VideoIf you can’t say it, don’t legislate it.

As the War on Women rages on, anti-woman forces – primarily a cadre of ultra-conservative men – continue to beef up their offensive troops. They now have Paul Ryan “a no abortions ever” kind of guy, teaming up with Mitt “I’ve always been pro-life” Romney, and together, they’ve created a party platform that represents the biggest threat to Roe v Wade we’ve seen thus far.

New to the frontline, we’ve been introduced to the rogue soldier, Representative Todd Akin, a Missouri candidate for the U.S. Senate. In a recent interview, Rep. Akin was seen munching on a tasty foot in his mouth as he expressed his belief that in most cases of “legitimate” rape, “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” thereby preventing pregnancy. Sadly, he isn’t the only politician who actually believes this absurd theory, nor does he stand alone in his justification for excluding rape-induced pregnancies in legislation that would restrict abortion funding.

Though our battles have escalated in the 2012 presidential campaign, women have long been besieged by fundamentalist religious groups, a male-dominated government, and society at large. It wasn’t until the 19^th Amendment was ratified in 1920, that women were granted the right to vote. Finally, we were allowed to raise our political voices, even if we would not be spared continuing efforts to silence us. We’re now all too aware that a strong declaration of opinion can lead to consequences. The duality of our political system was clearly exposed when Michigan’s State Rep. Lisa Brown, was censured for using the word “vagina” during a debate on abortion rights. Politicizing the word “vagina” helped mobilize many of us who had grown a little too accustomed to minding our manners.

If you can say it, display it.

Women have continued to say “vagina.”

Some even seek to destigmatize other descriptive terms for female genitalia, speaking – what may still be to many – the unspeakable. Others, the more demonstrative among us, are showing their vaginas (or vaginae…) to the world in a no-skirt-lifting fashion, through various forms of artistic expression. Vagina art may not be a new concept, but it is a window to society’s changing regard for women throughout history – from divine worship to oppression and repression.

Instead of conforming to expectations of “good girl” behavior, we’re seeing an emergence of newly empowered and emboldened women who have set up their easels, raided granny’s baskets of crochet hooks, knitting needles, embroidery kits, and hauled the sewing machines down from the attic. The results, as seen in the examples we’ve collected, evoke a broad range of emotions. Laughter. Anger. Sadness. Pride. Each creative effort celebrates the artistry of the individual as well as our collective identity. All have been inspired by “the sacred source of life” –the vagina.

Slideshow Music Courtesy JSP Records “Mama Don’t Allow It” by Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends; Images: Not Your Average Hooker, Hypgnosis, Shine Maverick Jewelry, Hypgnosis, Johnny B Wilde,  Expired Goods, Scarlet Tentacle, Purple Hippo Stitches, I Wear Party Hats, spidercamp, Irma Diaz/SourOctopus, TheVaginaZine, The Tie Dye Bohemian, Alex Florschutz, Adrien Art, Tina Casebeer/wikit626, ©Carrie Reichardt, Alex Florschutz, Woman In Bloom, thepixelrat, The Voting Box , VJazzle, Bridesmaids, Wedding Dress, Protest/CODEPINK, ©Ursula Kölle, Cupcakes, Body Parts Poster, Pink Flannel by Daria, Graffiti, Stenciled Tees/#waronwomen, ampule, the moss girl, ©Lydia Shalanko, Protest/CODEPINK, Scarlet Tentacle, Pochos Cosas, Vulva Love Lovely, Sinful Soap Favors, Family Tree Glass, Delicious Accessories

The post Women Launch an Artful Counter-Offense on the Vagina Battlefront appeared first on EcoSalon.

Show some Olympic spirit with these limited-edition bangles, inspired by the Olympic rings and made entirely from bomb shards.

The start of the 2012 London Olympics will be celebrated with a lavish opening ceremony on Friday.Whether or not you’ll be following along on the television, you can show your Olympic pride by wearing these limited-edition Peacebomb bangles from Article22.

Created in honor of the unity and spirit of Olympic competition, the bangles are inspired by the Olympic rings, which were designed in 1912 and debuted at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics and represent the five continents involved in the games. Like all pieces in Article22’s Peacebomb collection, each bracelet is made in Laos, entirely out of melted bomb shards. The bangles are hand cast by artisans who collect scrap metal from the 250-260 million bombs that were dropped over the Laos countryside during the Vietnam War and wrapped with nylon (colors) or leather cord (black).

