What is the Death Positive Movement? | w/ Caitlin Doughty
Death — it happens to everyone, but it’s steeped in misunderstanding and negativity. That's why mortician Caitlin Doughty aka "Ask A Mortician” on YouTube, wants to open up the conversation about death and dying.
Bringing death back into life
A Youtuber, bestselling author and the world's most famous mortician - Caitlin Doughty aka AskAMortician wants to expose our fear of death. While the cultural mindset is that death is something terrible to be avoided — in recent years, a new social and philosophical movement has taken shape. The concept - created in 2004 by Swiss sociologist and anthropologist Bernard Crettaz - has been popularized by Jon Underwood, who held the first one in London in 2011. It’s called the death positive movement, and it all started with a tweet. Tweet: Why are there a zillion websites and references to being sex positive and nothing for being death positive?
“Here's what the death positive movement doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that you're a real positive about death. You're not like “Woo-hoo, my mom died”. Not what it means, death positive is saying it's OK to be interested in death. So being death positive is saying hey we want to improve our culture, we want to have more eco-friendly death practices, we want to have better conversations around death, and nobody has to hide that. the last hundred years or so death has been taken over by men. It's become a consumerist thing, it's become capitalistic, it's become we'll take your body and then we'll charge you for these services. Whereas 100, 150 years ago, women were taking care of the body in the home. And I think that there's so many women in our movement because there's this feeling in women that wait a second, we did this. This was our job and now the body is just picked up in the middle of the night and taken away and somebody else does it. And that doesn't feel right to me”, states Caitlin Doughty.
This mortician who founded Undertaking LA - an alternative funeral home, to help people bury loved ones in a more sustainable way, is on a mission to bring death back into life.
Brut.
37 comments
Katherine C.
06/19/2021 03:54I'm not understanding why their are people laughing with the emojis. It's true we are all going to die. I'm more afraid of an eternity of loneliness then I am of dying, but that's just me.
Nelson L.
05/22/2021 20:38Interesting facts about congratulate all of You take care be safe out there
La C.
07/20/2020 00:51, este un gran video de mi viento ! Por si lo quieres compartir
Julie B.
06/29/2020 22:19Hi Caitlin. Please do a show on brain death and when to plan the funeral. My son was brain dead and donated his organs,. But it took 50 hours to find a recipient for the heart- we were pushed to organize his funeral while He was still breathing- so we had the funeral the very next day that he died all the way. Teach people to not plan a funeral Until The body is cold- 100% dead- not just brain dead. We were at the hospital Every day for a week in this process and were the last people to Arrive at his funeral because we were so exhausted. Please teach this.
April M.
06/20/2020 07:58Yeah cos we scared who wants to die😅
Mustafe C.
04/19/2020 14:01I don't fear of death but what i fear the most is what happens after the death, and that's what you should talk about, ask what happens when people leave you inside that small hole and bury you, when you all alone in there and you realize no one is coming to visit you anymore
Raye M.
03/30/2020 13:05I grew up in the South. We were totally aware of death. We were never shielded from the truth of our mortality. Our family included members who ran a mortuary. Death was a natural part of life. We held funerals for our pets, including a goldfish. Times have changed. Life is precious and so is helping another pass over. 💖💕💕🦋
Waqas A.
10/31/2019 20:22Accepting that you will die eventually can help in many ways like you won't hoarde your wealth you won't chase unnecessary things and your time will become valued As a muslim we are taught to never forget death and accept that death happens at fixed time you can't move it by one second or escape it and you will pay exactly for what you did in this world And it help me in vanishing my fear of death and prevent me from bad things
Kou A.
10/31/2019 14:00dazai would love this
Areeba S.
10/29/2019 23:02why do I want to share this on the TL but can’t 😂
Naseer W.
10/29/2019 18:06You are also a death
Zulfiqar A.
10/29/2019 05:53Sleep is like death. We are not afraid to go to sleep so why be afraid of death? Just because we are not moving our body does not mean we are not living.
Mae M.
10/29/2019 04:49Is it just me that I find her voice irritating? Naaah, maybe just me. Hahahaha
Jorge E.
10/29/2019 04:22diosa asies
Mercado J.
10/29/2019 01:37nobody escapes in this world alive. we are born to die..
Johnny M.
10/28/2019 14:22motivational speech for terrorists..😁
Ry R.
10/27/2019 00:59*Commits suicide*
Deaa H.
10/25/2019 23:38Nice idea
Raziv K.
10/23/2019 09:39Haha 😆 haha
Alvin D.
10/22/2019 01:54This fear of dying gives religion leaders more power.. they promise life after death so that they may increase patronage.. but in reality when we die we just die.. no such thing as heaven or hell.. THIS IS OUR ONLY LIFE MAKE IT WORTH WHILE