I met Janne Robinson in 2014 in New York City. It was her first time ever in New York and she was soaking in the frenetic energy with a unique verve that belied the fact that she was also a complete fish out of water. Janne is a Canadian-born poet, who’s more at home in an old growth forest or a warm ocean with an endless set of head-high waves than a bustling city. Yet, she’s also a people’s poet. People, especially women, and the way society shapes them, fascinate her–it’s the fodder for her work. Her writing is electrified by her raw, provocative and outspoken voice. Over the years she’s garnered a strong following of both women and men inspired by her invitation to “Walk Tall” and live each day in the vulnerable power of their authentic truth. But when I first met Janne, I had actually never read her work. She was writing for a few online publications at the time and as two writers meeting, we started talking shop–exchanging notes on the projects we were each working on. She had me read one of her poems, which had already been published and read online over 1 million times. It was titled “This is For The Women Who Don’t Give a Fuck”. As I read each line, I saw them coming to life in a film. I saw different women from the streets of New York speaking each line. I urged her to cross over into video. Within less than 24 hours she already had over a dozen women from an open call on social media lined up to be featured in the film the very next day. Once again I was impressed by her verve and her commitment to actually make something happen – and so quickly! Together, on the streets of New York we produced the film version of “This is For the Women Who Don’t Give a Fuck”. It was produced in the same raw, off the cuff and authentic manner of Janne’s writing. Each woman got to choose the line that most resonated with her to read on camera. I spoke a line in the film and from that project a partnership was forged between Janne and RedFlag.org, the nonprofit platform for activism I launched in 2008. The film attracted hundreds of thousands of views and it was soon clear a movement was forming. Shortly after Janne launched the platform “This is for the Woman” to encompass all her creative, leadership and coaching work. The next film we produced together was also based on a poem Janne had written titled “I Will Never Be A Well Behaved Woman”. She took the reigns on this film with a clear vision to engage a community she had been building through her time living and working in Costa Rica. One the film was finished we spent a few years trouble-shooting with the filmmaker who had possession of the footage. In the meantime, we watched women’s voices get louder and louder around us through an array of global movements that sparked us to the core. Though slightly delayed in its launch, the film feels more timely ever. RedFlag.org is so honored to be part of its creation and to have the privilege to share it on our platform. Janne and I have now become dear friends and in preparation for the launch of “I Will Never Be A Well Behaved Woman” we shared a dialog around the meaning behind the work, the experience creating the film and what’s driving Janne and her work right now.
Interview with Janne Robinson and Nicole Davis, founder of RedFlag.org:
Nicole Davis: What is a “well-behaved woman”?
Janne Robinson: A well-behaved woman has no fly-hairs on her head. Her worth is what she’s been told—that’s to be nice and pretty. She is not allowed to contain the multitudes of all of who she is for she is so tightly in a box by society and the world she said “yes” to that she has forgotten her wildness and what is sacred inside of her heart begging to be said. A well-behaved woman paints quietly while she knows her husband is fucking another woman and gets walked on like your bathroom rug. She is an object—a mother, a wife. She is not allowed to roam free and be free to be. The shoes she walks in are chosen for her and she has forgotten that they are her feet that move them.
Nicole Davis: Who is this video speaking to?
Janne Robinson: Any woman who feels suffocated by living inside the box of our society. Any woman who is building her own box. I wrote this poem and made this film to give women access to their own values, beliefs, and truth and to toss aside anything that doesn’t contain the spirit of who they are. This video is permission for a different way—a way that is only in the webs and wrinkles of every woman’s individual fingers. I want women to watch this and exhale that they have permission to live in a way that may have been lived by no one before and that is “right” for them. I want women to take back their narratives and power as I truly believe this is what we need to re-balance and heal our world.
Nicole: When did you write the poem? Do you remember the moment and the feeling that sparked it?
Janne: I wrote this poem in Costa Rica. I was volunteering at a butterfly garden in exchange for food and board. I was broke and starting my dream. I rented my cabin out on the Sunshine Coast a few months before because I couldn’t afford to live in Canada and my spirit couldn’t afford to pour black coffee into the mugs of rednecks one more day of my life. I lived in a tiny dusty town on the coastline of a peninsula in Costa Rica because I was thirsty for experiences and a different way of life. I knew writing was my way but was still working on my emotional relationship with money and my worth. I had poems and articles with millions of views, but couldn’t figure out how to capitalize or support myself. I’d pick grass on hillsides for caterpillars and feed large blue butterflies papaya and pineapple in the afternoon. I was making a few bucks here and there to cover my other costs of living—I pitter pattered away at my dream writing 14-17 articles and poems a month for wellness publications. It was my second beginning. My first beginning was when I walked away from Edmonton, selling condos in a life that wasn’t mine.