For each Peacebomb product sold, Project Peacebomb donates funds equivalent to the cost of clearing 1 to 15 square meters of land in Laos from unexploded bombs. In true Olympic spirit, you are also helping people in war-torn areas of the world earn a living wage.

Available for $20 for a single and $90 for the whole continents set from Article22.

The post Recycled Bomb Shards Become Olympic Bangles appeared first on EcoSalon.

Carrying the torch for green.

In a London Olympics 2012 poster titled “being greener”, the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games vows to keep this year’s Games eco-friendly.

London’s Olympic Park will be one of the biggest city parks newly constructed in Europe for more than 150 years. The Games will host 26 Olympic events, 20 Paralympic events, 14,700 athletes, 21,000 media, and 10.8 million ticket holders. While it will inevitably boost the city’s economy, the strain on resources is unavoidable. The Organizing Committee is working hard to maintain a high level of sustainability despite all that needs to be constructed, and the the “being greener” poster is a representation of London’s conscious efforts to make its Olympics the greenest of them all.

The Park will be equipped with some of the most cutting-edge technology to curtail the Games’ greenhouse gas emissions, preserve the natural habitat surrounding the area, as well as to recycle, reuse and reduce all waste. In a pamphlet distributed by the Organizing Committee, the extent of London’s green efforts are detailed.

• 20% of the energy used on the Olympic Park will come from renewable sources
• 4,000 newts and hundreds of toads have been removed from the Park to be protected
• 90% of the materials from the demolition of building in the Olympic Park have been recovered so they can be reused or recycled.
• 50% of materials that are being used to construct the Park will be transported by water or rail, saving thousands of trips on local roads.
• A 120-meter wind turbine in the Park will produce enough electricity for 1,000 homes
• 80 lampposts, 2 tons of red bricks, and 76 tons of paving stones will be saved for reuse on the Park.
• A 3-kilometer footpath and cycle-way will be improved for the local population as well as wildlife.
• Rubbish was removed from 8.35 kilometers of waterways running through the Olympic Park
• 45 hectares of wildlife habitats will be left on and around the Park after the games

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

The post How London is Keeping the 2012 Olympics Sustainable appeared first on EcoSalon.

The shoppy ones? Check, please.

As if to match the excess of cakes and cookies and champagne of the holidays, the run up to the new year has been a media glut of roundups, predictions, trend pieces, and years-in-review – and not just at EcoSalon. Today is the first day of 2012, and while our managing editor has reminded me it’s better late than never for my own take on all the things, I’m not sure it’s better on the whole, on account of what I’ve learned in the process of writing this article.

I’ve learned that if you Google “culture trends 2012” to research ideas for this article, you will turn up all sorts of trend forecasts, pages and pages of them, only they will not have anything at all to do with culture: not the kind of culture you wrote thirty pages about in graduate school that in hindsight seems so much less annoying than Powerpoint, not the hipster-meets-highbrow culture of McSweeney’s and Harper’s and the New Yorker of which you are so publicly fond, not even the pop culture slizzurp of “Last Friday Night” and dubstep of which you are merely privately fond in your car at extremely loud volumes until you pull up to a stop sign.

No, if you search for anything about cultural trends to attempt to pull together a thoughtful few paragraphs, you will instead be directed to all things consumer. Specifically, what consumers are going to want. And how to sell it to them more. You don’t even need to search “consumer trends” to learn about consumer trends. “Cultural trends 2012” gets you the same ample linkbelly of commercial conflation:

Business News Daily ranks second in the first page of Google search results returned for my search on “cultural trends” despite having nothing at all to do with culture and everything to do with, I see what you did there, consumption. And this goes on and on for pages, for any number of culture trend related searches, on multiple engines. It would appear the most important cultural trends to watch in 2012 are the ones that make people shop, or help us understand how and why and where and when they shop or what they’re going to expect from their shop experience as they shop. And, shopping.

Has my Latin grown so rusty I’ve forgotten “culture” and “consumption” are one in the same? No, just my American.

