How PeTA treats women like meat

19th October 2007

How PeTA treats women like meat

posted in Feminist Topics, Pop Culture, Vegetarianism |

Back before graduate school (you know, when I still had a life), I was active in three animals rights organizations including Compassion over Killing, Mercy for Animals and the Cincinnati chapter of Earthsave. But as a committed vegetarian and animal rights advocate, there is one organization I refuse to join: PeTA.

I’ve had some personal experiences in joint protests with PeTA that colored my views early on of the organization as a media-whore, but it’s the organization’s overall outreach tactics that’s really distilled my abhorrence of them.

I could start with how PeTA president Ingrid Newkirk recently wagged her bony finger at Michael Moore, attacking with a cleverly guised fat-based joke. This self-proclaimed vegetarian evangelical advised Moore to go on a vegetarian diet in order to lose weight, so he can avoid all those fat-related illnesses. Yes, the same illnesses which have yet to be conclusively linked to obesity.

I happen to think a vegetarian diet is the healthiest and most humane choice, but it is entirely possible to be a fat vegetarian - and even more shocking, a healthy, fat vegetarian.

But the real beef I have with PeTA is that they’ve long crossed the line from an altruistic horde of Dr. Doolittle’s into, instead, modern purveyors of soft core porn. They gladly exploit the bodies of women in their zeal to promote anti-exploitation of animals.

Take, for instance, their latest tawdry shock stunt below, h/t to EWHAED. This ad is not about promoting a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle - it’s about sex. And does it strike anyone else as ironic that they sexualize Silverstone’s body as a piece of meat in order to promote a vegetarian diet?

alicia silverstone poses naked for peta

(For more on this, see Carol Adams’ The Sexual Politics of Meat)

But next to some of PeTA’s other stunts, this can be seen as tasteful. One of the women I knew from Mercy for Animals was also active with PeTA, and was chosen as PeTA’s “Sexy Pilgrim” several years ago. Basically, the campaign worked as such: The “Sexy Pilgrim” would dress like a stripper, and try to shill vegetarianism to scores of ogling men who were usually interested in far more than sampling a tofurkey breast.

When the circus came to Cincinnati last year, PeTA protested on the city-s Fountain Square, a central location of the city where families frequent. A woman, dressed as a dominatrix, whipped a scantily clad, chained and handcuffed man with a sign reading “Chains belong in the bedroom.”

And who can forget PeTA’s tawdry “Milk Gone Wild” - a spoof of Girls Gone Wild - which even network television refused to air. The spots feature four “udder babes” flashing cow-like udders to leering male patrons in a sleazy bar.

Of course, there’s the classic PeTA ad of a buxom blonde woman in an Uncle Sam outfit - cleavage spilling out of her unbuttoned shirt - with the inscription “I want YOU to go vegetarian.” The blonde featured is Playboy’s Kimberly Hefner and was magnanimously distributed to solders around the world.

Perhaps most disturbing is ad of yet another naked blonde woman, this time in a classroom setting. The model, Dominique Swain, star of Lolita, is partly turned toward the blackboard, with underdeveloped cleavage showing, writing “I’d rather go naked than wear fur.” PeTA’s press release touts her as the youngest star to pose au natural for its anti-fur campaign.

These are just a few examples - the list goes on and on. How can PeTA, in all good faith, call itself an organization promoting the ethical treatment of anything when they so unethically exploit and demean women?

Click to Bookmark

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Feminist Topics, Pop Culture, Vegetarianism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On October 19th, 2007, Jen K

said:

I’m actually not a vegetarian, but I do my best to NOT support animal cruelty. I’ve had problems with peta since their “Fur Trim: Unattractive” campaign which displayed nothing more than female pubic hair poking out of some skimpy underwear–as if to imply there is something wrong with a woman’s natural pubic hair.

It’s really nice to see someone talk about the peta in the context of feminism!

posted on October 19th, 2007 at 1:00 pm

2 On October 19th, 2007, Miss Janey

Earlier in the week, Miss Janey blogged about the Ellen/dog debacle here:

http://missjaneysmuttmusings.blogspot.com/2007/10/miss-janey-loves-miss-ellen.html

To paraphrase: “… something about many animal rescue workers- they don’t give a tuppeny damn about your little human problems. They are all about the animals. They spend their days rescuing critters from shelter deathrows and their weekends at adoption events trying to find them suitable homes. They’re especially not impressed with “I didn’t know…” All they care about is the welfare of the animal… That’s because for MANY people, especially people who work in animal rescue, animals are akin to, or even better than, people…”

Zealotry blinds people to ANYTHING beyond their cause, including the exploitation of the animals that are WOMEN.

