Dan Mathews

{{Short description|American activist}}

{{Hatnote|'Dan Matthews' links here. For the title character of the novel 'The Calling of Dan Matthews', see Harold Bell Wright.}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2016}}

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| image = Dan Mathews.jpg

| image_size = 250px

| name = Dan Mathews

| caption = Dan Mathews in 2010

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1964|10|24}}

| birth_place = Newport Beach, California, U.S.

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| occupation = Senior Vice President of PETA and an author

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| website =

| alma_mater = American University

| parents =

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Dan Mathews (born October 24, 1964) is the senior vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He is known for creating PETA's most newsworthy campaigns, including the "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" ads, as well as campaigns involving celebrities such as Alec Baldwin,{{cite web |title=Dan Mathews {{!}} Here's the Thing |url=https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/heresthething/episodes/312904-dan-mathews |website=WNYC Studios |access-date=April 4, 2022 |language=en |date=August 18, 2013}} Pamela Anderson, Pink, and Paul McCartney. He has been profiled by the NY Times, USA Today, and Wall St. Journal and has lectured on animal rights and veganism at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Oxford and Cambridge.

Mathews is best known for heading PETA's successful fashion campaigns, having persuaded designers like Michael Kors and Calvin Klein to stop using fur,{{cite web |last1=Fickenscher |first1=Lisa |title=Michael Kors will no longer use fur in its designs |url=https://nypost.com/2017/12/15/michael-kors-will-no-longer-use-fur-in-its-designs/ |website=New York Post |access-date=April 4, 2022 |date=December 16, 2017}} and working with Tim Gunn{{cite web |last1=Holmes |first1=Elizabeth |title=Less Paint, More Parties |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704132204576190622662156628 |website=Wall Street Journal |access-date=April 4, 2022 |date=March 10, 2011}} to promote animal-free materials at Fashion Week events and through programs at the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).{{cite web |title=How PETA Became a Sustainability Resource |url=https://cfda.com/news/how-peta-became-a-sustainability-resource#! |website=cfda.com |access-date=April 4, 2022}} In 2020, Mathews convinced Tommy Hilfiger to ban exotic animal skins after reports showed that the wild animal trade posed risks to spawning zoonotic diseases like COVID-19.{{cite web |last1=Feitelberg |first1=Rosemary |title=PVH Corp. Said to Agree to Stop Using Exotic Skins, After Appeals by PETA |url=https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/pvh-corp-said-to-agree-to-stop-using-exotic-skins-after-appeals-by-peta-1234579009/ |website=WWD |access-date=April 4, 2022 |date=September 10, 2020}}

In 2000, Mathews was named by gay lifestyle magazine Genre as one of the most influential people of the new millennium{{Volume needed|date=April 2009}}, and in 2007, Mathews was ranked 37th in Out magazine's "50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America".Oxfield, Jesse, Idov, Michael (March 4, 2007), [http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/04/out_ranks_the_top_50_gays_ande.html 'Out' Ranks the Top 50 Gays; Anderson Is No. 2] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070606235032/http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/04/out_ranks_the_top_50_gays_ande.html |date=June 6, 2007 }}, New York Magazine. Retrieved June 28, 2007.

Mathews has written two acclaimed memoirs published by Atria/Simon & Schuster.{{cite web |title=Dan Mathews |url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Dan-Mathews/36420421#:~:text=About%20The%20Author%20Dan%20Mathews%20was%20born%20and,thick%20skin%20needed%20to%20be%20an%20animal%20activist |website=Simon & Schuster |access-date=April 4, 2022 |language=en}} Committed: A Rabble-Rouser's Memoir was published in the US and Australia in 2007, and in the UK, Italy, Germany and France over the following decade. "Committed is a bold, offbeat globe-trotting memoir that shows how the most ridiculed punching bag in high school became an internationally renowned crusader for the most downtrodden individuals of all - animals".{{cite web|url=http://bluerectangle.com/book_reviews/view_one_review/2166 |title=Committed: A Rabble-Rouser's Memoir (review) |publisher=Book review & BlueRectangle.com |access-date=May 31, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708074236/http://bluerectangle.com/book_reviews/view_one_review/2166 |archive-date=July 8, 2011 }} Like Crazy: Life with my Mother and her Invisible Friends was published in 2020. In this book, Mathews writes about caring for his clever, schizophrenic mother in her last years. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly wrote "Mathews conveys potentially heavy and gut-wrenching family crises with page-turning style and heaps of wit."{{cite web |title=Like Crazy: Life with My Mother and Her Invisible Friends by Dan Mathews |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5011-9998-1 |website=www.publishersweekly.com |access-date=April 4, 2022 |date=11 August 2020}} In 2021, Jeopardy host and neurologist Mayim Bialik featured Mathews on her mental health podcast Bialik's Breakdown to launch the paperback edition of "Like Crazy".{{cite web |title=Bialik Breakdown |url=https://www.bialikbreakdown.com/listen-podcasts/dan-mathews |website=www.bialikbreakdown.com |access-date=April 4, 2022}}