” With time, this is the gift of being older, that you get to look back and say, “It wasn’t all about them.”

On sobriety: The same thing that was my problem has become my silver lining, really

MP: And have you noticed sometimes where you’re in a spiral and you really put too much energy on what they did and it’s becoming more and more like, “Wow, what role did I play?”

BR: I wrote a song on my new album that’s all about that. That’s the last song on my new record.

MP: What’s it called?

BR: “The Ones We Couldn’t Be” and that’s what it’s all about. That’s exactly what this is about. It’s the last song on record and it’s one I wrote.

MP: I’m going to replay that as soon as we get off the phone. I think you’re kind of like a cult figure for a lot of women.

BR: Well, thank you, I’m glad I present that but I’m hoping people can really see what I sing about and who I am in public. There’s lots of flaws and frailties and cracks in the armor, and nobody wants to put themselves out there as some kind of Joan of Arc because none of us can live up to that, but I’m grateful to be a role model and be respected because I have a whole slew of people, men and women, that I feel the same way about. And I’m happy to have been a positive influence.

MP: I think it’s your vulnerability that really allows us to connect to you because we can see our own vulnerability. Is there a truth that you know for sure?

BR: We create our own happiness. The one thing I know is that if you’re not paying attention, it will come back to bite you. Whether you should be spinning in a sort of toxic swirl of drawing people to you that feed that story that you keep telling yourself and them, and you re-create your own pain and your own excuse, whether it’s procrastinating, or not living up to your own potential, or pulling your wings in because you don’t want to look too powerful. You create the happiness and the balance that you have, and your own power. This is one thing that I know to be true. You know, it was something that I came to realize more and more—when I recognize something is not working, I pull myself out of it. Then I can go, “Wow, I’m a lot happier.” I learned by experience that you can change your circumstance. It’s as simple as the serenity prayer; it’s a very, very real thing.

MP: Beautiful. “Pulling in your wings.” I’ve never actually heard someone phrase it like that. As you evolve as a woman and as a being, does your music evolve with you? Is this album different than what you’ve done in the past for you emotionally?

BR: I don’t go into any album with a concept or a deliberate direction. It’s more letting the best music that really appeals to me at the time, the best songs that I find after many months and years of search and sifting through my collection, and asking radio people and journalists. It’s really an ongoing search that’s as much daunting as it is somewhat exciting. I mean it’s always enjoyable to listen to a friend’s work, but if it doesn’t resonate with you, then you can just appreciate it and it inspires you in its own way. But going into this record, it’s really a matter of finding 11 or 12 songs that really speak to me at the time. This time I was able to co-write three and write two of my own. I hadn’t written in a long time, so it was really based on grooves that I wanted to play in my show that were kind of missing. You know, one was a gospel shuffle and that was “What You’re Doing to Me.” Some of them were thematically things that I wanted to say. So my tunes were things that I wanted to express musically and lyrically. The other songs, they find their way to me, and when there’s a good fit, I know they’re right for me. It takes a long time, and when I get enough, that’s when I have the record. So it isn’t any different, the process isn’t any different than any of the other records I’ve made. But hopefully people will just hear 12 more great new songs, played with my wonderful band.

I’m so happy to be held in the respect that you’re clearly holding me in and I have a forum to say what’s important. Usually I’m talking about guitar strings. Most of the time I am talking track by track and people ask about the band and stuff like that, so it’s really nice for me to be able to stretch out a little bit and talk about bigger issues.

MP: I think people love you as a whole person. I think people love your music, but I also think people are in love with the vulnerability and rawness you exude. You’re so down to earth, there’s no way to separate you from your music.

BR: Well that’s the best review I’ve gotten.

MP: You’re one of those in-your-bones musicians. You make people feel it in their bones. To me, I don’t know a guitar riff, but I know that I’m not alone in this world, I know I’m going to get through it. That’s what you give people and that’s why I’m excited about this album.