The trouble with digging up meaningful ideas as societal guideposts for the coming year is that the sort of people and publications discussing these things aren’t about to do it in an easy-to-glean listicle for our ADHD-in-an-app convenience. The listicle, then, is the baby of the Marketing Firm PDF and FaceHuffBeastTwit.

There are the tech topics: screens, apps, mobile, are-we-or-are-we-not-doing-QR, all of which kind of makes me want to hurl my iPad at the next kid with a beard and a flannel shirt that is supported (crucially) by an arm band. The internet is the greatest thing, and the most important thing, of our lives. Think Wikileaks and the Arab Spring; think mass reorganization of production and the coming end of The Job; think information at your fingertips and GPS when you get lost. That doesn’t make me want to hurl my magical, revolutionary device. What does? That if they censor the internet, we will simply build a new one. That we shouldn’t just make more internet, but better internet.

There are the color trends of Pantone, where mugs help remind you that orange is for so much more than just annual squash slaughter. It’s for your stuff in your house, too! There are the 10 consumer trends of JWT, key among them: food as the defining eco issue to watch, the engineering of randomness for delight and discovery, and marriage? Optional. (Which would seem rather more like culture and less like consumer.)

Style, you’re going to need a cocktail (ring). There are Coolhunter, Coolhunting, Polyvore, PSFK. There are the glossy fashion predictions and Tumblr trendhunters and street style bloggers ad infinitum.

There are the inevitable, but inevitably useful, portmanteaus. Flawsome: Grow up, angry customer, and adore ye slightly imperfect but authentic brands, you’ll feel more human. Aw. Recommerce: One woman’s remorse purchase is another woman’s Craigslist score. Maturialism: Because we’re grownups and we can talk about sex without referring to it as “riding the ride.”

There are the gems.

The excellent curation of Paola DeLuca for IED Firenze, whose Trend Book is filled with exceptional insights into four distinctive cultural personality types: the Alter-Eco (nature, localized, junk to funk), the Lessential (transparency, cutting edge, all in one), the Youniverse (androgyny, moi, je joue), the Showstopper (electrofied, geomatrix, stating your status). They speak to the continuing importance of design in our lives, the electric vitality in indulging a superficial yet essential joy that is playful and exuberant over narcissistic and…Kardashian.

A pop lyric I caught on the radio months ago still pings in my skull: “La, la, la, whatever!” is the chorus from “Tonight, Tonight.” Song writing of this kind should be grounds for a visit to the shrink, yet it isn’t. We can all, for the love of god, lighten up now: A burst of innocence is hardly exclusive to an inner life. We’re going to want, and need, both.

Gaping Void: Hugh MacLeod’s prescient insights into mediocrity (including Kathy Sierra!) and millionaires.

There are the rising cultural trends. Some poised to burst, some nascent, some redux, some radical, some required, some holistic: cities, mobile, populism, intuition, connection that allows for silence, integrity in every sense. (We’ll explore all of these in 2012.)

There are the new definitions. It’s going to be good to be gay, and not just for our voyeuristic decorating pleasure on a cable television show. How about them genders? Men are far from over (really, really, really), but women are hot, hot, hot (so nevermind the TechCrunch games, which will soon be an embarrassment). What is an American, anyway? Rick Perry and his ilk are on the wrong side of history.

There are new roles for us all, and we’ll be talking about it a lot.

A word about green. There will be the arguments in environmentalism, from consumption and media to marketing and energy policy. We must learn that “borrowing a page” – modeling – is no recipe for innovation but is simply doing the same old thing with a green sticker slapped on it; we must understand that no end justifies any means, for the means are ends themselves. We must learn that myopic sacrifice is asking people to participate in cult, not culture. We must accept that luxury can be our word. Luxury is simplicity and sustainability, it is living well and doing well, it is intent and heart over letter and law.

There are the messy bits to get through first. I fear reality television will only get worse before we all get better. Teen moms? Toddler beauty pageants? There will be so many apps, we will have apps just to organize our apps, and “There’s an app for that” will become the new “That’s what she said,” if it hasn’t already. And let’s not forget the Election. Obama will win, but not before the politicians and pundits execute their special mission to exhaust us by March with the exact same black/white, red/blue “thinking” they’ve traded in for the last twenty years. This time, we won’t just change the channel – we’ll create different ones. (Moveon.org 2008? Only the beginning.)

