I am an animal rights activist. I am also a feminist: I
believe that women�s interests deserve equal consideration in all of
life's circumstances. I also am a PETA supporter and have volunteered
for many of their "eye-catching" demos. I have dressed in a cow's suit
and a fur coat with a bag over my head. I have also worn a pleather
�dominatrix� outfit to educate about the cruelty in leather and
protested the circus as a tiger in a cage wearing orange body paint,
pasties, and underwear. Most recently, with PETA I helped distribute
Tofurkys as a �sexy Santa� in a mini skirt, crop top and high-heeled
boots.
In cities throughout the Midwest we asked people to
consider the animals this holiday season by going vegetarian. Many local
activists were very helpful to us; their desire to help animals was very
apparent. But we were not met with open arms at every location; in fact,
some animal rights activists found this an occasion to protest us by not
participating and emailing their condemnation of what they claimed is a
�sexist� and �exploitive� kind of activism.
I know that many take issue with "sexy" demos and ads
for animal rights because this is believed to not be in keeping with a
feminist perspective. However, as a woman and feminist, I believe that
these demos are very much in sync with feminism. They are created by and
volunteered for by women, smart women who realize that these costumes
get valuable attention. The media is more impressed with demos where
activists are in these costumes than others. This is a simple fact and
PETA generates more media attention from their demos than many others.
Obviously when the media is involved, more people are
exposed to the message. I think that potentially exposing tens or
hundreds of thousands to the AR "go veggie" message is better than the
few hundred we will encounter on the street. If a woman has the ability
to create a demo and she or other women want to volunteer for the demo,
then, to be given equal consideration as feminism dictates, these women
have a right to contribute to the movement in this way.
In fact when people say that PETA �uses� women they are
relegating women to the very role we have fought to be rid of, namely,
�things� that need to be ordered around and kept in their place.
It�s ironic that none of the activists offended at my
sexy costume spoke to me. My male companion was the only one to hear
their objections. I may have been considered too submissive and
un-opinionated to have an answer and they �respect women� too much to
discuss the issues with me. They may have been afraid to hear what I
might have to say. Maybe they thought I was chained up and gagged by
PETA since they were �using and objectifying� me? Did they think that I
was nothing more than a sexual piece of meat who didn�t know what was
being done to her or able to make her own choices? This thinking further
perpetuates the idea that women are incapable of taking care of
themselves and taking on very serious activism for animal rights.
So I ask each of you, when you see women dressed
�sexily� for activism, do you see a victimized woman with nothing to
offer the world other than her body? Or do you see a woman who
intelligently and freely chooses to use her body to make a point? Your
answer may lead you to your own hidden sexism.
We all have different ways to contribute to animal
rights activism. PETA�s eye-catching demos are just one way to further
the message that animals are not ours to eat, to wear or to experiment
on. I found my role as the �tiger� in a cage wearing nothing but body
paint, underwear, and pasties to be a very moving experience. Yes, I was
very self-conscious and very cold. But I have never really understood
what it must be like to be an exploited animal in a circus until that
moment. I have never known what is a lifetime of suffering for tigers in
circuses until my experience in that cage being gawked at and laughed
at. The only difference was that, unlike the animals, I was able to
emerge from that cage unharmed.
I am grateful for that experience whether or not it was
effective to convince my onlookers of the evils of animals used for
entertainment. I am angry that others would have it that I should not
have been allowed to participate in that demo. In fact, I am a better
person having done this demo. I saw many young girls looking at me with
wide eyes in my Sexy Santa costume.
This to me is a true test of my feminist ideas. If I can
look at what I am doing and think that I am emulating what it means to
be a positive role model for the women of tomorrow, then I am being true
to myself and to women. I hope that they saw a woman with a loud voice
who is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in. I hope they saw
a woman who promotes compassion and peace for all living beings. I hope
they saw that the female body and being sexy is nothing to be ashamed of
and that striving to be healthy and fit is a good goal to have. I hope
that they saw that not being waif-like skinny with the media portrayed
idea of female beauty does not mean that you cannot be proud of who you
are and how you look.
I don�t think that women have achieved all that there is
achieve for equality. But I do believe that, at least for women in
America, we don�t have that much farther to go. Compare this to the
animals who are blowtorched, mutilated, vaginally electrocuted,
impregnated to have their babies ripped from them and then tortured for
their milk and meat, hacked open for science, and beaten, exploded and
tormented for entertainment. In all seriousness, who is the exploited
group?
Considering the immensity of the problem of animal
exploitation, I find that the majority of the complaining about PETA and
their �using� women to be a distraction that needs to stop. I don�t
believe, and I�m sure that many will be offended at this, that people
who choose to make an issue about women in PETA demos and ads have
really considered the animals first. I would suspect that the animals
would think that you could help them in better ways than sending off
your emails in protest of PETA.
Go on to Chickens Killed Inhumanely in a Woodchipper and The Role of the AVMA
Return to 1 February 2004 Issue
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