Samantha Demetriou ⬥ 24 August
I’m going to preface this post by saying that I was a vegetarian for seven years, I don’t own anything made of fur, and I love animals. In theory, I support what the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) represents, particularly its stance against animal cruelty. How it goes about spreading its message, however, is an entirely different story.
It was with a hefty rolling of the eyes that I learned that late last week, everyone’s favorite red-paint-throwing animal rights activist organization had announced its intentions to register a domain name in .XXX. PETA reportedly plans to use the domain to host a pornographic website designed to raise awareness of veganism and draw attention to the suffering of animals.
Yes, folks, you read right – a PETA-run porn site. To raise awareness. About veganism.
Call me naïve, but I’m pretty sure porn isn’t really an ideal vehicle to raise awareness aboutanything…except, well, you know.
When asked how porn-tastic PETA will get with its site, spokesperson Lindsay Rajt told the Huffington Post that it will have enough adult content to qualify for the .XXX domain site but also some other graphic images of animals that viewers may not expect to see. Sounds…interesting.
This announcement really comes as no surprise given PETA’s recent commitment to the “sex sells” ethos: the organization has featured celebrities posing nude in advertisements denouncing fur, displayed bikini-clad women stuffed into cages to raise awareness about the suffering of chickens, and has even filmed women in their underwear defiling vegetables in seriously disturbing ways.
Presumably, we can expect to see similar content on PETA’s new .XXX site – interspersed with images of slaughterhouses and other horrors designed to scare viewers off meat forever. Frankly, PETA’s repeated, tawdry publicity gags make me less concerned about the plight of animals, and more concerned about what definition of “exploitation” it’s following.
Tags: .XXX, adult content, animal cruelty, animal rights activist organization, domain names, graphic images, Huffington Post, Lindsay Rajt, PETA, porn, veganism, vegetarian