Messy. But we’ll begin to appreciate this, gradually finding confidence and inspiration – even laughter – in the emergence of real argument. I suspect that in place of Maturialism in the trend forecasts for 2013, we may just see Maturity.

And on the other side, men and women will begin to breathe – or at least text – a little easier around each other. We’ll learn that people do give a damn about the planet (nearly every major American city will work to ban the plastic bag, we’ll finally catch on to the fish problem, and everyone will want companies to recycle their used products).

And most important, Grandpa will finally learn to Google it himself.

Image: Patrick Hoesly

The post And the Most Important Trends to Watch in 2012 Are… appeared first on EcoSalon.

What we’re committing to in the new year. 

Although we believe that every day is the chance to make a change – resolutions, as we all know, tend to get broken – the annual transition in the new year does give us a clean slate. It’s a time of reflection and renewal, the chance to move forward with better intentions, more energy and a new creative spirit.

To celebrate this transition, we gathered New Year’s tips from the EcoSalon team. They’re not resolutions, simply thoughts on living, loving and breathing better in the coming year.

Here’s what we came up with:

My rules to live by in 2012: Unkink whatever’s tight, be on time every time, write words people want to read, refuse to date bad kissers, wear high heels and don’t go foolin’ folks. –Sara Ost

Don’t make your New Year’s resolution about you. Before last year, my resolutions had always fallen in the self-improvement vein: “exercise more,” “eat healthier,” and “quit biting my nails” (16 years and counting!). Last year, I decided to make just one resolution, and it wasn’t about me. I resolved to be more conscious about how my spending habits affect other people and the environment. Over the last year, the resolution has snowballed, resulting in less consumption, more environmental awareness, better eating habits, and ultimately a career change, move to Southeast Asia, and new small business. This year was one of fundamental growth, and it started by thinking less about my world and more about the world around me. –Jessica Marati

I’m going into 2012 with an open heart and by open heart I mean, if I see you and I like you I’m going to tell you how wonderful you are. And if I don’t like you, I’m going to shut my mouth. –Amy DuFault

This tip is really from my father: Every day when you wake up you have a choice – you can choose to be in a bad mood and make it a bad day or you can choose to be in a good mood and make it a good day. Always choose happiness. It’s so simple, and if you give it you will get it. –Johanna Björk

Make a point of stopping for a moment every day, however busy or stressed you are: take 10 minutes to sit down with a cup of something and R-E-L-A-X. Pause the brain and body. Not at the computer, or with the TV or radio on. Just clear your mind, let the peace wash over and invigorate you, and then start anew. –Fiona Flores Watson

My motto for the year is, “get up to something and get on with it.” No more lingering about after the alarm bell has sounded. Greet each day with the promise that you will live it in action and with intention. If you’re going to write a book, save the world, start a project, trim your thighs, quit smoking, get more exercise, find yourself, so on and so forth – just get on with it already! Time’s a wasting. –K. Emily Bond

Be intentional so that you can bring passion and creativity into everything that you do. And of course, as my mother says: celebrate often. –Anna Brones

For 2012, I hope to continue my ongoing pursuit of doing a better job of being present. “Just this, just this, this room where we are. Pay attention to that. Pay attention to who’s there, pay attention to what isn’t known there, pay attention to what is known there, pay attention to what everyone is thinking and feeling, what you’re doing there, and pay attention. Pay attention.” – W.S. Merwin, The Buddha –Scott Adelson

I heard this acronym the other day that I keep saying to myself. Hope – h- help, o-other, p-people, e- everyday. I’d like to try to live up to this in 2012! Happy new year! –Sofie Sausser

Forget resolutions, just promise yourself that you’re going to do one big thing that will make your life happier. The details of that goal might change every single month, and all the better, as long as you ultimately accomplish something good. Last year, for me, was all about letting go of expectations and this year I’m committing to being more active in every way: getting outdoors more often, starting more creative projects, being more involved in the community and just generally becoming more present and engaged. –Stephanie Rogers

I’d like to continue lurching into adulthood, I suppose. Be on time to all things? Also, I vow to spend more time on the Internet. –Mallory Ortberg

