Today, Caitlin Doughty of the Ask a Mortician YouTube channel posted a video discussing the fact that her recent video, a long form documentary style video on the 1915 disaster of the SS Eastland in Chicago, the story of which has largely been forgotten, was given a community guidelines violation. It did not violate the guidelines YouTube has claimed it did, or any guidelines. But the video was essentially shadow banned. Caitlin is, of course, a mortician, and also a death-postive advocate and educator. Her entire channel is about education and honest discussion of death. The SS Eastland video was the product of months of work by her and her team in collaboration with historians and relatives of victims of the Eastland. An educational documentary that had the sole purpose bringing light to a forgotten tragedy and remembering the victims has been hidden away from all but those who know right where to look for it. The video is below, please watch it and share so this story isn't forgotten.

"A massive ship, an unthinkable tragedy, a chance to make sure the victims of the SS Eastland aren't lost to time."

Edit: the embedded video won't play because it's been age restricted :| of course. here's the link: https://youtu.be/UCHt2MOVCbg

Landis Blair, illustration from From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty

At almost any location in any major city on Earth, you are likely standing on thousands of bodies. These bodies represent a history that exists, often unknown, beneath our feet. While a new Crossrail station was being dug in London in 2015, 3,500 bodies were excavated from a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century cemetery under Liverpool Street, including a burial pit from the Great Plague of 1665. To cremate bodies we burn fossil fuel, thus named because it is made of decomposed dead organisms. Plants grow from the decayed matter of former plants. The pages of this book are made from the pulp of raw wood from a tree felled in its prime. All that surrounds us comes from death, every part of every city, and every part of every person.

Death avoidance is not an individual failing; it’s a cultural one. Facing death is not for the faint-hearted. It is far too challenging to expect that each citizen will do so on his or her own. Death acceptance is the responsibility of all death professionals—funeral directors, cemetery managers, hospital workers. It is the responsibility of those who have been tasked with creating physical and emotional environments where safe, open interaction with death and dead bodies is possible.

— From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death, Caitlin Doughty

Caitlin Doughty (Ask a Mortician) does such important work with her youtube channel and her nonprofit Order of the Good Death, as well as the books she’s written (I’ve read them all).

She is also bringing awareness to how cruelly animals are treated in this video she just posted. Animals continue to perform for people to this day.

Please keep in mind it’s heartbreaking and hard to watch but I think it important.

Also, youtube is treating her and her channel like a pariah and she depends on her patrons.

YouTube has taken her videos down before.

Even if you don’t watch this particular video I think she’s doing such vital work and changing the way we confront death. So check her channel out!

And check out:

design for the track ‘fall for me’ by sleep token | whale fall | from here to eternity, caitlin doughty | midtnight mass, mike flanagan | the amber spyglass, philip pullman

Title: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & other Lessons from the Crematory

Author: Caitlin Doughty

Pages: 272

"Armed with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre, Caitlin Doughty took a job at a crematory and turned morbid curiosity into her life's work. She cared for bodies of every colour, shape, and affliction and became an intrepid explorer in the world of the dead. In this best-selling memoir, brimming with gallows humour and vivid characters, she marvels at the gruesome history of undertaking and relates her unique coming-of-age story with bold curiosity and mordant wit. By turns hilarious, dark, and uplifting, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes reveals how the fear of dying warps our society and "will make you reconsider how our culture treats the dead" (San Francisco Chronicle)."

I partly read this book as research for my own story ideas, but also because those things (that other people might think of as macabre) always have interested me.

It's quite fascinating. Doughty talks about how we see and cope with death as well as our misconceptions and stereotypes.

I can only recommend that you read it - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes will answer questions and make you question your perception of death simultaneously.

Two quotes from the book:

"But ignorance is not bliss, only a deeper kind of terror."

