PETA: Respect Animals, Not Women

I’ve never really had anything against PETA; as an activist myself, my hat goes off to people who are willing to stand up for what they believe in by using peaceful and non-violent means. In fact, I tried going veg in high school because of the horrendous treatment of animals in the food industry (it lasted about two months; my hat is also off to you, 3.8% of the population who has the willpower to give up meat). Despite the fact that I typically respect PETA’s mission, I sometimes find myself getting dragged into a fit of rage over PETA’s more recent animal rights campaign ads:

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “BlondeRedhead, why do you hate animals so much? PETA is just trying to help!” It’s not that I hate animals, it’s that I hate sexist marketing campaigns. What makes these ads so terrible is that, in choosing to depict women as sex objects, PETA is attempting to eradicate one form of disenfranchisement by adapting another. Objectifying women doesn’t encourage people to treat animals better; rather, it encourages them to view women as objects that are less than human. Take this ad for example:

Or, if that wasn’t direct enough…

If that doesn’t scream “WOMEN ARE PIECES OF MEAT”, I don’t know what does. I understand that PETA is trying to make the point that animals, like humans, are living, breathing beings, but there has to be a better way of getting this point across than sacrificing the dignity of a woman. Besides, if PETA’s argument is that animals deserve the same respect we give people, their ads seem pretty self-defeating, don’t they?

PETA ads have also been used to reinforce the incredibly high beauty standards in our society. Recently, a request to run this ad at airlines was shot down by airline officials:

Messages like this not only manage to reinforce societal beauty norms for women, but also muddle PETA’s ultimate message: Should you decide to go veg because of the mistreatment of animals, like the organization has always preached, or because you want to let the guy operating the body scans know how hot you are? Should you be ashamed of yourself if your body scan isn’t up to this standard, even if you are a vegetarian or vegan? After all, if PETA objectifies thin women, how does it feel about plus-sized women?

Oh.

Basically, these ads manage to place women into two categories: societal-normative “hot” sex-object women, who are probably vegetarian, and “fat” women, who must not be veg because they’re heavy. Equating going veg with leading a healthy lifestyle is an inaccurate assumption: not all vegans are small, and not all omnivores are heavy. Furthermore, making women feel bad about their bodies should not be used as a means of getting your point across. Women (and men) get enough messages about how their bodies should look from the popular media, without reinforcement from the activist organization. PETA is also infamous for rampant photo-shopping, clearly demonstrated in this “I’d Rather Go Naked” ad featuring Bethany Frankel of Real Housewives of New York:

Frankel, an already petite woman, has undergone substantial re-touching to enhance her image for the sake of the ad. PETA’s desire for the ethical treatment of animals is a cause worth fighting for, but using demeaning images of women as a means of conveying a point not only fails to elevate their argument, it puts women in the position to be devalued. And if PETA has tried to prove anything, it’s that devaluing another living creature makes committing violence against that creature more permissible. Feminists and animal rights activists could be great allies in the fight for ethical treatment, but until PETA finds a more legitimate and less misogynistic way of getting their message across, my time and donation money can be better spent elsewhere.