JENNIFER DREW said:

PETA claims its organisation is staffed mainly by feminists. Oh yes? So the moon is indeed made of green cheese if you believe this. Staffed by misogynists would be a truer description and moreover by staff whose sole aim is to portray women as men's sexualised playthings.

Come PETA show some images of naked men engaging in self-stimulation, then perhaps you might just understand what sexual commodification of women means. Of course such images would not be allowed because it would be termed 'sexist' and degrading to men.

Posted on 30 January 2009 at 8:27 PM

Saranga said:

Yes I regularly try to fuck myself with vegetables. And seeing a hot woman do so will instantly make me want to become vegetarian.
Also:
"As an organization staffed largely by feminist women, we would not do something that we felt contributed to the very serious problems that women face."
Just because some women don't find it offensive doesn't mean other woman can't find it offensive. It's offensive. We are not a hive mind.
Anybody see PETA's Sea Kittens ploy? not sexist, just daft. Fish = sea kittens apparently.

Posted on 30 January 2009 at 8:32 PM

Kez said:

It beats me why PETA feel the need to continue to pull this stuff. I mean, what do they hope to achieve? OK, on a crude level it gains publicity. But surely the point, for a campaigning organisation, is to win people over to their cause, and I fail to see how this advert would do that. I honestly struggle to imagine a single person watching that and thinking "oh, better become vegetarian!".

It's as if they've sat there thinking "how can we promote vegetarianism? I know, let's make it sexy!" (Original, or what?) And then attempted to do so in the crassest, crudest, stupidest way possible.

PETA may well be staffed by women, but if they're feminists then they're a very strange variety.

Posted on 31 January 2009 at 11:16 AM

Anne Onne said:

After all the campaigns they've pulled over the years, I find it highly likely PETA actually give a shit what women think. All the 'women are meat' and 'if you go veggie/vegan, women will fuck you' crap so far pretty much guarantees they don't even know the meaning of feminism. Or intersectionality, come to think of it.

Here's how it goes. You don't step on another marginalised group to promote your agenda. You don't co-opt their objectification as less-than to sell your ideal.

I'm sure there may be some women who identify as feminist working there, maybe feeling that they might change it from the inside, or work there in spite of the problems because nearly all workplaces are misogynist anyway. But for PETA to pretend that they are automatically the judges of what is and is not feminist is just laughable.

PETA, you contribute to the very serious problems women face EVERY time you use naked women or dead looking women to publicise your campaign in a society saturated with them, every time you equate women with meat, every time you pretend that eating vegetables makes men fuckable, every time you assume that the only audience worth addressing is white heterosexual men, and every time you defend yourselves instead of listening to the complaints of women who are offended.

Just change your motto to 'Animals: they're more important than women!' and get it done with already. It's the pretending you care that really rankles.

Posted on 31 January 2009 at 1:22 PM

Grace said:

I heard about this but couldn't have conceived of such rubbish! I looked down at the other ads, and they have one of Alicia Silverstone coming out of a pool completely naked and she's doing a voice over about how healthy she feels being vegetarian, then she is viewed from behind, completely naked on the edge of the pool. What does that have to do with her being vegetarian? Nothing, because Casey Affleck did an advert as well and he is fully clothed and voicing over pictures of slaughtered animals.

A lifestyle choice like vegetarianism shouldn't have to be sold with sex. Vegetarianism isn't a product to be bought and consumed (not that it's okay to sell consumer products with sex either), and shouldn't be chosen just because it is cool or sexy at the time.

Posted on 01 February 2009 at 10:12 PM

Bea Valle said:

Shocking!

Posted on 02 February 2009 at 1:30 PM

Kate K said:

I agree with Anne Onne. Why does PETA believe that misogyny is the appropriate vehicle to stop people from eating meat?
Nor do the "sexy" women and their vegetables seem to have turned the heads of the targeted white male audience.
"Rather vulgar. Pass the fried chicken and chips. It is the Superbowl! We watch American football and eat junk food. Yeah!"

I join the hive mind - I won't lick a shiny pumpkin!

Posted on 02 February 2009 at 5:13 PM

Lara said:

I am always baffled by how PETA seem to think attractive women taking off their clothes is going to convert meat eaters into vegetarians. If someone eschews meat after hearing Alicia Silverstone purr ‘I feel so much healthier being vegetarian’ whilst emerging from a pool naked, then perhaps they are not vegetarian for the right reasons?! It’s completely typifying of PETA’s employment of sensationalist, misogynist tactics instead of, let’s see, education??

Posted on 05 February 2009 at 11:55 AM

Lisa said:

OK. As a vegetarian, I already have numerous problems with PETA's campaigns, but this really takes the biscuit. Imagine this conversation:

Person A: So why are you vegetarian?
Person B: *Insert various moral, environmental, health etc reasons here*
Person C: Because it's HOT man!

Which person would you have the most respect for?!

Posted on 07 February 2009 at 2:19 PM