PETA FAIL, yet again

PETA is exploiting Dr. George Tiller’s recent murder and launched a completely callous and offensive ad campaign in Wichita, Kansas:

You’ve got to be kidding me, right?  PETA is consistently offensive and insensitive, hoping that shock value will gain sympathy for or legitimize their cause.  I am a vegetarian and oppose animal cruelty, but I cannot stand PETA.  I do not believe that the means justifies the ends.  Exploiting Dr. Tiller’s murder (many people are still in mourning and his loss has been a blow to the feminist community) and employing racism and sexism in their marketing campaigns is just wrong.

There are more tactful, appropriate and effective ways to go about promoting vegetarianism/veganism.  You don’t have to capitalize off tragic events or reproduce oppressive constructions that further marginalize the marginalized to push for an end to animal cruelty.  PETA mistakenly seems to believe that any kind of attention is good and that by shocking and outraging they are gaining more support.  Wrong and wrong again.

According to Lindsay Rajt, the campaign manager:

The discussion of the value of life is front and center right now in the public conversation.  We think we would be irresponsible if we don’t talk about how we’re all guilty of extreme cruelty to animals every time we sit down to a meal that includes meat.

WTF?  How can you compare or equate a cold-blooded murder of a man so deeply committed to women’s health  and health care, a man who dedicated his life to helping women in need  in spite of continuous violence and threats, to animal cruelty?  A good man was just murdered and PETA shamelessly views this as an opportunity?  It’s sickening and vomit inducing.

This ridiculous ad campaign, like so many of their previous ad campaigns, is devaluing and disrespectful to life – funny for an organization who is supposedly committed to respecting all life.  PETA, have you absolutely no common human decency or basic respect and courtesy?  Apparently not.

Reality Check: Torture is NEVER justified!

According to a recent poll, “Just over half of Americans say torture is at least sometimes justified to thwart terrorist attacks”.

Let’s stop right there.  Torture is at least sometimes justified?!!!!  Um, no, TORTURE IS NEVER JUSTIFIED! Not only does it not work (but whether or not it is an effective tactic is completely irrelevant and not the issue), but it is morally and ethically wrong.  Not that the United States has done a good job with keeping our moral compass pointed north, especially under the Bush Administration, but torture is something that people should just not do.  Ever.

Also:

Some 52 percent of people say torture can be at least sometimes justified to obtain information about terrorist activities from suspects, an increase from 38 percent in 2005 when the AP last asked the question. More than two-thirds of Republicans say torture can be justified compared with just over a third of Democrats.

52 percent of people think that torture can be at least sometimes justified?  Really?  That’s incredibly sad, disturbing and disheartening.  I don’t know how many times we can repeat this before people finally get it (if they ever get it), but torture is just plain wrong.  Nothing can justify it.

In 2005, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) argued that torture damages the public image and the reputation of the U.S.: “I can tell you that it is a club that our enemies use, and we need to take that club out of their hand”.  Senator Joe Biden (now Vice President) argued that torture makes the U.S. more vulnerable to retaliation from enemy forces: “This is about the safety and security of American forces”.

Neither of these two arguments get to the heart of the matter though.  These are not the principal reasons why torture is unacceptable and unjustifiable.  Torture is not wrong because it makes you look bad, or it makes you a target for retaliation.  Torture is wrong because it is torture.

Johnathan Schell writes:

Torture is wrong because it inflicts unspeakable pain upon the body of a fellow human being who is entirely at our mercy.  The tortured person is bound and helpless.  The torturer stands over him with his instruments.  There is no question of “unilateral disarmament” because the victim bears no arms, lacking even the use of the two arms he was born with.  The inequality is total.  To abuse or kill a person in such a circumstance is as radical a denial of common humanity as is possible.  It is repugnant to learn that one’s country’s military forces are engaging in torture.  It is worse to learn that the torture is widespread.  It is worse still to learn that the torture was rationalized and sanctioned in long memorandums written by people at the highest level of the government.  But worst of all would be ratification of this record by a vote to confirm one of its chief authors to the highest legal office in the executive branch of the government.

Torture destroys the soul of the torturer even as it destroys the body of his victim.  The boundary between human treatment of prisoners and torture is perhaps the clearest boundary in existence between civilization and barbarism.

YAY New Hampshire!

New Hampshire is now the 6th state to legalize same-sex marriage.  The New Hampshire Legislature approved changes to a same-sex marriage bill that Governor John Lynch signed into legislation today. The law will take effect January 1st, 2010.

Lynch, who originally supported civil unions but not same-sex marriage, said that a separate system is not an equal system.  He also said:

Today, we are standing up for the liberties of same-sex couples by making clear that they will receive the same rights, responsibilities — and respect — under New Hampshire law.

More at The New York Times.

