This month’s Fierce Woman is Stefanie Iris Weiss, author of Eco-Sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable. She also maintains ecosex.net. Both of which educate women on the importance of greenifying your life — even in ways you may not have thought to before. In her book, Weiss even mentions the importance of using eco-friendlier feminine hygiene products like Maxim Hygiene. See our interview with Weiss below to understand exactly what makes her so FIERCE!
What compelled you to write Eco-Sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable?
Over the years, as my green friends grew even greener, I noticed that they were doing all the right eco-things — except when it came to their sex lives. There was a huge disconnect — it was as if it all stopped with recycling and screwing in the right lightbulbs. I wanted to help them connect their bodies to their greater vision of a clean, green, sustainable planet. At the same time, I understood that those who were seemingly apathetic when it came to going green might, just might, be brought over to the good side if I lured them in with sex. If sex wouldn’t work — nothing would!
What are some of the key philosophies of the book?
The first is to start with your relationship to your own body. We think of sex and sexuality in terms of what we can do with or for our partners — and this includes how we use self-care products, how we shop for clothes, how we primp. (This is because we’re so often in the performative state, primed to make ourselves beautiful to please others.) Eco-Sex enables you to start with health as an entry point to a better sex life, beginning with what you slather on, eat, or put inside your body. Another key point is that consciousness is the key to making change — in the intimacy of our personal lives and relationships or in the way we interact with the world at large.
How important is it to spread the message about greener, safer health for women? What is the common reaction from women when you educate them on eco-friendly feminine products like Maxim Hygiene?
It’s one of the single most important possible lessons I can share. So many women pay too little attention to their periods, period. This is so integral to our health, our well-being, our self-esteem and of course, to our sex lives. I’ve been a huge advocate of healthy and safe feminine hygiene products since I read an article about Toxic Shock Syndrome when I was in high school. I insisted that my mother dump the OB tampons in favor of something unbleached, and that’s when my journey to awesome products like Maxim began. When I tell friends, colleagues and readers about healthy alternatives to the dangerous conventional products they’ve been using, they are quite grateful and often take notes.
Do you think it is hard to convince women to live healthier- greener lives?
I don’t. Once you begin to unravel the dangers inherent in conventional products, a light goes on in most women’s brains — why would they want to harm themselves when it’s so easy to find healthy, safe, green alternatives?
Do you find that women are more accepting to a natural lifestyle than men?
I do find that women tend to find they have more at stake. Since we’re the ones that have so much monthly maintenance to attend to. Women of childbearing age are reminded approximately every 28 days that our bodies need to be paid deep attention to, and thus our connection to the earth may be a bit more obvious. When you start with this, you eventually realize that it’s not just a once-a-month thing — your cycle is “talking” to you every day, and it makes you want to do nice things for your body every day.
How long have you lived a green life? What made you want to experience and faithfully live this lifestyle?
Even as a child and teenager, I was always interested in herbs and whatever DIY concoctions I could throw together in the kitchen — usually beauty stuff, so that fascination was already there. Then I read Francis Moore Lappe’s seminal book Diet for Small Planet when I was a teenager, and it truly changed my life — I’ve been a vegetarian for twenty years. Understanding the linkage between the consumption of meat, agribusiness, the health of my body, and the suffering of animals made me into a lifelong advocate for green causes. I also spent years scouring health food store shelves for healthy foods and personal care products, so I became an expert in terms of what works and what doesn’t. I know a lot about what herbs and holistic methods are best for particular ailments, etc.
What has been the biggest obstacle or struggle in writing Eco Sex?
Just the sheer amount of research I had to do — I tried so many things! But it wasn’t really a struggle, I’d say it was the most fun I’ve ever had writing a book. I mean really — people sent me organic chocolate, sex toys, perfume oils — what could be better?
What has been your biggest triumph?
I have really enjoyed meeting with readers and hearing that they’ve opened up to trying out veganism or vegetarianism, that they’ve gotten rid of all the paraben-laden products in their cabinets, that they’re thinking about their private lives in a bigger context. That old adage, “Think globally, act locally” is a great touchstone for this book. People begin to think REALLY locally — to the locale of their very own body and their partner’s body.
What is the most important message you wish to convey to our readers?
We have to bring the same urgency to our stewardship of the earth as we do to our sexual desires. We have to stop the short term thinking that is endemic to our society. We should move away from the “I need to get some as soon as possible” idea, and move to the paradigm of sustaining the planet, so that we can sustain our pleasure as well.
Maxim Hygiene defines a Fierce Woman as “a glorious female creature whose idea of beauty is hinged upon the idea that she can change the world with each choice, each moment, and each breath of her life.” Who in your life would you describe as a fierce woman and why?
The first person that pops into my mind is of course, my mother, who is ALL kinds of fierce. But since you all don’t know my mother, I’ll choose Isabella Rossellini. I had the opportunity to interview her last year for ABOVE magazine, and she truly blew my mind. She is equally kind, passionate about the planet and still one of the sexiest women alive at sixty. I only hope I can have a tiny little fraction of that woman’s fierceness when I get to be her age!
Be sure to visit Amazon.com to order your copy of Eco-Sex today! And while you’re there, shop for some Maxim Hygiene products!