This time with a naked pregnant woman in a cage.
I’m sympathetic to the argument that sexualized stunts get attention. Fine. But really, PETA, why do you always have to use women’s bodies to make your point? A major feminist critique of advertising in general is the fact that images of women serve as stand-ins for sex itself, leading to a greater cultural understanding of sex as something that women both “have” (and that men are trying to get) and physically embody. That’s incredibly problematic — and (perhaps ironically), it works itself into the way that meat-eating is masculinized and vegetarianism is feminized and de-valued (just read Carol Adams, since she explains this better than I can).
Animal liberation theory does intersect with feminist theory, and our cultural understanding of animals and food (and animals as food, and women-as-meat) is heavily gendered. But PETA is promoting animal rights at the expense of women’s rights — and that’s not only simplistic, but it’s bad for everyone involved.
If you want to draw attention to the plight of animals by humanizing them, go for it. But you don’t have to de-humanize women in the process.
Image below the fold.
