Is New PETA Campaign Featuring Overweight Woman Sexist?
The animal rights group PETA has launched a new billboard campaign in Jacksonville, Florida that is raising the ire of some people who think it is sexist. The billboard features an overweight woman, with the tag line "Save The Whales-Lose The Blubber: Go Vegetarian."
PETA says the point of the billboard is to get people to stop eating meat, and as an added bonus, vegetarians weigh less than meat eaters.
PETA's press release reads:
A new PETA billboard campaign that was just launched in Jacksonville reminds people who are struggling to lose weight -- and who want to have enough energy to chase a beach ball -- that going vegetarian can be an effective way to shed those extra pounds that keep them from looking good in a bikini. The ad shows a woman whose "blubber" is spilling over the sides of her swimsuit bottom...
Anyone wishing to achieve a hot "beach bod" is reminded that studies show that vegetarians are, on average, about 10 to 20 pounds lighter than meat-eaters...
"Trying to hide your thunder thighs and balloon belly is no day at the beach," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman.
But many people are outraged, saying it is sexist to use an overweight woman to get a point across. The website Feministing.com writes:
I know I shouldn't be surprised by PETA's latest billboard campaign in Florida - after all, their brand of activism has proven to be sexist and racist time and time again - why not fat-shaming to boot?... This (stuff) is just shameful."
Jessica Wakeman at Thefrisky.com writes:
Oh, God, now even billboards are judging us? Insults and fat-shaming aren’t tried-and-true ways to encourage tofu instead of burgers. But something tells us that wasn’t the point: Bigger women were the ones chosen to be dehumanized so this cruel, sexist billboard could get some chuckles. Gross.
And Kimberly Morrison at the Jacksonville Business Journal:
I love animals and I like a lot of things PETA does, but this campaign is tacky, mean-spirited and seems to take pride in publicly humiliating two-thirds of Americans who are overweight. Not cool.
PETA has yet to respond to the sexist accusations. But PETA might very well point out that it is an equal opportunity offender, making fun of fat men as well. Here's part of PETA's blog on the billboard campaign:
What does the Sunshine State's endless summer mean for PETA? Our phone lines ring off the hook with reports of "beached whale sightings."
That link will take you to a photo of an extremely overweight man.
Fox News took on the issue as well. Watch here:
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Back in 2009 PETA attacked men in their "Dude looks like a Lady" Campaign. I do not think PETA cares enough about people to even distinguish between the genders beyond make a cruel Ads at the expense of people.
I can't help but shake my head in utter disillusionment to this ad.
Way to go PETA ... you, yet AGAIN have given all of us hard working animal rights activists a bad name, while failing to create any change with your silly, amateurish, sexist ads , that do nothing to educate people about animal rights but rather alienate the public. You truly are one of a kind.
It boggles my mind that an animal rights organization, like PETA, who supposedly takes the position that speciesism is no different from other forms of discrimination, manages to have the ignorance to use those other forms of discrimination in attempt to get their point across. How can anyone profess that animals ought not to be exploited by creating sexist ads that exploit women? WTF? This is basically the equivalent to running an ad that features a puppy wearing a t-shirt that says "Stop Exploiting Animals"
Like most of PETA's foolishness, this ad does absolutely nothing to get people thinking about our moral obligations to animals. It speaks nothing about animal rights but rather tells people they can lose weight and look better by not eating meat . Veganism should never be about someone's self-seeking, egocentric desire to lose a few pounds. Robert Bowen (aka.The Angry Hippie) better describes this as "bullsh*tatarianism". If the animal rights movement is going to make it ANYWHERE, it HAS to be founded on moral and ethical principles.
Also, once again PETA has failed the AR movement by promoting vegetarianism , rather than veganism- the baseline to animal rights. Vegetarianism is a very problematic moral stance for anyone to take because it completely disregards the production of eggs and dairy (which involve every bit as much suffering, if not more, than meat ). Vegetarianism is heavily contradictive of itself and should never take the forefront of the AR message, like it has been for the past 30 years, thanks to PETA, the supposed "leader" of the AR movement.
I am an animal rights activist and I am VEGAN; I reprehend the exploitation of animals. I am a human rights advocate and I am VEGAN; I reprehend the exploitation of humans. Get the connection?
I am all of these things and I reprehend the nonsense of PETA. If you are not an animal rights advocate, please do not assume that all those who are, support foolish, asinine, outright idiotic ads like this... because some of us are decent people.
For those of you who DO support this ad, either grow some common sense or find another social cause to butcher, like you have this one.
Sexist I doubt, the next billboard will (I hope)show an obese male.
Obesity is completely non-partisan. It just causes pain and misery to every obese person, just ask any chiropractor. Arthritic knees, pain in the feet and backache, a walker, and the wheelchair long before your time. That's if you don't have a stroke or a heart attack.
I now take a tough uncompromising stand - and lose about 80% of my obese patients. Too bad. But the other 20% are eternally grateful when they begin to see the benefits.
