This, my friends, is what I call some bullshit.

While reading my Girlie Girl Army newsletter, I came across this link to a Craigslist ad seeking an African American or mixed race vegan actress. Said African American/mixed race vegan actress would essentially be mocking the POTUS’s State of the Union address, “proudly and powerfully reciting a speech” touting PETA’s progress while stripping down from a business suit into her birthday suit.

Seriously?

Then I found this article on The Vegan Ideal about how PETA exploits black men in its advertising campaigns, pointing out that:

“…there is a direct historical connection between PETA’s use of an exotic/erotic and dehumanized image of Black man aggressively lunging from inside a cage (prison) and its use of the image of Black men being lynched. The very images that PETA creates in its portrayal of a Black man as a “wild” nonhuman animals are synonymous with those controlling images used to justify lynching and imprisoning Black men.”

PETA also has a history of getting women to get nekkid for them in various capacities, from print ad campaigns to demonstrations. These women are depicted as battered, abused and even as cuts of meat. The Gender Blender has a visual rundown of some of the offending material used in their campaigns of shock and awe. And even more evidence of their not so ethical behavior:

• PETA’s 97 Percent Death Rate – Please Donate to Kill More Animals
• PETA protests Westminster dog show (Klan hoods and all)
• PETA promotes soft core porn?
• What Does PETA Have Against President Obama?

I understand their intention is to change the quality of life for animals, and I’m all for that. However, is it really necessary to objectify women and play on racial stereotypes (black men are hypersexual, dangerous savages and black women are hypersexual seductresses) in order to draw attention to the plight of animals? Is there no other alternative to trampling on other movements to gain momentum in your own movement?

I call bullshit, PETA. Your controversial campaigns are not so because of the nudity. Who cares about a nekkid celebrity? They’re nekkid all the time, that’s not shocking, it’s boring. What is shocking is the lengths you will go to in order to get your point across. In this blogger’s opinion, your progress is canceled out by the use of thinly veiled porn and painful racial images to shock people into treating animals better.

Boo to you, PETA.

Image from The Vegan Ideal