BR: What a wonderful thing to say. I called it Dig in Deep because that happens to be a lyric from the first song. The band and I have been together, some of us for over 30 years, and you know, you get into a telepathy with each other and a soul connection and are able to go deep. We have an unspoken way of digging and a way of playing together that can only happen really when you are so attuned and that comes with experience. And then Dig in Deep was also a nod to some of the topics that I wrote about and am singing about—not just my songs, but other people’s songs on the record, so it was a double-edged meaning, as they often are on my albums’ titles.

MP: Your work on this album is rich and there’s so much texture and there’s so many layers. Anyway, thank you so much.

BR: Thank you, Maranda.

Whatever role we were in our family of birth, we take on this persona and in your 20s and 30s in particular, you end up thinking that’s you and that isn’t necessarily you.

bonnieraitt.com

Photos: Marina Chavez

The post Origin Interview: Diggin’ Deep with Bonnie Raitt, Legend, Activist, Musician appeared first on ORIGIN Magazine.

Senator Bernie Sanders almost single-handedly changed the focus of the national conversation of the 2016 election cycle and made history raising $26+ million in record
time—without Super PACs. Rising in the polls, with unprecedented enthusiasm from his supporters, Senator Sanders is at the front of this presidential race.

Interview: Maranda Pleasant

Maranda Pleasant: We simply cannot afford to have a president in office that denies climate change, which would be a disaster. Can you speak about the climate crisis?

Senator Bernie Sanders: Absolutely. I am a member of both the Senate environmental committee and the Senate energy committee, and I can tell you that I have heard from
scientists, not only across America but all over the world, who tell us that absolutely the debate is over. Climate change is real. Climate change is caused by human activity,
and climate change is already causing devastating problems in our country and around the world. What we’re talking about is not only rising sea levels, droughts, floods, and the warming and the acidification of the ocean, but what we’re also looking at, if we do not transform our energy system, is more international war and conflict as countries
fight over limited natural resources, including water and land to grow their crops. That’s the bad news. The other bad news is we see how campaign finance has impacted the Republicans’ view by and large on climate change. Most Republicans are not prepared to stand up to the fossil fuel industry because they get a lot of their campaign funds from the Koch brothers and other people in the fossil fuel industry. That tells me why we have to reform our campaign finance system. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we’ve seen in recent years significant reductions in the cost of solar panels and wind production. We know how significant an impact we can have by moving towards energy efficiency and transforming our transportation system. So we know what has to be done. We have to develop the political will to do it, and, as president, this would be an issue of huge concern to me.

MP: Well, you just covered campaign finance and the Koch brothers. Let’s talk a minute on the need for prison reform.

BS: Absolutely. A very important issue. What every American should know is that we have more people in jail today than any other country on Earth, more than China. We have some 2.2 million people in jail. What that means is that a lot of lives are being destroyed. When people get out of jail, it is not easy for them to find a job. It is not easy for them to return to civil society. In my view, one of the major reasons that we have so many people in jail is that we have turned our backs on a lot young people. Youth unemployment for high school graduates in this country if they are Hispanic is 36 percent and African Americans 51 percent. When you have kids that have no jobs and are not in school, too often they get themselves into trouble. So what we have got to do is invest in education and in jobs, something which I have fought for, rather than more jails and incarceration.
Second of all, I think it is now widely understood that the so-called “War on Drugs” has largely been a failure. Too many people have developed criminal records for smoking marijuana. Too many people have gone to jail for nonviolent crimes. So I think it’s important for us to rethink the war on drugs. I think that it is absolutely imperative that we reform a very broken criminal justice system which allows for mandatory minimums, which has police departments that are not reflective of the communities that they serve, and a lot more. So criminal justice reform is something that we have got to address in a very bold way.

MP: Thank you. Let’s talk about how our political system is owned by a minority of billionaires. Many people feel like the system, Democrat or Republican, just stays the same. It seems like you’re giving millions of people hope.

BS: Right.