Miss Janey has been vegetarian, off and on, for twenty years. She can’t abide ANY animal cruelty, and donates to several animal rights orgs. But she too feels Peta goes too far. In their zeal to help animals, they lose sight of respecting people.

posted on October 19th, 2007 at 1:53 pm

3 On October 19th, 2007, Sarah

I stopped supporting PETA a long time ago, when they used images of Holocaust victims in their ads. But thanks for pointing out that there are many other fantastic organizations doing really good work.

I think this ad backfires. I would imagine that people will focus right on her, not on the words.

posted on October 19th, 2007 at 4:03 pm

4 On October 19th, 2007, Rose

Almost 20 years ago I met some folks from PETA in the streets of New York. Since I love animals (but I’m not a vegetarian) I put $5 in their jar. Then one of them tried to shock me with the terrible torture they put rats through in looking for a cure for AIDS. Well, I responded that I cared more about curing AIDS than I did about rats. She told me that while AIDS patients did something to deserve what had happened to them, the rats were innocent! I put my hand in the jar and fished out the $5 I had just given them.

posted on October 19th, 2007 at 4:18 pm

5 On October 19th, 2007, FashionableNerd

@ Rose…wow. That’s absolutely horrid.

And I too love animals despite my omnivore status. PETA, however, doesn’t make me want to change that status..I mean, ew, the advertising. Especially with this ad…so I’m supposed to not eat meat when Alicia Silverstone is laid out like a steak? Ughz.

posted on October 19th, 2007 at 7:30 pm

6 On October 20th, 2007, Weebitty

Here’s a fat, feminist VEGAN who never has and never will support PETA because of their sexist and discriminatory campaigns.

That said, they do a lot of work that doesn’t use any of these shock tactics, but they also don’t get a lot of press. I do think everyone who takes PETA to task for their tactics should read Michael Specter’s New Yorker article “The Extremist,” in which Ingrid Newkirk is quite frank about why she makes the tactical choices she does (http://www.michaelspecter.com/ny/2003/2003_04_14_peta.html). It may not change many minds about the organization (it didn’t change mine), but it does provide some insight into the struggle animal activists face trying to raise awareness about what they feel is one of the greatest moral failings of our society (animal abuse).

I was also gald to see the mention of other animal protection groups. It is so annoying to see people act as if PETA is the only group out there, or act as if they can’t be animal activists because they don’t like PETA.

posted on October 20th, 2007 at 3:33 am

7 On October 20th, 2007, Rachel

Weebitty: Thanks for the link. I skimmed it and it sounds really interesting, actually. I’ll be sure to read it later.

PeTA does do some good things, for sure. But for me, the ends don’t justify the means.

posted on October 20th, 2007 at 9:58 am

8 On October 24th, 2007, Christopher Arnold said:

I am a boring troll. My head is stuck so far up my ass all I can utter is complete bullshit.

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 10:37 am

9 On October 25th, 2007, Charli

Yeah, let me tell ya…

Now, I’m against animal cruelty. I eat meat, and I hunt, but I am as humane in doing both of these things as is possible. My philosophy is that living creatures shouldn’t ever have to be tortured, basically.

Here in Flagstaff, AZ, we’re a college town, and PeTA *really* likes to suck the college kids in with a lot of nonsense that sounds really good. Now, I’m not saying that they don’t have a good cause or anything, but I agree that the ends don’t justify the means.

There is a KFC right on one of the busiest corners in town (its a small town, so there’s only a few busy corners), and every year, PeTA think up some stunt to protest KFC. There’s an Arby’s right next to it, literally within 50 yards, but they never protest their serving beef or anything. Only KFC’s torture of chickens.

This past year, they had two young women stand on the corner in nothing but their sandals, and the only thing covering them was a large sandwich board that had some sort of slogan on it.

All I could think was of how torturous it was going to be for one of the people who got into a traffic accident because they or somebody else was ogling these girls and was made paraplegic for the rest of their life.

Heck, I was just trying to use the crosswalk and nearly got run over by a guy who was trying to impress the girls with his radio.

Just another example of how women are jsut slabs of meat to PeTA.

posted on October 25th, 2007 at 6:53 am

10 On May 8th, 2008, I love the smell of bacon in the morning* » The-F-Word.org said:

[...] that many veggies, including myself, find Peta to be as obnoxious as you do. I’ve written before on why it is I won’t join Peta, and recently so have other vegetarians within the [...]

posted on May 8th, 2008 at 2:33 pm

11 On May 8th, 2008, Heather

I tried to contact PETA about this issue. They eventually just stopped responding and accused me of stepping on the toes of the feminists that came before me (them?). Here is an article I wrote (not my best or most formal writing but check it out).

http://www.clas.niu.edu/wstudies/zine%20files/Issue2.pdf

posted on May 8th, 2008 at 4:28 pm