“I will never be a well-behaved woman” was written after one of the most beautiful nights of my life. I smile when I read these and remember walking home smelling like the ash of fire and romance:
“I would rather swim naked with bioluminescence, have it fall like fireflies from my hair, my breasts, my back.
I would rather do handstands naked in the moonlight when no one’s watching than pick bridesmaid dresses.
I would rather drink seven year old rum from a sandy bottle, smell of smoke and ash than sit in church.”
I met a smoldering European filmmaker and spent the night engrossed in rum, and smoke before skinny dipping under the moon with the most vivid and alive bioluminescence I’ve ever seen—I remember standing up out of the water and looking down at my body and seeing large white sparkles of bioluminescence falling off of my breasts in the night air. I have never seen bioluminescent that bright or bold—standing away from the water as who they are, unashamed. It was like a bloody Kerouac novel. Re-reading this poem tonight I am visited by the wildness and freedom from this part of my life. I wasn’t sure I had yet succeeded at building my own box—but I had left the matrix and that was enough to call other women forward.
Nicole: Describe the philosophy of your “This is for the Women” movement and how this piece fits in.
Janne: The “why?” of “This is for the Women” my media and apparel company came when I was hiking in British Columbia with my first mentor—an award winning author and filmmaker Dianne Whelan. One afternoon on a long afternoon walk in between the trunks of grandmother trees I expressed that I hated walking into a room full of people. That I hated having the hundreds of eyes on me and being seen–it made me want to shrink.
She turned to me and said, “I would have never have guessed. You walk tall like an old cypress tree to me.”
I realized in that moment that walking tall and taking up space was not only my work and my healing—but the medicine for the entire feminine. It’s a walk I try walk in everything I do.
Making a mission for a company that is my healing really feels like two birds with one stone (laughs) it’s pretty brilliant—really.
Nicole: How did you evolve into directing films? Did you have any formal education in film?
All of the hats I wear are self taught—directing films is spaghetti that I figured I would try throw at the wall and see if it stuck. I taught myself how to write poetry and run my business–how hard could film be? Just winging it has been a large part of my success as an artist the last six years.
One of my first mentors, Dianne Whelan taught me in my first days finding my legs as an artist that if something sticks—multi-platform it.
All of my poetry films are poems that have grown legs and ran so fast I can’t catch them—I didn’t offer to give them a voice, they took one.
The first film I made “This is for the Women Who Don’t Give a Fuck” was filmed in the stink and scream of NYC in 2015. The idea was birthed, funded, produced and executed in five days. I put a call out on my social media asking for some women in NYC who didn’t give a fuck (film was based on the viral poem with 2+ million views “This is for the women who don’t give a fuck). The video featured over a dozen women I connected with online. They all chose their line to speak—lines of the poem that empowered them. I remember one woman was going on a date that night for the first time in years since her divorce—she spoke her line with her whole spirit. I believed her.
The second film I released “I Am a Woman of Distinction” was released in December of 2018 and has garnered 400,000+ views on Facebook. This featured me charging some intimidating seven foot waves surfing and ripping through the jungle on my quad with my girl gang.
“I will never be a well-behaved woman” was directed in the jungle of Costa Rica and features seven different languages and 32 different women ages 14-60 speaking the lines of my big hitting poem “I will never be a well-behaved woman” which has been read 940,000+ times and shared over 300,000 times.
Nicole: Where do you find the women in your film? Are they actresses?
Janne: None of the women in my films are actresses. I like having non actresses speak my work—authenticity and truth is my heart beat and my why. There is something really raw about these women just choosing a truth for them and saying it from the hip–into the camera.
Seeing my poetry come alive in front of me is my favourite part of this medium.
The first poetry film “This is for the women who don’t give a fuck” is a piece of spaghetti that stuck to the wall with over 450,000+ views. A segment was licensed by Tampax for an online commercial and it was nominated for the Cannes Corporate Media and TV awards in 2016.