MP: Citizens United. Our government seems to be funded by corporations and, like you said, with the Koch brothers and climate change, I feel like oil and gas bankroll a lot of politicians. Can you talk about that and the growing inequality?

BS: Absolutely. Thank you. This is a very important issue that the corporate media chooses not to talk about a whole lot, that we have an economic system which is rigged,
which means that at the same time as the middle class of this country is disappearing, almost all of the new income and wealth in America is going to the top 1 percent. You
have the top one-tenth of 1 percent owning almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent—58 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent. That’s economically.
Politically, as a result of Citizens United, billionaires are now able to spend as much money as they want on campaigns, which means that you have a political system which
is heavily dominated by corporations and wealthy individuals. Unless we get a handle on this issue, the degree to which our economy and our political system is controlled by a small number of very, very wealthy people—I fear very much that it is not going to be easy to transform our nation and make government work for the middle class. So this is an issue of huge consequence, something we have been focusing on very much during this campaign.

MP: I went to my family reunion in the South and mentioned your name to my relatives, mainly farmers. I thought they would be pro-Bernie, and the words out of my uncle’s mouth were, “I’m not voting for a socialist.” I think a lot of people are so scared and misunderstand that word. Can you answer what that means to you?

BS: Well, it means several things to me. First of all, it means a government that reflects the needs of the middle class and working families, the vast majority of our people, and not just the top 1 percent, which is currently the case. It also means that the United States has got to join the rest of the industrialized world in making sure that working families of the middle class have benefits that they absolutely need. We are the only major country on Earth that does not guarantee health care to all people as a right. We are the only major country on Earth that does not provide paid family and medical leave. There are many countries around the world which make sure that public colleges and universities are tuition-free. In our country, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to afford to go to college. What I think people should realize is that programs like Social Security, programs like Medicare, programs like the Veterans Administration, programs like your local park and your local library—those are, if you like, socialist programs; they’re run by [and] for the public, not to make money. I think in many ways we should expand that concept so that the American people can enjoy the same benefits that people all over the world are currently enjoying.

MP: Well, that doesn’t sound very scary.

BS: {Laughs} No, in fact virtually all of the programs that I am advocating have the support of the vast majority of the American people.

MP: How would we do that? I think when they hear that, they think, “Are you going to take money away from people that are working hard and give it those who refuse to work?” Are you advocating, instead, ending corporate welfare (subsidies) for large companies making record profits that most Americans don’t even know about? Some numbers say that the government spends twice as much on corporate welfare to profitable companies as all social welfare combined, including things like food stamps and housing assistance.

BS: That’s a good question, and here’s the answer—for the last thirty years, we have seen a massive redistribution of wealth, from the middle class to the top one-tenth of 1 percent. In other words: The middle class is shrinking while at the same time the people on top are doing phenomenally well. And I think it is time to ask the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations to start paying their fair share of taxes so that we can protect the needs of the middle class of this country, working families, the elderly and the children, and the sick, and I think if we can do that, we can create a much stronger country and a much fairer country.

MP: Thank you so much, Senator Sanders. Thank you so much for your time.

sanders.senate.gov | BERNIESANDERS.COM

PHOTO: MARIUS BUGGE

The post Exclusive Interview with Presidential Candidate Senator Bernie Sanders appeared first on ORIGIN Magazine.

Rose McGowan: The Agitator

On Seeing Yourself Through the Eyes of a World of Men, Feeling Like Prey, Being Called Fat at Home Depot, and Being Grateful for Having a Mind that Can Want More for People and the Planet

Actor, director, activist, and feminist Rose McGowan’s uncompromising spirit, which first captured us with her unforgettable performance in The Doom Generation, bloomed into a career with iconic roles in films like Scream and Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror. Her directorial debut film, Dawn, was nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

Activist and filmmaker Laura Dawn sat down with Rose in New York City last summer, discussing art, street harassment, and the trouble with being a feminist in Hollywood—nothing was off limits in this fierce and funny conversation.