Vegetarianism is indeed one way. Perhaps even better is just to incorporate far more salad and veg into your omnivorous diet .
Just look at Chiropractic-Help.com and you'll see how we've helped many, many people lose weight and be healthier and happier. There you will find our free weight loss diet. Nothing to lose.
I'm going to send an idea for PETA called GOT MRSA? About 40% of raw meat (pork and chicken) is infected with MRSA and VRE -flesh eating bacteria due to antibiotic abuse in farm factories, given at a daily basis, as a growth stimulant and to keep the animals alive in pure filth (they live in their own urine and feces-literally), in small confined areas crammed like sardines, and the air literally burns their lungs with the high ammonia smell from the feces and urine. All animals have staph on their skin; combined with antibiotic abuse it becomes MRSA. If you so much as TOUCH raw meat in its preparation you CAN get MRSA or VRE from a microcrack on your skin or you rub your nose. Did you know it's legal to feed cattle chicken maneur as feed? It's true. Google it. Did you know chicken farmers ROUTINELY put ARSENIC in their chicken feed. Even in "organic grown" chicken, this arsenic is legal because aresenic poison occurs naturally in nature. Google it-chicken feed and arsenic. What makes the meat pinkish? Arsenic poisoning. Arsenic does not leave the body easy and accumulates and YOU eat it! In fact, chicken manure commonly has arsenic and antibiotic resistant infective bacteria in it. It is also legal to gas red meat with CARBON MONOXIDE-which is car exhaust fumes-it keeps the meat looking red and fresh-even after years. You tell me if all of this is safe. 100% of all fish test positive for MERCURY, and 25% of that is "unsafe levels"-which can mean LETHAL level. Mercury too accumulates in the body and is associated with brain damage and cancers. Enjoy your meat!
One out of four Americans are morbidly obese - people want to pass a universal health care but I don't see how that's possible with the majority of people abusing their bodies. OVERALL vegetarians tend to be thinner. Now I'm vegan because milk and eggs grosses me out. But our fast food nation - the devotees of McCruelty and KFC-is what I call trailer trash food and our greasy slothful nation has created a health care crisis. I am AGAINST a single payer plan due to so many people who abuse their bodies. They should have included a fat man too. And yes fat people DO find it offensive simply because THE TRUTH HURTS.
Ads are based in drawing attention. This ad is somewhat offensive but 6 out of 10 people are fat in America, so if they happen to get mad but perhaps do something about it, it's a good thing. Sometimes your world has to get rocked for you to overcome a stupid habit.
I saw the dietitian in the FOX News clip above saying that any controlled-calorie diet , even if it includes meat , can make you loose weight . But the fact of the matter is that populations that eat more meat are more obese. And vegetarians happen to weight less overall.
I am vegan and I am anti- PETA . They're tactics are tactless. Besides being insulting, even the message of "loose weight , be healthy: go veggie" is missing the real points. First off, a junk food vegetarian is far from being healthy and many omnivores can lead 'healthy' lives, and guess what vegetarians: milk consumption is link with heart disease, diabetes , asthma, cancer , strokes, high blood pressure. Second, the important message should be vegan education : the needless violence perpetrated against innocent sentient lives, the fact that the animal agriculture industry is one of the most serious environmental problems
Regarding the "needless violence perpetrated against innocent sentient lives," did you ever wonder how many animals per acre get destroyed to produce a few dozen bushels of soybeans. Nobody really knows. On the other hand, we do know how many animals per acre of pasture land are killed to produce a beef carcass. One. And how many acres of pasture land contribute high-nutrient runoff of the sort that creates Dead Zones like the one in the Gulf of Mexico? When you think about it, when food is produced for humans, critters of one sort or another have to die. It's unavoidable. But pasturing animals is far less destructive of animal life and damaging to the environment than cultivating crops.
Every pound of beef uses 16lbs of wheat/soy/grains, 2500gal of water , the grains used on soley USA livestock could feed 800million people (David Pimentel, Cornell Univ). The cropland is pushed hard to produce an extraordinary amount of grain FOR the animal industry even with grazing.
Sustainable farming is no longer possible, livestock now outnumber people 3:1. (J.Mayer, Harvard) and the results are disastrous: United Nation's Food & Agriculture Organization cites animal agriculture as the worlds #1 water polluter and now uses 70% of amazon forestland, according to scientists at the Smithsonian Institute, the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed every minute, much of it to create more room for farmed animals .
Philip Fradkin, of the National Audubon Society, states, "The impact of countless hooves and mouths over the years has done more to alter the type of vegetation and land forms of the West than all the water projects, strip mines, power plants, freeways, and subdivision developments combined."
Absolutely not! Take a good hard look at the doctors AND nurses in our hospitals who are fat and/or obese! Fat is fat no matter who you are. Americans should be ashamed - we are the fattest people in the world.
I am not alone - I need to lose at least 25 lbs.