Get things wrong. Screw up on a regular basis. Why? Because it’s the only road to wisdom, and the only way to learn something deep enough to sink into your habitual DNA. Also? It’s embarrassing. So get it out the way, quick. –Mike Sowden

“The cure for the ill is not to sit still or browse with a book by the fire; but to take a large hoe and a shovel also, and dig till you gently perspire.” –Kipling. I resolve to dig into the soil in 2012 and become a healthy gardener, hoping the Kipling path will let me not only heal but also heal others along the way. –Luanne Bradley

Lay down on the earth every chance you can, go barefoot outdoors as much as possible, and spend time in nature to keep your mind in order. –Abigail Wick

At the beginning of a new year, I used to list things I wanted to improve or accomplish during the year. I always kept my list secret, but it often included simple things like I should start exercising or touch up my English. But I also had more drastic goals such as quitting my job and start working on something totally different. During the year the list was tucked away and almost forgotten. In the beginning of the following year when it was time to make a new list, the old list was read. I was always amazed how many things from the list I actually fulfilled. –Johanna Kindvall

Erica Jong said: “Fling yourself in the flow. Don’t be afraid. The whole logic of the universe is contained in daring.” –Jane F. King Doe

Image: kevin dooley

The post Embrace the New Year…EcoSalon Style appeared first on EcoSalon.

This year was about looking good; next year will be about looking good beneath the surface.

If one underlying principle has defined this year, it’s this: in 2011, design was catapulted from something functional to something that got talked about. Aesthetics played a big role in our everyday lives – even vacuuming got sexy.

There are multiple reasons for this. The passing of Steve Jobs, for one, which prompted all of us to step back and marvel at how much our collective reality has shifted in the past three decades, not through sheer technological brawn alone but via the interface of minimalist design. Another: a surge in the popularity of crowd-sourced, crowd-funded projects and product innovations fueled by Kickstarter. Another still: “look book” themed photo sharing platforms like Pinterest, which have made the distribution of pretty objects that much more accessible.

Next year will continue to be a good year for designers, architects, curators, crafters and the like. But it will be a tough scene to penetrate as the consumer market is teetering on saturation. On the macro, look for large-scale service design oriented projects that will address systemic issues like materials and manufacturing (and this does not just translate to: more bamboo). On the micro, beauty will still abound, but with a keener focus on craftsmanship, story, and function.

Foretold by the Color Wheel

An interesting observation from Your Home Even Better prompted, in part, by a paint company. Granted. But, taking YHEB’s argument that the color palette consumers choose for the home is a “direct reflection of our environment,” consider this: according to Benjamin Moore Color Pulse 2012 report (also available as an App), next year’s color wheel will be ruled by the theme of preservation.

A slide from Color Pulse 2012. 

In interiors this could translate to a leaning towards indigenous patterns and embroidery.

A table runner from the Suki Cheema collection, a company that seeks objects that “highlight (sic) the love affair between art, travel and textiles.”

Also from Suki Cheema, embroidered throw pillows.

2012: London’s Calling

Expect London to step out in a big way this coming summer, not only through sport but the cultural Olympiad as well. Preceding the games is Clerkenwell Design Week followed by the London Design Festival. During the actual Olympics, the London 2012 festival promises to be the biggest celebration the city has ever seen commemorating international goodwill and gritty competition through the arts. The Arts Council has doled out a ton of dough, and twelve (get it 2012) of the UK’s top artists have already been handpicked to design the soon-to-be-iconic posters. Fab who? Prepare yourself for a new British invasion.

Posters designed by Bridget Riley, Howard Hodgkin, Rachel Whiteread and Patrick Brill (aka Bob and Roberta Smith).

Typography, Typography, Typography

And you thought 2007 was the year of typeface. Helvetica the movie was just the beginning. The design world’s love affair with typography will continue well into 2012.

Though we envisage mockery ahead. Remember, this phrase was coined here first: fontwashing.

As in, “Oh no. Another fontwashed bookshelf.”

Occupy: Design

September of 2011 ushered in the start of the stateside Occupy movement in Zuccotti Park. Things got serious, as there are logically, some serious issues at hand. Expect to see the same sentiment traced into design: industrial grays, high contrast, oxidized surfaces. Stirrings include this tongue-in-cheek coffee table from Max Arlestig and Maximilian Gebhardt and timepiece from Dominic Wilcox.

