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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.

10/05/2019 10:19 AM
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34 comments

  • Caleb N.
    04/20/2020 05:11

    This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard

  • Mustafe C.
    04/19/2020 14:01

    I 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 13:05

    I 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 20:22

    Accepting 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 14:00

    dazai would love this

  • Areeba S.
    10/29/2019 23:02

    why do I want to share this on the TL but can’t 😂

  • Naseer W.
    10/29/2019 18:06

    You are also a death

  • Zulfiqar A.
    10/29/2019 05:53

    Sleep 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 04:49

    Is it just me that I find her voice irritating? Naaah, maybe just me. Hahahaha

  • Jorge E.
    10/29/2019 04:22

    diosa asies

  • Mercado J.
    10/29/2019 01:37

    nobody escapes in this world alive. we are born to die..

  • Johnny M.
    10/28/2019 14:22

    motivational speech for terrorists..😁

  • Ry R.
    10/27/2019 00:59

    *Commits suicide*

  • Deaa H.
    10/25/2019 23:38

    Nice idea

  • Raziv K.
    10/23/2019 09:39

    Haha 😆 haha

  • Alvin D.
    10/22/2019 01:54

    This 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

  • Zizo A.
    10/21/2019 05:25

    I dont fear death and i wont life too

  • Abid S.
    10/21/2019 00:30

    Very revolutionary idea.

  • Azfar A.
    10/20/2019 19:02

    Death is the most beautiful truth

  • Anthony P.
    10/20/2019 13:25

    Then who's going to be afraid of god if they don't fear death?