Do You Love Animals? Do You Have Lady Bits? Take Off Your Clothes!

by lisa, Jul 21, 2009, at 10:00 am

Ashley A. at The Female Gaze directed us to a sigh-inducing example of PETA’s use of sexual objectification to forward its cause. I know, PETA is low hanging fruit, but the pictures so nicely illustrate the difference between the roles that men and women are supposed to play and what about a woman is supposedly important.

We have the by-now-expected naked or mostly naked chick who loves animals:

PETA-protests-National-Hot-Dog-Day_2

Men, though, apparently get to remain fully clothed while loving animals (or, alternatively, there were half-naked men there but photographers decided against taking pictures of them):

PETA-protests-National-Hot-Dog-Day_3

And, in case you were wondering, the slide show includes not one, not two, not three, but four boob/crotch shots (40% of the total slide show):

PETA-protests-National-Hot-Dog-Day_1

PETA-protests-National-Hot-Dog-Day_4

PETA-protests-National-Hot-Dog-Day_5

PETA-protests-National-Hot-Dog-Day_10

This story could also have easily been included as part of our What Warrants a Slide Show? post which is worth looking at, especially if you like half-naked ladies. We aim to please.

31 Comments

Tags: animals, gender, gender: objectification, objectification, public service announcements, sex

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Comments

MeToo 10:29 am on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

The sexism makes a nice complement to their persistent fatphobia (http://www.peta.org/feat/obesity/page/header.gif). There are plenty of reasons why most of us vegans hate PETA.
Dehka 12:36 pm on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

Can anyone understand what her tattoo is supposed to read?
And does it make me a bad person for fixating on it?

:/
Rickey 12:44 pm on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

The chicks are hot, the guys look like dweebs, and the food is probably terrible.
nerdo 12:57 pm on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

@Dehka
ironically enough, her tatoo says “respect”
Dmitriy 1:07 pm on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

But you don’t know if there is more to that tattoo.

May be the tattoo actually reads “respect my sense of irony”.
MeToo 2:10 pm on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

I’m sure the veggie dogs are awesome (though those big fat Tofurkey beer sausages are *much* better), but all that naked flesh near my food would really squick me out. Food + nude strangers = NO.
Elena 3:18 pm on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

You know what, I’ve never understood why people would make tofu ersatz meats like sausages or patties instead of some delicious ma po doufu, hiya yakko or miso soup. Tofu is so tasty, it’s a real pity to waste it in recreating meat.
MeToo 3:20 pm on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

@Elena: comfort food.
Natalie 3:28 pm on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

Ah, but in the original post, the women aren’t just any women. They’re Playboy playmates – pre-packaged and pre-objectified by title. I suspect this is a factor in the comfortable and untroubled way the original article focuses on the breast and crotch shots.
Poppy 3:48 pm on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

I am confused as to why they are both wearing Playboy Bunny pendants?

Given PETA’s promotion of the “healthiness” of a vegan diet, (because tofu dogs are so healthy) I wouldn’t be surprised if the ‘crotch shots’ are trying to focus on how slender their thighs and stomachs are – veganism makes you hot and skinny, dontcha know? But only women are allowed to be both hot and skinny. Laying aside PETA’s track record for sexism, given that both the men seem to be quite slim as well, maybe they aren’t half-naked partly because of the stereotype of vegan men being weak and fragile?

Or maybe it’s just because boobs sell more hotdogs.
mercurianferret 4:51 pm on July 21, 2009 | # | Reply

True, PETA should have hired not only Playboy models, but also Playgirl hunks and put them in lettuce-style g-strings, instead of a few skinny guys in black t-shirts.

Of course, if that happened, then how likely would it have been to have Soc Images pick it up, or would it have been a discussion of why PETA seems to be pushing the notion of “veganism leads to skinniness”? I suppose PETA just can’t catch a break.

Still, much more pleasant to look at than female models under plastic, oozing fake blood.
Bagelsan 2:30 am on July 22, 2009 | # | Reply

I suppose PETA just can’t catch a break.

PETA can’t catch a break because it is an unbroken string of epic failures and terrible decisions that have destroyed any benefit of the doubt it might otherwise have. (And PETA would *never* reverse who gets naked, so asking whether people would remark on that event is pointless.)
Links, because I’m not sure I can be coherent on this right now. « Prioritizing the Paranoias 10:45 am on July 22, 2009 | # | Reply

[...] Sociological Images, “Do You Love Animals? Do You Have Lady Bits? Take Off Your Clothes!“ I know, PETA is low hanging fruit, but the pictures so nicely illustrate the difference [...]
Liz 11:11 am on July 22, 2009 | # | Reply

As a vegan who is also not the biggest fan of PETA, but also as a vegan who knows more about PETA than what I read from the AP or Reuters, meet the Broccoli Boys: http://www.lettuceladies.com/broccoli_boys.asp
adam 1:26 pm on July 22, 2009 | # | Reply

Poppy,
PETA did not take the photos and publish them. They were taken by news reporters and published on an online newspaper. The point is that PETA just wants attention and the crippled news companies just wants some money. Sex “sells” both causes so such events are mutually beneficial to both the nonprofit industry and the news media.