Red Flag and I were excited about creating something else together—which is where “I will never be a well behaved woman” (the film) was born. I had been basing myself in Costa Rica for a few months a year for the better part of 7 years. The community in Santa Teresa contains faces, languages and women from all over the world. I was really excited about having so many different women involved in a small beach town of a few thousand people.
I didn’t think about what women to include in my first film—mainly due to the time frame and rush of it. I got crucified online for not featuring enough ethnicities in it. I took that hard—as it wasn’t intentional, but I knew what they meant and I understand my responsibility.
It felt really important that my second film contain women of different ethnicities and also languages in this poem—as a woman and artist I am becoming increasingly aware that every woman needs a voice and what a privilege it is to be safe to use mine and what an honour it is to create art that speaks for women.
I think we did pretty good reflecting and representing a multitude of different women in this film—and, I am sure we can always do better next time.
Nicole: Your work is rooted in empowering women to take back their “Narrative”. When was the first time you took your narrative back?
In 2014, I got pregnant and decided to have an abortion.
The day after laying in bed healing—words began to pour out of me.
Before this I had written words that were good and pretty but lacked the depth of my soul–these words came from inside of me. They were raw and unfiltered and painfully honest.
The words that poured forth covered conversations with friends and family and my council that was neutral to conversations that were not neutral–like the doctor I went to see in Edmonton who told me “Not to get an abortion and that I would regret it”.
The story covered moments like me looking that doctor straight in the face and telling him I wasn’t there for his personal opinion, I was there for his medical opinion on what my choices were at this stage of my pregnancy. It shared how I told him that he should watch his tongue—for if I was a 14 year old girl who had yet to have found the spine of who I was, his words could have influenced my choice, her choice and the choice every woman deserves to have over her body.
The story covered the conversation I decided to have with my belly the day before my appointment. There is great discrepancy about when the soul enters the body. I decided to have a little conversation with that soul—incase it had showed up already. The story shared the words I spoke as I sat in front of my fireplace at my cabin that morning, “Hi—little soul, I don’t know if you’re in there. But if you are—right now isn’t the time. I feel so honoured you chose me, and if you want to come back later in this life I would love to walk with you. And if you want to choose another mother to raise you, I love and support you in that too.”
The words that poured out terrified me. I decided to sit on them for a few months before revisiting them and considering them for publication. I didn’t want to share it to burn the boyfriend who didn’t show up, or for attention. If I shared the story–I wanted it to come from a clean, clear and processed place.
A few months later I revisited my words and decided in the end to share it. I decided to share it because I had not found anything explaining a woman’s emotional process within her choice and procedure in having an abortion and the world needed that. So many people in my life confided in me about their abortions–in hushed whispers with shame.
I wanted to eradicate the shame attached to abortions and inform through my journey and experiences.
I submitted the piece to a wellness publication, Elephant Journal I was writing for.
At first I thought I would only share it with the 17 million readers at Elephant Journal, and not my social media.
Those 17 million readers were safe—it didn’t feel safe to share it with my friends and family and risk running into a guy I went to high school with in coffee shop in Edmonton who might awkwardly as we stir sugar into our coffee’s say, “Hey, I read that piece….”.
But when I received the email that “Aborting Shame: One Woman’s Experience Within Abortion” had been published, I remember watching the rain drop off the prayer flags hanging above my woodshed and knowing I needed to share it also with my friends, family and social media networks. It was important.
I knew it was safe to do so because I was so at peace with my process and choice and knew that nothing could alter the light within me.
I shared it on my Facebook and Instagram channels and I was called everything from “Woman of the year” to “Murderer” by my first (incredibly christian) boyfriend.
I also received 300 emails and messages and comments from women all over the world.
One of them read, “I was 16. My father dropped me off at the clinic and told me not to tell anyone—including my mother. You’re the first person I am telling.”
That is when I met my “why?”—and I’ve been sharing slabs of my heart with this world and empowering women to take back their narrative ever since.
Nicole: What was your favorite behind the scenes moments?
Janne: One of the women in the film, Ashley, a 14 year old local from Costa Rica walked up to Tyler who was producing the film. She was wearing a shirt that said “Boss Lady” on it. He looked at her and said, “I like your shirt”.
