2.15 Kim Landeen and Carolina Allen discuss the tenet ”We are empowered by our feminine nature and biology, and we honor our Procreative Power.”

Currents: the Big Ocean Women Podcast

Kim Landeen and Carolina Allen discuss the tenet “We are empowered by our feminine nature and biology, and we honor our procreative power.”

“I hope that this episode today can inspire and spark just gratitude for yourselves for anybody listening, any woman listening, that this is for you, and that you’re included.” – Carolina Allen

The Big Ocean Women definition of “mother” is: every woman who has the best interest of the rising generation at heart, and willingly gives of herself to nourish and protect the rising generation.

“In today’s standards, the word sacrifice, to put yourself kind of in the background so that something else can flourish and grow has become a really bad thing. But I want to highlight it as a really good and powerful thing.” – Carolina Allen

“I want that [menstruation] to be a celebrated time of life [for my daughters] when they do recognize that they’re coming into womanhood, a time when they’re recognizing their ability to create, which is such a divine power… my definition of divinity is something of creation.” – Kim Landeen

“I wish that everyone around the world, all young girls and women, had that kind of celebration and dignity in their menstruation.” – Carolina Allen

The Power of Days: A Story of Resilience, Dignity, and the Fight for Women’s Equity

Days For Girls

“One reason why I will never ever stop talking about biological reality is because women deal with it every single day, and it all starts with our menstruation. I refuse to be called a menstruator or a menstruating person. It’s extremely, extremely offensive, and it’s … psychologically gaslighting millions of women around the world. You can’t pick up and just divorce yourself from your biological reality. It’s just completely absurd.” – Carolina Allen

“The biological evolution of life is you start with menstruation, and hopefully there’s empowerment there. And when there’s empowerment there then there’s empowerment in other relationships that progress. So the relationship with intimacy and the beauty that can be had in our procreative power and … that we get to decide who is part of that process, that nothing is forced upon us, that we get to be very careful and meticulous gatekeepers of that power. … If there’s empowerment there then it’s built upon that foundation and then there’s empowerment in birth.” – Carolina Allen

“If women, if we step into that power and link arms as sisters, then the rest of society has to start shifting their perspective and worldview on who women are, and the power and strength that we have.” – Carolina Allen

“The highest level of power is influence.” – Carolina Allen

“The most generative and sustainable change happens generationally, and the gatekeepers of that generational change are mothers and women because of our sacrifice for the rising generation.” – Carolina Allen

“I love this idea of linking arms together because through this struggle, through these joys, through this experience of motherhood, we have or should have sisters in our lives. We should have Aunties. We should have Grandmothers. There should be this intergenerational connection, and whether that occurs in a biological family … or you create that, I think it is of a vast importance to have multiple different ages of women leading and guiding and holding hands together as we raise these precious, precious children.” – Kim Landeen

“We as individuals, as independent actors have the choice to be a victim and/or to grow from that experience. And to take that experience and say, you know what I am going to make it better; I'm going to make it better for me; I'm going to make it better for my kids.” – Kim Landeen

“The word sacrifice really embodies that you’re setting something aside for something greater in the future, and that’s a hope driven thing. That’s a faith-filled thing.” – Carolina Allen

“Everything can be taken from a man [or woman] but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” – Viktor Frankl

“Your children will never get another childhood, and you are the one that can facilitate and create that for them, thus healing your past self.” – Carolina Allen

Carolina Allen is the founder and Exective Director of Big Ocean Women, the international maternal feminist organization representing perspectives of faith, family, and motherhood throughout civil society. Carolina holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Utah with an emphasis in cultural religions and philosophy of science. Her inspirational and philosophical work has been presented at various international U.N. conferences. She is a native of Brazil, and a fluent trilingual. She and her husband Kawika are parents to 7 children. She is an avid soccer fan and had a brief career as a semi-professional player.

Kim Landeen is a founding member and a Global Team Director of Big Ocean Women, the international maternal feminist organization representing perspectives of faith, family, and motherhood throughout civil society. Kim has a deep love for the natural world. She lives in Alaska with her family where she enjoys spending the slower paced life with her children combing the beach for treasures, gardening, picking wild berries, and spending rainy lazy days making bread, reading books, and watching movies. She is an ecotour captain in Glacier Bay National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site where she helps educate her clients on the relationship between humanity and the larger eco-environment. In addition to her love of nature, she also enjoys studying theology and the inner workings of the soul as well as tracking global political and social movements. Her love for God, people, and this world drives her to continually seek to improve her own circumstances and the circumstances of all those with whom she comes in contact.