There’s a great commentary in the LA Times here about the efficacy of this event:
“PETA prances out playmates, but is anyone influenced to go vegetarian?” http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2009/07/peta-playmates-jayde-nicole-playboy-veggie-dog.html

There’s a really thorough critique of the objectification of women and idealization of female bodies by Skinny Bitch and PETA here:
http://eco-health.blogspot.com/2009/04/skinny-bitch-and-bulimic-vegetarians.html
Natalie 3:49 pm on July 22, 2009 | # | Reply

But Liz, the same theme predominates on the PETA website. We’re invited to peel off the layers, “leaf by leaf” of the lettuce ladies, there’s a lot of them, and multiple pages involving them. The three brocolli boys are just in singlets. We’re not invited to do anything with them, there doesn’t seem to be a competition to become one, or if there is, it’s well-hidden, and if you go to “vote for your favourite” then you get treated to a picture of women in almost-nothing tofu wrestling! The lettuce ladies website is more than just a little unbalanced in terms of focus – or is there a seperate brocolli boys website I’m missing?
urgh 9:09 pm on July 22, 2009 | # | Reply

As a vegan I have to admit to detesting peta for this kind of bull crap that they constantly try to pull usually showing women to be sexual icons that belong in porn and secondly making animal rights a laughing stock. Furthermore they are one of the most hypocritical twatish organisations I can think of.
Lastly, I know many vegans and vegetarians who hate peta. If anyone looks at these people as a good voice for animal rights, well, please stop.
opminded 6:04 am on July 23, 2009 | # | Reply

Please, more posts like this! LOL….
adam 11:36 am on July 23, 2009 | # | Reply

Oh, and I was also thinking about the men are especially feminine. Was this to make them dissapear into the background so as not to equate veggie dogs with hot women AND men (too homoerotic?). Why not pick out muscularly toned vegan men to masculinize rather than eroticise the hot dogs? Because female bodies sell much better than male bodies? Any other ideas…
Jared 9:46 am on July 24, 2009 | # | Reply

mercurianferret, if they used male Playgirl models, of course it would still have ended up on SI and of course we would still be discussing it. Objectifying both men and women isn’t equality; it’s just twice as much objectification.
Dubuque 3:19 pm on July 25, 2009 | # | Reply

You didn’t post the photo of the women feeding each other the dogs ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/petaflickr/3750275786 ). They should have used tossed salads for this promotion instead.
bitter pineapple 4:05 pm on July 26, 2009 | # | Reply

I’m mad that I recognize the girl on the left as Brody Jenner’s girlfriend. UGHHHHHHHHHHH
carvedangel.net » Blog Archive » it’s okay to objectify women, but don’t you dare kill a fly! 4:28 pm on July 26, 2009 | # | Reply

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Corey 10:50 am on August 1, 2009 | # | Reply

I’m pretty sure one of the women has a tattoo on her pelvis reading “respect.”
ironic.
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Jackie 8:46 am on August 11, 2009 | # | Reply

PETA’s been aligning themselves with pornography for sometime now. I feel at least with having Playboy bunnies whoring for being vegan, they’re promoting the same pornography business those women are.

More concerning for me, is PETA’s fat hatred, as well as their complete lack of concern over mentally abusing children. If it isn’t making a child scream and cry after being handed a Unhappy Meal with graphic images of animals dying on them. It’s telling children to feel ashamed that they’re fat, oh and that it really does help, if you bully children for being fat too.

I mean after all, that’s why they’re putting out images of a fat child eating a hamburger on playgrounds, saying they should be vegan right? So children can learn to point and laugh at fat children, and ostracize them.

You also will never see PETA admit there are fat vegans. No apparently PETA just has hordes of women willing to strip naked at their beck and call. How does this make them any different than Hugh Hefner? I’ve also heard the claim that these women, have the right to choose to be half naked or naked.

They appear to not care at all the impact this has on growing girls, who will associate being vegetarian with dressing like a prostitute. They’ll be convinced that saving animals comes at the price of being treated like a piece of meat by men.

Unless they just say, “To hell with it, I’m not going to be part of an organization that regards me as an object” and then your ruining it for women who would want to help animals, but feel that their participation would depend solely on how well they can be objectified.

I suggest taking a look at the World Society for the Protection of Animals website if you want to help animals. They just will state the facts, and they’re not at all about shock tactics or half dress ladies like PETA. One of the reasons I became interested in them, is they say in their TV ads they don’t feel it necessary to show graphic abuse of animals to get their point across. Meaning they respect people who care about animals enough to believe they will make the right choice when it comes to the issues, without having to shove their nose in the s**t of other people abusing animals.
Jackie 4:08 pm on August 11, 2009 | # | Reply

Well I’m not sure exactly how, but a PETA representative managed to get my e-mail from this site, and sent me a e-mail. Basically saying, “A controversial anti-racism magazine used shock tactics, so we should be able to too!” Of course, completely missing the point.

Imagine if they were to spend this time sewing real clothing for their lettuce ladies, instead of replying with self-serving rationalizations for their offensive behavior?
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