Gridded & Mapped

Expect to see grids and maps etched into just about everything, from quilts to napkins.

NYC and San Francisco grid quilts from Haptic Lab.

Lemondrop napkins from Soft Cities.

Shelter Sharing

An increased awareness about space and our place in it will usher in a new concept of house swapping: renting out excess space in our homes, with a boutique touch. Websites like StoreAtMyHouse.com and SpareFoot.com have been around for a while now; Craigslist remains a reasonably safe place to swap a walk-up for a Parisian flat. But note A Cabin in a Loft, one artist/designer/architect’s solution for short-term rentals in her Bushwick loft.

The one-room bed & breakfast is a viable alternative to hotels and hostels, and we predict other urban-based entrepreneurs out there will follow suit.

Luxury, Redefined

Maybe it’s Occupy, perhaps joblessness. Whatever the reason, the definition of luxury in 2012 will not come with a brand name attached. Summed up beautifully on Dexigner, next year “luxury will no longer be defined by excess and conspicuous consumption – now luxury means products with higher perceived value and increased practicality. Demonstrating this is the near-disappearance of the ‘logo-covered product.’ The face of luxury is becoming much more subtle, understated and less ostentatious.”

Pondichery Animal Trays from ibride with Rachel Convers. A luxurious way to eat cheese, for example.

It’s The End of the World…We’re Going to Be Fine

Per the Mayan calendar, which was based on a 5,125-year-long cycle, the world is scheduled to end on December 21, 2012. Depending on whether you’re a glass half-full or half-empty kind of person, “end of the world” could be classified as a positive, spiritually transformative kind of Armageddon or a very negative one, like an asteroid or earth’s collision with a planet called X. Either way, it’s best to plan ahead. Expect lots of doomsday party invitations or plan one in the comfort of your own home.

On a more somber note, however, as the trend of revering designers as latter-day soothsayers continues into 2012, the design community will probe beyond artifice making some deep conscious queries into how the state of design impacts and reflects the state of the world. Core77’s Apocalypse 2012 Series will be one to watch.

“Design has been complicit in moving us to [a] precipice…and certainly it alone will not be sufficient for pulling us back,” Core77’s Allan Chochinov writes. “We need to acknowledge the fact that this time, and our place in it, are truly remarkable: We are equipped with our most powerful tools, right when the world needs us most. This is an astounding proposition for design.”

And 2012 promises to be an extraordinary year to cover it.

This post is sponsored by House Moves: making house moving a cinch.

Images: Terry Ferguson; The Telegraph; Graphic ExchanGE; FreshHome; FreshHome; DeZeen; Haptic Lab; Soft Cities; A Cabin in a Loft; AhaLife; Zazzle

The post Trend Forecast: On the Home Front for 2012 appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnWhere celebrity becomes conscious.

Last weekend, I went to see “Battle: LA.” Yes, it is as bad as they say. But you wouldn’t have known it from my theater experience. As the Los Angeles skyline was taken out by aliens, my fellow theater goers cheered. This happens a lot when you see a movie in Hollywood proper amongst the people of the entertainment industry. Hell hath no fury like a boom operator on Two and a Half Men watching the Hollywood sign go up in flames.

Nonetheless, it’s not the embattled grips of Hollywood that drive big opening weekends. The apocalypse is the stuff of huge numbers. “Independence Day,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” and “2012” – all three, ahem, films grossed over half a billion dollars worldwide. Everyone seems to love a good ass-kicking, but why do we seem to love to watch our own asses get kicked? What is it about an apocalyptic plot-line that can inspire otherwise compassionate people to cheer on the end of the world?

Because hell, let’s face it. Sometimes the world really does end. While writing this, I’m periodically checking news updates on earthquake and tsunami-devastated Japan. (And again, here’s how to help.)  Though I can’t speak to their experiences, I can guess that the survivors of the recent Christchurch earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, or the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 would not be so easily entertained by “Battle: LA.” Or, say, Roland Emmerich’s ends of days in “The Day After Tomorrow,” “Independence Day,” or “2012.”