She looked right back at him with not a moments hesitation and said, “I know what I want”.
My other favourite moment was that I originally intended to be carried by a bunch of men for the opening scene.
I saw the “Formation” music video by Beyonce and thought the scene of her on top of a cop car was so bad ass. I wanted someone to be carried on top of a surf board. I liked the shock value of it.
I originally wanted it to be another woman but I was working with a coach at the time who not so gently pointed out that I often hide from being in the light of my work. He pushed me to own the spotlight in this film. It was uncomfortable for me to be the woman to be in that scene but it also pushed me to grow.
But, when the time came to shoot the scene–all of the men bailed!
I ended up getting all the women in the film to step in and carry me and it turned out better than I could have imagined.
Being raised by two gay moms and a father who didn’t show up, I had a good laugh at what a metaphor it was. The feminine have always lifted me up.
Nicole: What are you working on now?
Janne: I am 200 pages into my second book of poetry “There’s Cobwebs on Her Vagina”. This collection is titled off a poem I wrote called “There’s Cobwebs on Her Vagina” that talks about the repression–sexual and breathing that women are faced with everyday.
The poem takes place at a pap exam with a fundamentalist christian purity ring baring mother, her daughter and the gynecologist. During the exam the gynecologist removes his head from between her thighs during the exam and says:
There’s cobwebs on her vagina
the gynecologist replies
removing his head from between her freckled thighs
her mother chokes on the air
P–pardon?
It’s from a society that shames women from enjoying sex
one that puts purity rings on their fingers
promises them to the God
away from pleasure
pleasure is shameful
you hear?
God is the only one that loves you
What if the husband is a jack rabbit?
what if he lacks all there is to know about making a woman moan?
what if she dies not having her soul ripple
her body shake
fall apart
from the hands and tongue of a man
who has done his work
a lover of all things woman
God, what if he’s gay?
what if he wishes to be making love to a man?
heaven forbid her body is never touched with the tenderness
that we deserve from the moment we are born
It’s from a society that throws half naked sexualized women in sunglasses commercials
making us hide our daughters eyes
while the men laugh smoking Cuban cigars making millions
off the easiest marketing idea invented
the female body is the greatest piece of art
of course it sells
shame on us for giving it away
then playing the victims
the big bad media wolfs
forcing our hands to paper to sign
there are no victims here
women, are too blame
It’s from a society that shrieks at nipples
turns away
they’re the same as mine
But
But
They’re sexual!
Put them away
I can feel the breeze on my sweltering chest in August
but you
Must
cover
Yours
It’s from a society that cuts off women’s genitals
doesn’t give them the right to vote
to work
to live
to love who they choose
covers them in clothes
no, not to hide them from the sun
marries them away at fourteen
to a twenty one year old called Jose
who drinks four bottles of whisky a day
who falls asleep drunk after they have sex each night
boring
missionary sex
with no foreplay
while she speaks quietly into the night of wanting to be a lawyer
of how she would bring justice with all her might
He closes her legs
the mothers mouth is still dropped
“masturbation, 2 times a day–3 if needed”
his white coat wisps behind him as the door shuts
Oh mamma
the world we live in is changing.
I intend to create a short film of “There’s cobwebs on her vagina” as well as release this book this year. I still haven’t decided if I am going to be the gynecologist or if it will be an actor–I will need a really good one if it’s a man (laughs).
In November I am traveling to India to begin writing the memoir of finding my father 9 years ago. It’s a mix of Eat Pray Love and Mamma Mia. This is what I am most excited about creating right now.
This book will cover my parents six month love story that started living naked on the beaches and in the jungles of India, and ended within the walls of a small cabin in Whitehorse, Yukon. It will also cover my search over several years to find and meet my father for the first time. I read my mother’s journal, sent many letters and followed bread crumbs to him. I ended up finding him through his 20-year-old records from an Osho Ashram in Puna, India. I am starting in India because I want to smell, touch and taste each part of this story as I write it. I don’t think I realize yet how healing and challenging writing this book will be–or how healing it will be for anyone with a wound from a parent in their life. It will be a walk of discovery and forgiveness that is relatable to much of our human experience. I intend to turn it into a film script too–Mamma Mia, hold onto your pants.
TO WATCH THE FILM “I WILL NEVER BE A WELL BEHAVED WOMAN” CLICK HERE