I love this series of anti-vivisection ads from the Australian animal rights organization Animal Liberation:
Just for the record: I’m not particularly fond of the latest PETA2 ad featuring Khloe Kardashian. However, it’s not Kardashian’s state of (un)dress that bothers, rather, it’s the way in which PETA’s photographers have posed her that irks my feminist sensibilities. Though not as bad as, say, the Suicide Girls series, Ms. Kardashian is somewhat pornified in this ad: here, her body is turned away from the camera, so that it appears that the audience is following, ogling, stalking, sneaking up on her from behind. (From a racial perspective, I also find it interesting that PETA chooses to depict one of their few women of color models with a teased, “wild” hairstyle; while I know little about Khloe Kardashian, it doesn’t appear as though she normally wears her hair this way.)
Now, if this were just one of a handful of PETA ads that resemble a Playboy layout, I’d dismiss it as inevitable; PETA recruits a number of celebs to pose for their print ads, and no doubt some of these women (and men) will prefer more sexualized poses (in our pornified society, after all, women do trade on such images in order to get ahead; and I’d much rather criticize the culture which makes such compromises necessary, as opposed to the women doing the compromising). Yet, the ad fits a larger pattern wherein
women are more likely to pose in the nude than men; and, if you were to objectively compare the PETA print campaigns which feature nude men and women, you’d see that the portrayals are drastically different. Strip away PETA’s logo and slogans, and the women’s photos look like they were pulled straight out of a recent edition of Playboy. Young, white, thin, feminine, (conventionally) attractive women are displayed on all fours, backs arched, gazes vacant, faces and torsos turned away from the camera, submissive in posture, ready for a good fuckin’. In contrast, the men’s shots are fun, funny, inspiring, humorous, and full of personality.
So yes, I do think there’s more than enough room for a feminist critique of PETA’s ads, print and otherwise. That said, I don’t at all trust feminists who objectify non-human animals (by eating, wearing, gawking at, or otherwise exploiting them) to offer an unbiased critique of an animal advocacy group’s objectification of women. Assuming that PETA is indeed sexist*, speciesist feminists are no better: both objectify a group of living, sentient beings based solely on group membership.
Furthermore, these women have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo vis-à-vis their relation to (i.e., domination of) non-human animals: if they were to accept PETA’s premise that non-human animals have rights and interests equal to those of human animals, they’d have to reconsider their meat-eating, leather-wearing, dog-buying ways. In short, they would have to acknowledge (and thus, renounce) their human privilege.
So, how do the women at Feministing (et al.) claim moral superiority, again? While they may sometimes be correct in their interpretation of PETA’s campaigns, this veg*n feminist finds them no more trustworthy than an openly, unabashedly racist white feminist criticizing civil rights leaders for their misogyny. While their conclusions may be correct, their reasoning and motivations are forever suspect.
Just as they insist that PETA needs to lose the sexism before feminists will take them seriously, they need to lose the speciesism before they can expect veg*n women to give a damn about what they have to say.
* Which is a gross generalization, considering PETA’s vast membership numbers; better still to say that president Ingrid Newkirk and/or other higher-ups is/are sexist, and the organization is sexist to the extent that Newkirk/those in charge influences their hiring and PR policies.
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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare peta people for the ethical treatment of animals peta2 sexism misogyny fur Khloe Kardashian flickr photos pornified women feminism speciesism
OK, so these ads for The Coup Vegetarian Restaurant aren’t technically public service announcements, but I get a kick out of ‘em nonetheless. Plus, even though they’re meant to market a business, they do so by promoting vegetarianism and a compassionate diet. “Let Meat Live!,” indeed.
A “real” feminist wouldn’t employ such a silly argument in defense of PETA’s campaigns, whether sexist or not:
MJ: One question I did have. I really do appreciate the work PETA has done but it has gotten a lot of criticism for using women in some of its ads. A lot of times in bikinis, or scantily clad, I think there was a striptease campaign that came online recently. What do you say to people who criticize PETA and say that it’s not women-friendly, that it denigrates women?
IN: 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.
Let me guess: you also have a Black Friend ™, such that none of PETA’s campaigns could possibly be racist, either?
Seriously, this is such a ridiculous argument that I need only two words to refute it: Ann Coulter. Women are not immune from misogyny, you see. Sometimes, they’re even more vicious in their hatred of other women than are their male peers; because of the common (mis)perception that “women cannot be sexist,” women are oftentimes granted license to act in an even more misogynistic manner than their male counterparts. It’s not often that you hear a man argue that women’s suffrage was a mistake - yet Ann Coulter has posited as much, and she still manages to get speaking gigs.
You go on to say:
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.
