Seriously PETA, what’s wrong with you?

16Dec08

PETA fills me with such rage it almost makes me want to eat a hamburger, just to spite it. Then I remember that that hamburger is made from the dead, decaying flesh of a tortured animal and I rethink that position. Damn you, PETA! Unlike the case of many companies with hideous ad campaigns aimed toward twenty-year-old males to the exclusion of every other conceivable demographic, PETA is something that I would generally want to support. I don’t think I’m quite as gung-ho as they are, but I’m definitely a supporter of animal rights, and I think that their target audience is composed of a lot of people like me: people concerned about animal rights, the environment, and the global food crisis; people who are most likely involved, at least peripherally, in other social movements. People who are informed and educated and active. I would venture to say that many of us are women. So why does PETA insist on alienating the very people who would be most likely to support them in its advertising?

We all know the, “I’d rather go naked that wear fur” campaign. Sure, it’s bad, but certainly not the most offensive use of women’s bodies for a progressive cause I’ve seen (Jessica Alba rape porn, anyone?*), and not even the worst PETA has put out.
PETA has repeatedly made clear that they see women as being less, or at best as, important as animals. Take a look at this little collage I stole from Feministing of some of their advertisements and PR stunts:

What really gets to me is this interview I read with the president of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk. When asked what she thought of the arguments that PETA’s ad campaign is sexist, she responded with a resounding no:

Well, it’s rubbish because the organization is run by a woman, who is me. I marched in the earliest of rallies, I am an adamant feminist, but I’m not a prude and I think you can go to the beach and see people who are in less than you can in a PETA ad. Our people are all volunteers, no one has asked a woman to take off her clothes. I’ve done it myself, we’ve all marched naked if we want to, and I think that it’s very restrictive and in fact wrong. I would expect someone in, say, Iran to tell us that we should cover up, but I don’t expect women or men in this country to criticize women who wish to use their bodies in a form of political statement, to tell them, you need to cover yourself up. There’s this idea of ‘naughty bits’ and I just think it’s funny more than anything else. It’s not sexist, it may be sexual, but no. No woman has ever been paid to strip. She has decided to use her body as a political instrument. That’s her prerogative and I think it is anti-feminist to dare to tell her that she needs to put her clothes back on.

Jean-Luc, you got my back?

The criticism behind PETA’s use of highly sexualized female nudity to attempt (albeit feebly) to get their point across has nothing to do with a desire to put women in burkas and lock them up in their homes. It has nothing to do with believing that nudity is dirty and wrong and it has nothing to do with prudishness. I believe her when she says that the women in their ads and demonstrations wholeheartedly volunteer to participate in these campaigns, but in a society in which women are valued first and foremost as women and not as wanking material, there would be no reason these campaigns would exist. Women would feel that the best way they could contribute to a cause they believe in is with their words and their ideas and not just with their nipples.

For someone who professes to be a feminist, Ingrid Newkirk is surprisingly ignorant on the basic ideas behind feminism. Guess what, Ingrid? Saying you’re a feminist does not make everything you do a feminist act. I’m eating peanuts right now: not a feminist act. In the near future I have every intention of taking a leak: not a feminist act. You are the president of a nonprofit organization that attempts to attract followers through advertising that objectifies women and contributes to the power dynamic by which women are seen to be tools for the use of men: not a feminist act! Are you getting it now?

The interviewer then attempted to get a less stupid answer from Newkirk by asking why they choose to use hot, naked, women in their advertising when so many vegetarians are women, to which Newkirk replied:

It’s a biological fact, isn’t it, that people are drawn to breasts and whathaveyou, it’s just a biological fact. Maybe if everyone walked around naked it wouldn’t be so appealing. But it does, for example, when Alicia Silverstone did a very beautiful, tasteful, ‘naked’ TV spot for us it went everywhere because everyone wanted to take a look. But when people came to the web site, after they saw her commercial, they then were confronted with the facts about why she’s a vegetarian. So when people come to the web site to gawk, they actually get an education. And that’s extremely effective. Because if you just say to people, ‘Hello, would you like to see a slaughterhouse video?’ people are going to say ‘No’ and run in the other direction. But if you say would you like to see Alicia Silverstone without her clothes, most people go, ‘Good Lord, yes. Let’s have a look at that.’

First she’s saying that nudity is awesome and it’s fascist to say that maybe an organization’s point would get across better if the people touting it were wearing clothing, and then she says that only certain people should be allowed the liberty of the wonderful, freeing experience of nudity, all while admitting that the whole purpose of their ad campaigns is to get the attention of horny douchebags and simultaneously employing some armchair evolutionary psychology (I wonder how I can get a hold of these studies on how everyone loves boobies so damn much?).

Honestly, does Ingrid Newkirk honestly think that some horny douchebag cares about Alicia Silverstone’s political views? No! All he cares about is that she’s naked! He will partake in the light wanking material provided by their website and shortly thereafter he will move along to harder wanking material. When PETA puts out ads calling women’s pubic hair “unattractive” or put up a quiz on their website that rewards correct responses with a promise of boobs, what they are saying to me as a woman is, “We don’t really give a shit about you. You are not the kind of person we want supporting our cause because you are not cool and we want the cool kids to like us.” I feel like I’m entering middle school and I’ve been friends with PETA since kindergarten but I’m the nerdy kid who smells weird and wears really ugly clothes from Goodwill and PETA has a chance to be friends with some douchebag jock and ditches me. The douchebag jock doesn’t really like PETA and only uses PETA because PETA’s parents are out of town a lot and he can throw parties at PETA’s house, but PETA cares more about popularity than loyalty. Well, you know what PETA? Fuck you! I’m not going to keep letting you ditch me for the cool kids, I’m going to give my energy and support to organizations that care about me and the problems I face, not that contribute to those problems with rampant douchebaggery!

* How many new blog hits do you think that phrase will get me? They can’t be of any lesser quality than the ones I get already looking for “old lady rape” and “raped and loved it”.

Filed under: ad rage, body image, dumbs, fat phobia, feminism, gender roles, media, sex, sexism   |  16 Comments