We don’t have the anger yet and that’s usually what shifts and moves things.

Laura Dawn: So, I noticed that you and Julia Stiles almost made the film version of The Bell Jar together?

Rose McGowan: It would have been amazing.

LD: I’m a crazy Plath-Head. A bit of a fanatic. And I have to say, that really would have been amazing.

RM: It’s quite sad that it never got funding. You never know what goes on behind the scenes, but . . .

LD: I’m gonna take a wild leap and posit that the reason it didn’t get made is because Hollywood has been so afraid of telling women’s stories. I mean, you and Julia Stiles in a film version of one of the best selling, most iconic books of all time would kind of seem like a no-brainer and yet that didn’t get funded?

RM: It’s incredibly shortsighted, it’s just sad, and it renders a large sector of the population voiceless and under-represented. It’s interesting how we have a lot of people banging the drum for equality, which is all fucking awesome, but it’s different when people are bitching about the lack of real roles for women versus getting angry about it. We don’t have the anger yet and that’s usually what shifts and moves things. People get so burned out on hearing about sexism, but you know what? I would love to burn out on it. I would love to never talk about that again, but until we’re all equal I shall have to fight, and remain fighting.

LD: And I’m so happy that you are! I imagine, as a former child model, you have a lifelong perspective on this, yes?

RM: Of sorts. You know, I was a boy in the ads I did as a child. My sister was the girl, and I was the boy. I had short hair and I was in overalls and I was giving flowers to my sister Daisy, who fit their model of what a girl was supposed to look like. She had blonde ringlets and big blue eyes and so I was relegated to being the boy and all the pictures are of me looking quite surly.

LD: That’s interesting.

RM: Yeah, it was quite funny.

LD: And now you’re renowned for your beauty. At what point did you start getting noticed for your looks? Is that something that happened later or was it early?

RM: Well, I moved from Italy to Oregon in the ’80s—sort of like moving to the middle of a “Duck Dynasty” episode, which was massive culture shock to say the least.

LD: Ha!

I kind of grew breasts overnight and then the world got really loud.

RM: I’d never even seen orange cheese. I mean, who decided to make that orange? And so there was something different about me that they wanted to crush. I don’t think it had anything to do with my physicality, but every
single day in school it was, “You’re the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.” Instead of just thinking, “Oh, this person’s from another culture, what’s different, what can we learn about this new person?” It was just, “Stamp it out! Stamp it out
immediately!” And because I’m a girl, the surest way to do that is through, “You’re ugly.”

LD: Wow. That’s such a hard experience at that age.

RM: And I’d kind of look at myself in the mirror and think, “I’m not sure, but I think they might be wrong. My features seem normal, what is it that they find so off-putting?” So I didn’t take to heart what they said, and I was just puzzled. And then I would go to another state where my photographer father was living and there I’d be revered for what I looked like. What it did was cancel both out, and that served me really quite well. I kind of grew breasts overnight and then the world got really loud. I went from being just a kid to all of a sudden not being able to walk a block without a man waggling his tongue through his fingers, which is disgusting. I mean, I was 13 and suddenly I’m trying to see myself through the eyes of men, trying to figure out why I’m getting this reaction from them versus just
being able to walk through the world whole.

LD: When I was younger I felt like prey, that’s the only word I can use.

RM: I was prey.

LD: And I’d try to figure out a way to dress that wouldn’t invite it. So some days you would have a ponytail and sweats on and that’s the day you’d get . . .

RM: That actually gets you more harassment weirdly enough!

LD: I know, right? Why is that? Maybe you look vulnerable or younger.

RM: You’re not scary to them because you’re not wearing lipstick. Ooooh, that’s scary!

LD: So, when you add fame on top, does that give you a layer of protection from that kind of harassment or make it worse?

