PETA objectifies women in DC today; in other news, the sky is still blue!
In response to National Hot Dog & Sausage Council's declaration that July is National Hot Dog Month, PETA declared today to be National Veggie Dog Day . Their promotion is a free veggie dog giveaway on Capitol Hill in DC.
Intended surely to woo potential vegetarians with brains rather than breasts, the event features Playboy Playmate of the year Jayde Nicole wearing a bikini made out of lettuce and handling phallic food.
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Sadly this is not even surprising. After I saw a PETA event that dressed women like chickens and put them in cages they completely lost my support and respect, which is sad since I am vegetarian too. PETA, a group that cares about animals, just not women. They are a good example of a special interest group that should be working with other progressive groups to accomplish real change, but instead they are short-sighted and divisive.
I had to comment on this.
If it's National Veggie Dog day, what else WOULD she be holding?
I know! Do hot dogs come in non-phallic?!?
Otherwise, same old, same old from PETA. Weird that we keep giving them attention...
Question: Why is PETA being scrutinized so much, especially on this site, for their sexist marketing techniques when there are companies and organizations out there that use far more sexist imagery far more often? Does it come from a need to demonize them for making you feel guilty about your eating habits?
Do you think to yourself, "How DARE these people try to make me look/feel bad because of what I find tasty! I should try to make them look as bad as possible too so that hopefully their underlying message is unheard and discredited!" Or is it more along the lines of, "I'm holding these people to the same standards as everyone else, which means every action of theirs will be judged and questioned." If it is the latter, why does it seem that there isn't a corresponding post to every sexist move every other organization makes?
Don't get me wrong, I think PETA is pretty dumb myself and I certainly don't think that anyone should get away with any sort of sexist advertising. However, I come across things online all the time that I end up saying to myself, "I wonder if this is on Feministing yet," or "Why wasn't this posted on Feministing?" Yet it seems that everything PETA does is posted here.
How come?
I think the issue with PETA in particular is that they masquerade as a progressive organization, yet use the same regressive and demeaning marketing tactics that companies like Carl's Jr. use. They exploit women in order to protest the exploitation of animals and, in doing so, fail to make any intelligent or compelling argument for eliminating animal cruelty. I also have serious doubts about the effectiveness of using semi-nude women's bodies to convince anyone to make the major lifestyle change that vegetarianism entails.
And just as a note, I have been vegetarian for 10+ years, and I have seen many comments from others who also support PETA's stance on animal cruelty, yet oppose their marketing tactics. Frankly, it seems unlikely that seeing a woman dressed in a lettuce bikini would make anyone feel very guilty about their lifestyle choices.
Unfortunately, feministing.com just doesn't have the capability to respond to every sexist advertisements. On the bright side, though, that's why the community exists - for you and everyone else to make your own posts :)!
I agree. Myself, and most other vegans of my acquaintance, are deeply committed to an intersectional view of oppression, i.e., one which realizes that speciesism is a vital part of the structure which upholds sexism, racism, sizeism, etc., and contributes in turn to the same. Yet PETA is consistently willing to put out sexist, sizeist (and sometimes racist) PSAs.
I think part of the reason they are so commonly held up for ridicule on this site is because many (most?) feminists are vegetarian or vegan, and thus PETA's tactics have a particularly sharp sting to us.
[This comment has been deleted]
Naw man, it's those goddamn alligator squirrels that are the biggest specieists ever. Fucking hybrids.
No no no! Alligator ducks!
Ask a Creationist. They'll tell you.
;)
I'm a non-veg*n feminist. I do, however, support animal rights to an extent.
I agree with you so much! I also can't stand PETA but it seems like a lot of sexist things that are waaaaaaay more influential on this society than PETA (like all of the top selling porn) get like no attention. Not to mention - a lot of porn is a hell of a lot more racist, a lot more demeaning than PETA and it get like ZERO mention. No one has to denounce the idea of porn or porn that is respectful towards human beings to point out the incredible hatred in general that exists in Mainstream porn.
She's hot. What's the "crime?"
The Feminist 101 Blog is to the right and three doors down: http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/
Nope, still can't care about this.
Show me some actual sexism and I'll be pissed off. She's a pretty girl in an inventive outfit, and I'm not even a little offended.
There have been hundreds of ads over the years featuring "pretty girls" in sexy outfits that have absolutely nothing to do with the product being sold. They are used as eye candy to get people to buy beer, hamburgers, trucks and myriad other items. People have all sorts of irrational associations with sexy women in close proximity to inanimate objects and advertisers have learned to exploit this.
Do you really find nothing sexist in how often women's bodies are used to sell products? Do commercials that feature women in alluring outfits eating Carl's Jr burgers really strike you as no big deal?
How is this any different from those instances? And if you don't have a problem with these marketing practices I have to wonder what you're doing here.
My only problem with objectification is that it's so uneven. In a perfect world we'd use men's body as well.
I've seen sexist commercials. I've seen commercials that implied that all women are nags, or that women are stupid or less capable than men, that all men want sex all the time, and so on and so forth. Those will piss me off. (Because yes, I am a feminist, and you questioning what I'm doing here is rude and uncalled for. It's not your place to go playing feminist police.)
I think a far more effective tactic for PETA would be to advertise the actual mistreatment of animals. To be honest...if PETA showed me in their advertising the mistreatment of animals from the time they are born until the time they reach the dinner plate, I would be much more inclined to listen to their message and give some serious thought to becoming vegetarian. Seeing a scantily dressed woman holding a veggie dog does not make me ponder anything (other than "here's yet another sexist ad")and does nothing to sway me towards vegetarianism.
I agree that a variety of PETA's advertisements are sexist and uncool, but they are plenty of other campaigns which do detail the suffering of animals but are not highlighted on this site because they are not directly related to feministing's mission.
I am curious why you feel that you need to wait for PETA to "market" vegetarianism to you in a more palatable way? If you already know that looking at the suffering of animals would affect your thinking, then why don't you seek out this readily available information and make decisions based on your own research? Or is too easy to simply ignore it?
I should really proofread more carefully. Summer is making me lazy!
I don't think my post was clear enough. The point I was trying to make was that if the point of PETA's ads is to convert people to vegetarianism, then I can't see how it is working. I was viewing it as someone who is not a vegetarian but has considered it many times for various reason (including non-PETA campaigns). My point was only that if PETA was my only source if information, I can't see how it would sway me to their cause.
I agree - like the movie The Witness (the documentary - not the hollywood movie). There is a guy who use to ride around NYC with a van that he had a TV put into the side of it. He would show what happens to animals for fur. And when the documentary was made - they had another guy video taping people's reactions to those videos. The reactions were chilling - I convinced a lot of people to try being veg with that video. I recommend it because it isn't only about the abuse done to animals or footage of the mistreatment (though there IS some of that) - it has good discussions that are way more thought based than anything put out by PETA.
Why is she dressed like that? I guess no one will be interested in this initiative if the gild was not wearing bikini.... So typical
Mira - Cosmetic Dentistry and Teeth Whitening Specialist
"Cover up!" is basically equivalent to "show us your tits!" in my book.