Hey PETA, what about Women's Rights?

I picked up an issue of Metro yesterday as I was taking the c-train downtown. Folded, torn at the edges, the Wednesday edition featured an image of PETA bunnies posing for a photograph, covering their breasts with the slogan, “Only Animals Should Wear Fur.” As the front-page central image, the Metro newspaper grabbed attention, as did PETA, an international animal rights group who’s been around since 1980.

Although I agree with and understand the ethics behind animal rights, I do not agree with PETA’s promotional strategy at all. To get across their ethical message of animal abuse, PETA disregards all ethics behind women rights. Sure, sex sells, but it’s selling the wrong message here. Dressing down young women in bunny ears and lingerie speaks more about the sexualization of female bodies than it does animal rights. Women should not have to degrade themselves in promotion of animal rights.



This isn’t the first time I’ve come across PETA sexualizing women for their cause. Search “PETA” on the BITCH website and you’ll find numerous posts about the skewed ethics of this internationally acclaimed animal rights group. Here's another example similar to what went on in Calgary. One of the most shocking animal rights advertisement ploys by animal rights group, Wakker Dier, was the 2009 summer video campaign that featured an infamous Dutch stripper, Ancilla Tilia getting clubbed and gutted on stage. Watch it here.

It’s really disappointing to find that an internationally embraced animal rights organization such as PETA can completely ignore the rights of women and get away with it. As I see it, those PETA bunnies have accomplished nothing for animal rights, and nothing for the rights of women.