Street sexual harassment needs to stop

For those of you in the New York City area, New Yorkers for Safe Transit (NYFST) is hosting an event next Monday, June 8th that is worth attending:

Taking Back Public Transit: Confronting Violence on Board. In response to an ongoing rash of sexual assaults and harassment occurring in the subways, New Yorkers for Safe Transit (NYFST) is hosting a forum for concerned community members and anti-violence activists to analyze the rampancy of gender-based violence in the New York City public transit system and discuss strategies to address this problem. The event will take place Monday, June 8th from 7pm to 9pm at the Brecht Forum, 451 West St. (btwn. Bank & Bethune).

Sexual harassment on the streets and on the subways (or other forms of mass transit) are a daily reality for many women. I’ve endured obnoxious catcalling and verbal harassment from men on the street throughout middle and high school. One morning when I was going to school on the train (I was in sixth grade at the time), a sick pervert flashed me. Within that week, my best friend at the time was also flashed by a man on the subway. In 8th grade, a friend and I encountered a man publicly masturbating in front of us while we were riding the subway.

Just yesterday, I was walking down a quiet, narrow street, and there was a man walking slowly taking up the entire sidewalk in front of me. I was in a rush so I quickened my pace and tried to get ahead of him, but when he heard me quicken my pace he started walking faster as well. I got in front of him, but then felt him poke me from behind. I turned around and he had his penis whipped out, and was just walking slowly and leisurely grossly exposing himself like that.

At the time I was too shocked, grossed out and angered to say or do anything, so I just quickly crossed the street and walked in the opposite direction. I should’ve taken a picture of the creep and sent it to Holla Back NYC. One of the reasons why NYFST’s upcoming forum is so important is because like I said before, sexual harassment is a frequent reality that many women experience but do not know always how to respond to. Sexual harassment is a way of policing female bodies and restricting their navigation of public space. It can be traumatizing, often times infuriating, and just plain disrespectful and disgusting. Everyone deserves to feel safe and comfortable in public spaces.

From Stop Street Harassment! (their blog is also worth checking out):

Not only is this behavior [leering, whistling, honking, sexually charged comments, vulgar gestures, masturbation, stalking, sexual touching or grabbing, assault and even murder] an invasion of privacy and often annoying, it also makes many women worried for their safety and feel unwelcome in public places. While women’s perception of men’s attraction in pubilc varies depending on factors like what the men are doing, the women’s personal history with violence, and how safe they feel at the time, no woman wants to be insulted, groped, stalked, or assaulted. Many women don’t want to be bothered at all. Girls and women should have just as much right to be in public spaces as boys and men. The harassment and assault must stop!

Take The Plunge!

There’s a recent post on Sociological Images about The Plunge, a wedding planning website for men.  The site reinforces heteronormativity and patriarchal gender stereotypes (women are the wedding planners and will turn into bridezillas who will drive you menz crazy!).  The general tone of the site is a guy commiserating with a husband-to-be being all, I feel ya buddy, wedding planning is so annoying but you just gotta pretend you’re into it.

If you click on Why You Need Us, it says:

Here’s the thing about wedding planning: it kinda sucks. It’s frivolous. It’s stressful and wasteful. It makes you play along with a fake smile, bored and bitter, creating the illusion that you give a damn.

Adding to the stress, your girlfriend is wonderful and lovely and all those syrupy clichés, but she’s about to become a bride…who is none of those things. You will soon be confused. You will soon be frustrated. You will soon feel that no one is on your side.

That’s where we come in.

The junk that matters…and nothing more

Instead of giving you the Dos and Don’ts of choosing stationery, we’ll tackle the (often controversial) stuff that matters, like what to do if her father’s a real prick, how to dis-invite your co-workers, how to handle cold feet, how to finesse the murky world of ex-girlfriends, how to save cash, and what counts as cheating at the bachelor party.

You need to know “what counts as cheating at the bachelor party” because after the wedding, (gasp!) you’re supposed to be completely monogamous!  So you better have a swinging bachelor’s party to celebrate (or rather, mourn) your last night as a free, single man.

And then it later says:

We get it. Your fiancée is devouring 87 wedding planning books, magazines, and blogs that all have the chipper tone of “Yaaaayyyy, Wedding!!!” It amounts to wedding-porn. And it makes you sick. So you can just ignore it and check out, right?

Yes and no. True, she’ll do the heavy lifting. But for better or worse, you also have a starring role in this sucker. So even though “real men don’t plan weddings” and “real men don’t need advice,” in this case, you need advice. Think about it like this: if you believe that you don’t need any help, then you’re implying, by logical extension, that you were born with some innate, feminine, inner-gift for wedding planning.

Real men don’t plan weddings?  Real men don’t need advice?  Hmm.  So tell me, what does a real man do?  And by telling male readers that if they don’t think that they need help then they are logically implying that they were born with “some innate, feminine, inner-gift for wedding planning”?!  This is utter bullshit!  Cisgender, heterosexual men hate having their masculinity disputed or challenged.  Which is why this website tells them that unless they read it and use it for help, they are feminine.  To reassure them that they aren’t emasculating themselves by referring to the website.