Certainly, I agree that it’s “anti-feminist to dare to tell [a woman] that she needs to put her clothes back on”; however, there’s a difference between allowing your supporters to use their naked bodies as “political instrument[s]” and taking advantage of your [female] supporters’ willingness to get naked for the animals by playing into cultural stereotypes regarding gender roles, beauty, sex, class, race, etc. As I noted in my defense of your “Breast is Best” campaign, PETA does have a despicable habit of pornifying women in their photo/print campaigns while simultaneously portraying men as full human beings, complete with agency and personalities.
In PETA’s world, women are more likely to pose in the nude than men; and, if you were to objectively compare the PETA print campaigns which feature nude men and women, you’d see that the portrayals are drastically different. Strip away PETA’s logo and slogans, and the women’s photos look like they were pulled straight out of a recent edition of Playboy. Young, white, thin, feminine, (conventionally) attractive women are displayed on all fours, backs arched, gazes vacant, faces and torsos turned away from the camera, submissive in posture, ready for a good fuckin’. In contrast, the men’s shots are fun, funny, inspiring, humorous, and full of personality.
Yes, you can be sexual without being sexist; just look at these campaigns featuring naked men as proof:
Seriously. He’s one of those high-falutin’ talking Hollywood Chihuahuas. And he’s a rescue dog, to boot. Kind of blows that “shelter dogs are broken dogs” myth of of the water, no?
Via Best Friends, who notes:
We all know what happens when a new “dog movie” comes out—lots of people decide they must have a dog just like the one in the movie. But what people might not realize is that shelters and groups across the country have plenty of Chihuahuas, for ADOPTION. In fact, Chihuahuas are the 5th most-posted breed of dog for adoption on Petfinder (after Labs, Shepherds, Pit bulls and mixes of those breeds).
Check out our star-studded PSA video (with actors from the movie) that encourages adoption instead of buying.
Watch on the Best Friends website (higher quality)
We wanted to share a poster made by Best Friends that can be easily printed and hung up around your town to let people know that they can rescue a Chihuahua on Petfinder instead of buying one from a pet store, newspaper ad or the Internet. In fact, the star Chihuahua of the movie was rescued from a Moreno Valley shelter, outside of L.A. just days before his “time was up.”
Download poster by clicking this link.
For more information visit our web page: www.dontbuypuppies.com
Feel free to use link to the video on your own websites.
On behalf of the ‘Puppies Aren’t Products’ Campaign Team, thank you for helping us spread word!
This video has been making the rounds, but I thought I might post it here anyhow, as an example of a PETA ad campaign that I quite like. It’s brutal, truthful, powerful and moving. It addresses the animal, human and environmental casualties of leather and fur “production.” It does so without pornifying women or men, without relying on ageist or sizeist slurs, and does not single out a particular culture for their use of animal skins. It calls out speciesism without engaging in another “ism” while doing so. It’s evidence that PETA, with all its faults, is a varied organization that can (sometimes!) produce engaging campaigns. After all, a little props when they do get it right would be nice, no? Positive reinforcement, yes?
And yet…I have yet to see “Whose Skin Are You In?” featured on a non-veg*n blog as of this writing. Just, you know, making a note. *shrug*
You can sign the fur-free pledge and order “Fake for the Animals’ Sake” stickers here.
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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare action alerts peta people for the ethical treatment of animals fur leather video whose skin are you in
I’m been a bad, busy blogger lately, and for that I apologize. Between the DNC, the RNC, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the hovering hurricane Gustav (and Hannah and Ike and Josephine), and the seemingly neverending rise in police repression and brutality, I am burnt. out. So I went on a bit of a staycation last week, and took in some local sights that I’ve been wanting to for awhile (staycation photos galore!).
Anyway, I thought I’d share this awesome ad campaign from Animals Australia. The series depicts photos of “mouth-watering” (*gag*) meat dishes along with their recipes. Instead of twelve ounces of pork and a cup of red wine vinegar, however, AA’s recipes call for gestation crates and animal cruelty.
I love the juxtaposition of beautiful gourmet food photography and graphic descriptions of factory farming practices. At first glance, the layout looks as though it might be straight out of a meat-worshipping cookbook a la Anthony Bourdain. But once the reader leans in closer, wham! Truth in advertising, baby. Genius.
As an added bonus, the ads are perfect for some stealth activism. Simply print out a few (hundred?) copies and insert them in the animal-unfriendly cookbooks in your local Barnes & Noble store. Or, heck, a friend or relative’s own cookbook collection, if you want to be doubly snarky.
The rest of the series is after the jump. (Click through to each pic’s Flickr page to read the full text.)
“A dog loves you the way you are. Adopt one.”
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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare dog canine animal adoption advert advertisement psa george bush gw bush politics war on terra war on terror photo blogging flickr
Gives new meaning to the term “animal rights terrorism”, no? Ah, if only.
Make the jump for the rest of the photos in this series.
…only one lonely action alert found its way into my inbox today.)
www.flickr.com
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