PETA fights for animal rights, but in the process seems to throw humans under the bus. The amount of racism and sexism in PETA’s demonstrations and ads is appalling. I am a vegetarian who has always hated PETA for many reasons, but this one set me over the edge.
Is that the KKK? Nope, it's PETA.
PETA members dressed up as members of the KKK for a demonstration against the American Kennel Club. The PETA organization claims that the AKC is trying to create a “master race” and therefore the KKK comparison is applicable. PETA has made all sorts of overblown comparisons in the defense of animal rights, including comparisons to the Holocaust and to lynching of African Americans. To me, these demonstrations are ridiculous and offensive. Dressing up as the KKK is just not okay, no matter what the point of the demonstration. These tactics do not foster support, but offend people and scare them away.
PETA’s ridiculous tactics don’t stop with overblown comparisons. PETA’s ads are often racist and sexist.
Is this woman an animal? Don't treat her like one.
And this recent banned Superbowl ad was equally ridiculous.
Again, I believe in animal rights and I try my best to be a decent vegetarian, but watching scantily clad women practically have sex with vegetables doesn’t make me want to not eat meat. But it does make me want to blog about how much I HATE PETA.
p.s. Where the heck did they get those “studies?”
feminista
The Gender Blender Blog 
I completely agree!! Refusing to eat meat and advocating for an end to animal cruelty is an honorable, but PETAs tactics are more destructive than helpful to their cause. Many people committed to the same causes are often turned away by PETA’s extreme actions and PETA ends up alienating themselves from potential allies. So many times I’ve thought to myself that if I were a fur wearer and PETA threw paint or flour on me, that not only would I not stop wearing fur, I’d go out and buy as much fur and animal products as my budget permitted.
PETA also gives everyone who fights against animal cruelty a bad name; it kinda reminds me of how the media’s scathing an often innacurate take on feminism gives all feminists a bad and even worse, prevents people who agree with the basic principles of feminism to shy away from the term.
This really is ridiculous. You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about and I am insulted and horrified that people keep asking us to respect their movements while simultaneously degrading our own.
Whether you like it or not, there are PLENTY of us who completely agree with a lot of the tactics used by some of the groups in PETA (PETA is, afterall, an umbrella organization. ANYONE can get their leaflets and take on their name). And judging from the fact that people like you seem to care so little, I don’t blame them for going to extremes to get some attention.
Ending slavery and Jim Crow was a civil rights issue. Women’s equality is a civil rights issue. Queer rights is a civil rights issue. Immigrant rights is a civil rights issue.
But the right of trillions of animals to live their lives fully without being grown, abused, tortured, exploited, and eventually killed? I think that trumps every other cause. And you WILL respect my beliefs as I respect yours.
dear anonymous,
I respect what PETA is trying to do, and I wholeheartedly agree that animals should not be abused, tortured, exploited, etc. However, I do not believe that PETA has respected the rights of women and racial minorities through its tactics and ad campaigns. I stand by my argument.
I think that the fact that you replaced the “and eventually killed” with an “etc.” says everything.
fair enough. i actually replaced it because i didn’t want to sound mocking by quoting you word for word. but you’re right about that one. killed is the most important part.
but i think the fact that you are ignoring that this post is about blatant sexism and racial insensitivity also is pretty telling.
I am also a vegetarian who cannot stand PETA. There are more important reasons to go veg that do not have anything to do with naked women’s bodies in highly sexualized positions with vegetables. Does PETA really need to objectify women in order to advocate for vegetarianism?
What’s funny is that the people who say, “Go veg” are usually people who were influenced by peta2.com’s campaign to get teenagers to experiment with vegetarianism and veganism. Most of them don’t last more than a year.
[…] bodies to promote vegetarianism (along with PETA’s other offenses which we have blogged about here and here and here and here and here). Well, here’s another example of a similar […]