We’re not talking well-crafted, thoughtful story telling here. But I do remember almost walking out of the theater in 2003 when a trailer for “The Day After Tomorrow” played out for a captive audience. I felt sick at the images of a tidal wave racing through lower Manhattan, destroying everything in its path. Ugh, this is too soon, I whispered to my friend. Too soon after 9/11, I meant. The New York skyline was precious; I didn’t want it to be manhandled by Hollywood. Yes, even the crap-tacular Emmerich flick got my back up.  But then, I’m not exactly on the tough side when it comes to the “end of days” on film.

The first time I saw a disaster movie was actually on the television. It was the early ’80s and America was about to emerge triumphant in the Cold War, but we didn’t know it yet. So when “The Day After” aired on TV, it was big news.  The melodramatic made-for-TV movie starring Jason Robards told the story of ordinary Americans surviving a nuclear war in the American heartland. I sat down to watch it as a ten-year-old and proceeding to have the living shit scared out of me. You know, usual stuff for a child at the end of the Cold War.

And the result of viewing “The Day After” at such an impressionable age? First, I immediately declared myself a peace-loving hippie environmentalist. Here we are today. Second, I swore off disasters movies for the next twenty years. Besides playing out in the occasional night terror, nuclear war became a verboten topic. The idea of losing everything was enough for me. I didn’t need to pay to see it as entertainment on the big screen.

Fate came to call when I married a man who teaches apocalyptic literature. This challenged my movie choices. Sure, he would go with me to see Serious Period Drama in Petticoats starring Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchette, or Emma Thompson. But all this meant I had to trade on a new cinematic taste. Suddenly I was agreeing to set foot in theaters showing films where the planet would blow up. Aliens would invade. John Cusack would run through the streets heroically. How could I stand it?

As usual, Susan Sontag explains it all. In her essay “The Imagination of Disaster,” first published in the mid-1960s, Sontag discussed the thematic and subtexts of science fiction films from 1950 to 1965. As Sontag writes:

Ours is indeed an age of extremity. For we live under continual threat of two equally fearful, but seemingly opposed, destinies: unremitting banality and inconceivable terror. It is fantasy, served out in large rations by the popular arts, which allows most people to cope with these twin spectres. For one job that fantasy can do is to lift us out of the unbearably humdrum and to distract us from terrors – real or anticipated – by an escape into erotic, dangerous situations which have last-minute happy endings. But another of the things that fantasy can do is to normalize what is psychologically unbearable, thereby inuring us to it. In one case, fantasy beautifies the world. In the other, it neutralises it.

Ultimately, viewing the end of the world from the cheap seats merely allows us to exorcise our fears of it. After all, as environmentalists, we’re worriers by trade. Climate change, species extinction, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – these are the global concerns that we live with. But then our greatest fears are realized safely from the cheap seats, exorcised for just another day. For us, the observers, these movies speak to our fears and our will to live. Even though we’ll still watch safely from our seats, only to return home via Prius to check our urban gardens and personal composting experiment.

And yet, when a truly epic tragedy hits, we’re still left gaping in disbelief. For us, that sense that we’re safe in our seats feels uncomfortably familiar. But for the survivors and victims, it’s more real than we can ever comprehend. We can only admire the courage of survivors and hope that we would likewise persevere in a time of crisis. We try to relate on some level. But we really can’t. Who can, outside of someone who has survived the unimaginable? We can only hope that they will start over, as if everyone really does exist at the end of a Hollywood blockbuster.

And this is why the “end of days” blockbuster resonates. Hollywood always provides a hopeful ending. Jake Gyllenhaal reconciles with his father. Tom Cruise reunites his fractured family. John Cusack sails on to Africa with his formerly-estranged wife and children. There’s a definitive “ray of hope” shining among the wreckage. And this may be the only experience that can transcend film to reality – the only experience we can connect to. This ray of hope becomes magnified, transferred into the admiration of the bravery and perseverance of real-life survivors. And in this, the end of the world unites humanity today – and the day after tomorrow.

This is another installment in Katherine Butler’s column, Shade Grown Hollywood, where celebrity becomes conscious. “Shade grown” refers literally to shade grown coffee, a farming method that “incorporates principles of natural ecology to promote natural ecological relationships.” Shade grown is our sustainable twist on Hollywood.

The post Shade Grown Hollywood: Why We Love an Apocalypse Observed appeared first on EcoSalon.