Wednesday, January 24, 2007

PETA

How PETA engages in the objectification of women to advance it's pro-animal goals...

My professor sent me this link yesterday, PETA's State of the Union (Un)dress. It was interesting to watch, but more interesting to think about the goals of that organization and how they apparrently differ from the goals of many women. The clip is a woman giving a speech about PETA's goals, while undressing in front of an American Flag while clips of clapping congressmen are spliced in.

There were several points Jay and I emailed over, the most disturbing being that he had sent this link to many men he knows and they were unable to tell him what the woman said while she was stripping, nor did any of them watch anything in the video after the stripping. Even my husband was hard pressed to remember anything beyond a few sentences. So why have a naked woman deliver your message if the only thing men will remember from the experience is the naked woman?

How does this help the plight of animals? There is unlikely to be an increase of PETA members who are interested in assisting in changing the treatment of animals now that they have seen a naked woman talk about it, if none of the target audience can remember what in the heck she was talking about while she removed her business suit.

Further, this message is another in a long line of advertisements that supports objectifying women. WHO CARES if it's for a good cause?? Should we smile and nod and say, okay, you can use women's bodies to sell sex if the profits of said sales are going to "Save the Children" or NARAL?

The very fact that the men who watched this video said they never paid attention to the actual message indicates how poorly physical objectification helps causes. The only thing PETA has managed to do with this message is put another naked female body on the internet.

It would be nice if they could find another way to get our attention.

3 comments:

Woman with a Hatchet said...

I had the same objection when right after Hurricane Katrina hit, all of the requests for donations came in. One of them, that I considered appalling and was forwarded to me by friends was the one where they wanted women to bare their breasts, photograph themselves, and post them to some website or the other. The pics would them be available to those that wanted to PAY for access.

Voluntary porn for some percentage relief to Hurricane Katrina victims.

Niiiiiice.

Yeah, objectifying women works SO WELL for causes. I'll have to try the test on Eric and see if he sees anything past the woman, as well.

Scylla said...

It's just so screwed up. We don't go around asking men to photograph their penises and then put them up on some sight for charity, yet women are supposed to just flash for cash.

Woman with a Hatchet said...

I shouldn't have watched that video. After the naked girl, who promises to "get naked-er" this coming year, there was all manner of video-taped footage of people doing horrific things to animals. Had to leave quickly.

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