Wild Mama Interview #1: Heather Cushman-Dowdee

I can’t imagine how someone could possibly NOT be familiar with today’s Wild Mama, but just in case-do yourself a favor and visit: www.thecowgoddess.com, and www.mama-is.com to get familiar. Her work is fantastic, and her social/political stances unyielding. Heather says with a megaphone what many of us mothers only whisper to each other.

Heather is a mother-extraordinaire, business-womyn, writer, artist and without a doubt, a force to be reckoned with. I am thrilled to have her as the “kick-off” interviewee in this new series! (To find out how to recommend someone for an interview, please see the bottom of this post!)

 So without further hesitation: HEATHER CUSHMAN-DOWDEE!!! (applause, shriek,whistle,applause)…

Heather, what led you to comics as a creative medium?

I’m trained as a painter actually, and would never have chosen comics as a medium. Too low brow. But here I am, I think they chose me. Also, to be perfectly open and honest, I was raised on Archie comics and Mad Magazine. In Junior High I was voted girl “most likely to work at Mad Magazine”, it seems to fit that I’m now notorious for a drawing a woman in a cow mask.

2) How long have you been drawing/writing comics?

I originally came up with Hathor while in graduate school starting, oh, about 1999ish. I painted her, sculpted her, and performed as her in galleries around Florida. I’ve been doing the comics in their current form since 2001, I had just completed graduate school and I had two young kids and a 500 square foot apartment. I started creating the comics on 81/2 x 11 paper with sharpie pens because it was a last resort, I had to create and it was the easiest most available thing I could do!

3) What was the topic of your first comic?

It was called Terrorism and the responses to… http://www.thecowgoddess.com/2008/09/14/terrorism2002-classic/
4) If you could change one thing about the way the world works, what would it be and why?

The world would have probably stopped about a few hundred years ago, and we’d all live in villages with local goods, midwives, and a strong sense of place. Maybe a bit of farming, but no starving if you just wanted to make comics and not plow the fields. We’d of course still have the internet, and there’d be no plague.  My village would need to be near the coast so that there’s be plenty of surfing for my dearest husband.

5) What one thing would you say to the soon to be new president Obama if you had 5 minutes of uninterrupted time with him?

5 minutes, huh? I’d probably start by talking homebirth, it’s the gateway issue and without the right to birth how and where we feel safest, the other issues just get farther and farther away from our grasp. I’d try to segue into homeschooling because it’s another issue that he could probably use to be educated about. But really neither of those things have much to do with his power….so really if I think about it, what we need is an economy that makes it so that families don’t have to work so hard to make ends meet. If mothers and fathers could put food on the table and a roof over their heads for  a LOT less, we might see a revival of strong attached families and communities.

6) Who would you love to have lunch with?

Peggy O’Mara, if I’m going to talk parenting. Bono if I just wanna talk. (My dearest husband can come too, no tricky business I promise)

7) What inspires you and your topics?

My daughters of course. Though the day to day ideas come from breaking stories, news articles that people send me, action alerts. And weirdly enough I get a lot of ideas from Adbusters magazine and books that really aren’t about parenting, but the ideas can be applied to the cause. LIke books about Simplifying, or being Idle.

What is one thing you’d like people to know about you?

That I’m not the most radical person I know. That if you meet me in real life I’m really quite NORMAL, and I’m far more tolerant in real life of differences in parenting than most people would assume.

9) Top two Pet Peeves?

 People who come to kid friendly events around Los Angeles, but leave their kid at home with the nanny. Don’t get me started, I knew a woman here for 3 months and her 9 year old son, before I knew she had a 1 year old at home. That makes me go grrrrrrrr. Another mother had a baby and I thought she had lost it, I was sooooooo sorry for her, because I saw her at the park repeatedly with her older kids, for hours at a time. I finally asked someone what had happened to the baby to find that everything was fine, the baby was home with the nanny. double grrrrrrrr.
People who hate women and children and seem to think that it’s okay to use rude and abusive language about us. Like calling babies ’spawn’ and mothers ‘breeders’ and so on and so forth. They’re meanies and morons.

10) As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I always wanted to be an artist and a mother.

11) What are you wearing on your feet right now?

Birkenstocks.

12) What are the things you most hope your kids will learn from you?

To trust themselves, to be self-sufficient. To be able to handle anything that comes their way.

13) What are the specific things you most hope they’ll remember about you?

My endearing sense of humor, my uncanny ability to forget things and seem a little lost and confused, and my sense of justice and righteous indignation (as a good thing) AND that I loved them more than anything else.

14) What is the greatest lesson your kids have taught you?

That I knew NOTHING until they were born.

 15) Have you always been an attachment parent? Has it been a process of discovery for you?

It took me a while to know what I was doing, I carried my baby in a car seat carrier for the first few weeks for instance and only started using a sling a couple of months in, but I was luckier than most that I was able to find the information I needed pretty quickly. I thank La Leche League for all of that.

16) What is the most challenging part of this parenting style? Was it a journey for your husband?

My husband has a lot of faith in me and has always been very supportive of my choices, and when he balks I can be very persuasive. Plus, I have a stubborn streak a mile wide. We spent 8 months in Bali, Indonesia right before we had our first baby, and so we saw this lifestyle modeled there. That made it easier to GET the paradigm shift for both of us.

18) If you could wish one thing for the daughters of the world, what would it be?

That they would never ever hear a degrading word. And that they would never need to be told that they are good enough. I want them to take everything for granted.

19) Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?

Certainly, I’m absolutely a feminist. Women are ultimately superior to all other genders. Unfortunately we’ve been spending a lot of time trying to be equal, which is really a step backward.
20) You’re very successful in your journey-an example of someone who followed her passion. Any advice for women looking to begin or further their business?

My advice would be that you have to give up the idea that your children need all your focus and energy. Sure, babies do, but as kids get older though they still need their parents constant contact,  they also need to see you busy with your own lives and passion and work. I recommend mothers find a way to work with their children by their side (heck, fathers too). The children thrive under this kind of scenario, becoming creative and independent and coming up with their own passions and dreams…All families should have a work studio!

Thank you Heather, for your contribution to this world!

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Do you know a mother who is a “Wild Mama”? We’re looking for the best of the best-activists, entrepreneurs, mothers, artists, creative souls, visionaries…. If you know someone who fits into this category, please contact us to recommend them!

Tags: activism, AP, art, attachment parenting, Hathor Cowgoddess, Heather Cushman-Dowdee, interview, mompreneur