"The meaning of life is that it ends." (quoted after Franz Kafka, as mentioned in the book as well)

emily axford and caitlin doughty look like the same person but in a different font

i fucking hate caitlin doughty

since when is the funeral industry on anon in MY INBOX?

jokes aside tho i was gonna delete this and then realized it's a great excuse to recommend to everyone this interesting video about caitlin, her work and the funeral industry titled "does the funeral industry really hate caitlin doughty". especially recommended to my follow deathlings from outside usa because there is an interesting mention of people who aren't american getting some false ideas about funeral industries in their own countries which is a fair criticism! although i think caitlin tends to make it clear what is exclusively (or largely) an issue only in the american funeral industry and i think it's moreso just another case of american cultural hegemony around the world if anything. you can't really blame caitlin herself for focusing on the country she lives in and the realities she's most familiar with. but anyways. give this video a watch

[Image transcription: A screenshot of a Youtube video by Ask A Mortician, the host Caitlin Doughty looks into the camera as a graphic of ocean waves with colorful candies floating atop stretches across the bottom border of the frame. The relevant part of the caption reads, "Sea life and birds were like (What are these floating treats?)". The rest of the caption is the beginning of Caitlin's next sentence and reads, "This is all to say" before cutting off. End transcription]

Source

Those of you who follow Caitlin Doughty probably know this already, but right now my state (Texas) is fighting for the right to cremate remains using alkalyne hydrolysis (water cremation or 'aquamation.') More info here. https://www.cremation.green/water-cremation-is-illegal-in-texas-but-why/

With all the battles being fought for bodily autonomy right now regarding reproductive rights and trans + queer rights, let's not forget about the right to decide what happens to your body when you die. Right now, Texans who opt for water cremation as part of their death plan are left with no choice but to have their loved ones ship their body to one of the 21 states where water cremation is legal.

Water cremation is an affordable alternative to embalming and burial, much like traditional cremation. Because water cremation uses water instead of fire to dissolve human remains, many feel it is a 'gentler' process, and because the water is recycled into the sewer system and does not create greenhouse gases, some wish to choose water cremation as a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional cremation.

Anyone can sign this petition. While I apologize if this is a morbid topic, we deserve the right to decide what happens to our bodies when we die just as much as when we are alive.

We are fighting hard for S.B 105 and H.B. 2895 to become law. Please share and sign if you can.

corpse disposal - the elements

air: sky burial

water: aquamation

fire: open air funeral pyre

earth: composting

In Toraja, during the period of time between death and the funeral, the body is kept in the home. That might not sound particularly shocking, until I tell you that period can last from several months to several years. During that time, the family cares for and mummifies the body, bringing the corpse food, changing its clothes, and speaking to the body.

The first time Paul ever visited Toraja, he asked Agus if it was unusual for a family to keep a dead relative in the home. Agus laughed at the question. “When I was a child, we had my grandfather in the home for seven years. My brother and I, we slept with him in the same bed. In the morning we put his clothes on and stood him against the wall. At night he came back to bed.”

Paul describes death in Toraja, as he’s witnessed it, not as a “hard border,” an impenetrable wall between the living and the dead, but a border that can be transgressed. According to their animistic belief system, there is also no barrier between the human and nonhuman aspects of the natural world: animals, mountains, and even the dead. Speaking to your grandfather’s corpse is a way to build a connection to the person’s spirit.

— From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death, Caitlin Doughty

Honestly shout out to Caitlin Doughty for being the funniest mortician in the entire business while also not being afraid of giving honest answers

- excerpts from "Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about Death" by Caitlin Doughty

Inktober Day 29: Midnight Gospel

Guys look! It's the personification of Death that's obviously fun at parties! In all seriousness, I loved the Midnight Gospel series and the character of Death, voiced by Caitlin Doughty, was my favorite by far. Please check out the Midnight Gospel on Netflix, you'll have a good time! Also, Caitlin Doughty has a YouTube channel (Ask a Mortician) which is also really cool and informative.

Song of the Day:

I thought I was very open to different cultures' ways of dealing with death and funerary rituals and that the book I'm reading, From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty, would be enlightening but certainly not shocking

Certainly, I would not be appalled or gasp aloud by anything any culture practiced! I've heard it all - funerary cannibalism, sacrifices, mummification - what could possibly shock me?

Welp

I got as far as page 56 before I was absolutely repulsed by a culture's death ritual, and I am now working through my feelings on that and trying to further expand my cultural understanding. I admit it though, I am not so enlightened as I thought. I got the heebie jeebies

There's like 200 pages left of this book. Who knows what else I'll encounter