RM: Well, both. With fame, all of a sudden you’re seeing yourself through the eyes of a world of men, and that’s . . . Look, it’s very weird to have part and parcel of a job to feel like you’re a lure for men to come into the theater. Some people do have a very innate sexuality to them. I may or may not have it, but it makes people see you in a certain light that has nothing to do with me. Recently I was at Home Depot, of all things, and some guy that works there walks past me and he’s pushing cartons of something and he says, “Hey, you’re much fatter in real life.”

LD: No!

RM: I was like, “What?” It snapped me out of my . . . I mean, I was looking for light bulbs.

LD: First of all, that is not true . . .

RM: I was like, “Well how thin am I supposed to be, jerk?”

LD: Jesus.

RM: And I just felt like, “Why would you discuss my body as if it’s an object?” People will come up and say things like, “Are your breasts real?” I mean, people will come up and discuss my body as if I’m not human. It went from men looking at me in a predatory way, or in an appreciative way, depending, to “And there’s the animal in its natural habitat.” Like I’m an oddity, or a strange creature that doesn’t quite exist, ergo, you can say anything you want and it doesn’t hurt me, right?

LD: It sounds like street harassment on steroids. There’s a whole street harassmentsubculture of men who get off in some way by saying demeaning things to women, right?

RM: Oh, yes.

LD: I have a friend who claims her favorite comeback to that is “You will never, ever get to fuck me.”

RM: Ever ever. Ever ever ever.

LD: I wish I had the guts to say something
like that.

RM: “How does it feel to be somebody that
will never fuck me? What’s that like?”

LD: “What’s that like?”

RM: “What’s that like, idiot?”
{Laughter.}

LD: But you know, the truth is I’m always afraid to say something like that. I’ve had enough scary things happen, so . . . the fear is that talking back, that engaging at all, is to open the door for god-knows-what.

RM: Because every woman knows that any man engaging in street harassment can switch to anger very quickly and that anger goes to rage and their rage is their masculinity being threatened. We’re scared for good reason. Look, I’ve been in some hairy situations. I was a homeless runaway.

If somebody said something racist around me, or you, or most people, you would correct it, you would stop it, but when they say things about women, so frequently no one says anything. That has to change.

LD: In Oregon?

RM: That was in Oregon. That was really fun to be homeless in one of the rainiest places in the country.

LD: How old were you at that time and how long were you on your own?

RM: I was 13. And on my own for about 10 months, but those were long months. My stepdad wanted me out of his hair and tried to put me in a home, a hospital kind of place for kids with drug problems, which I absolutely did not belong in. So I left that place and struck out on my own and banded together immediately with three trans girls
and a stripper named Tina. Tina had an apartment.

LD: Have you written about this?

RM: I have a lot to write. You have no idea.

LD: That sounds like an incredible novel, or film—something that you really need to share
with the world.

RM: There’s a lot, definitely. It was an adventure for sure. It was like Huckleberry Finn but in the gay club world. I would collect cans and then dress up like Charlie Chaplin from Goodwill suits, like men’s suits from the ’20s and the ’30s, then do like crazy checkerboard makeup. And you know, it was great in a way because it gave me somewhere to go. Heterosexual men terrified me. I found them to be dangerous. Not all of them, of course, but it took me some time to learn to be comfortable. And while I learned, I hid out largely in the gay community, and overall it kept me very safe. Since I didn’t grow up going to school dances, etc., I didn’t have the normal . . . I grew up in a very different way so a lot of the childish concerns or teenage concerns weren’t my concerns. My concerns were survival. The people that are the invisible ones, the marginalized, the quote-unquote weirdos, the people that get things thrown at them, the people that get harassed every day just for existing . . . I just still strongly align with them. This hetero–normative behavior and herd mentality is dangerous. It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to stand out for whatever reason. Some people are just born that way and instead of trying to tear them down, learn something new. Be curious and open because maybe that’s a pathway out for you, too.

LD: I agree, wholeheartedly. So I’m sure you’ve seen the annual Celluloid Ceiling report stats that found women accounted for about 16 percent of directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films.

RM: Oh yes.

LD: So, I want to touch on your recent, absolutely fucking glorious moment on social media where you publicly called out Hollywood misogynistic casting practices by tweeting out a casting call that “encouraged” form fitting clothes and a push-up bra. And I just want to say, on behalf of millions of women online who saw this: Thank you.

RM: Well, you’re welcome, but it’s funny, the first tweet that turned into this whole situation? I was just like, “This is just Tuesday,” you know? This shit happens every single day and we’re all just so used to it, and that is what’s not okay. To me the most egregious thing was the amount of people that probably saw that and in no way flagged it. It was just so gross and tired. I live a very international life, but when I come back to Hollywood, a town I love in
a lot of ways, I have to wonder, “What decade are you in? Like, seriously, what decade? It’s not this one.”
And it’s not the future. You have to be at the forefront of culture to create art, which they call “product,” and Hollywood is not. It’s this very old business model, which I think is dying in a lot of ways. It’s like the Mad Men era and they’re holding on for dear life. A guy friend I was speaking to last night said he was talking to a group of male producersand he was just shocked that they said, “But if we give women directors a job they’re going to
take jobs away from the men.” I almost fell out of my chair. But when I encounter this kind
of thing, what I try to do is give a chiropractic adjustment to the mind, quickly.

LD: Ha! I like that.
RM: Like, I have 30 seconds with you. I’m going to shape and slap the shit out of your brain so you can actually look at this and perceive it differently. Because if somebody said something racist around me, or you, or most people, you would correct it, you would stop it, but when they say things about women, so frequently no one says anything. That has to change. And I don’t mind being disliked—I will be the one to step up and say what needs to be said if it helps one woman who comes after me. And why are women still this underclass? If we all banded together . . .

LD: We’re a larger voting block than men and yet we don’t fully exercise that power.

RM: Exactly.

LD: Ok, I am all fired up! But I have a few more questions. What keeps you up at night? I’ve been personally losing sleep over climate change these days.

RM: Oh god, so much . . . I think of the kids that live on top of garbage dumps, I think of the ways we could reach out to other countries, I think of certainly climate change. There’s so much. The nighttime is that time, is it not?

LD: Oh yes.

RM: I mean, short-sightedness is killing us. How do these people running corporations like Monsanto—how do they justify that paycheck? That destructive greed?

LD: And the oil and gas industry . . .

RM: What do you mean? I love BP. They’ve done a great job in the Gulf. Keep on keepin’ on!

LD: Could you imagine being their lawyers and having to lie to the public about how much of the
environment they’ve destroyed?

RM: How do they sleep at night?

LD: Since you’re such an incredibly intelligent and sensitive person, how do you combat the darkness? What are some tools that you use to beat it back?

RM: You know what? I don’t know how exactly but I’m maybe perverse in the sense that I like being disappointed in something on a daily basis. Because it means that I’m still not jaded.

LD: Oh, I love that. I love that perspective.

RM: When I get my feelings hurt, or when things scare me, or freak out my sensibilities, or when my feathers get ruffled, it takes me aback, of course, but then I think, I’m grateful that I have a mind that can want more for people and want more for the planet. It’s not that hard. It’s really quite simple. It just boils down to people perceiving each other as equal humans, and if we can achieve that we can achieve really anything. So that, more than anything, keeps me going. I see so much beauty in people and in the world and when I see ugliness I try to either expose it or fight but also remind myself that it’s mostly just people who can’t spell who say mean things.

{Laughs.}

It’s funny, honestly, by rights, with a lot of the stuff that’s happened to me I should be running down the street with my hair on fire, but instead I want to shape things, and I want to shake things up. There’s nothing wrong with being an agitator.

The invisible ones, the marginalized, the quote-unquote weirdos, the people that get things thrown at them, the people that get harassed every day just for existing . . . I just still strongly align with them.

photos: Janell Shirtcliff

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