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PETA Removes Misogynist, Sizeist Billboard
It's not surprising when the "mad men" of advertising (whether they're working in the 60s or today) use sex to sell. But I'm sorry to say that it's become equally unsurprising when animal rights group PETA employs the same tactics. PETA has a shamefully long history of using naked women and other exploitative ploys to gain attention and free press for its campaigns. They certainly aren't above belittling women's bodies in various ways in an attempt to seem edgy or funny. Like the time PETA presented a woman's unshaven bikini line with the pitch: "Fur trim. Unattractive."
Recently PETA put up a billboard in Jacksonville, Fla., that said "Save the Whales. Lose the Blubber: Go Vegetarian." Next to the lettering was a drawing of a plus-size, bikini-clad woman -- meant to represent, apparently, the epitome of the overweight, unsightly woman who should be hiding indoors. In a press statement, their executive vice president said, "Trying to hide your thunder thighs and balloon belly is no day at the beach."
Lots of angry people alerted NOW to this outrage, and many more wrote to PETA. The billboard was quickly replaced with one that says: "GONE. Just Like All the Pounds Lost by People Who Go Vegetarian." While PETA is sticking with the theme of weight loss, at least they are no longer visually shaming women who dare to go to the beach without reaching a size zero first. PETA's retraction of the billboard is proof that our actions can make a difference. Don't be afraid to write to PETA the next time you see an ad of theirs that capitalizes on degrading sex stereotypes. Maybe someday they'll get it.
In the meantime, it's not too late to post comments on PETA's site. Help educate them about why this kind of advertising is harmful! And visit NOW Foundation's Love Your Body site to find out ways to celebrate women's bodies.
In the 1990s, when I was in my 40s, I read something written somewhere by a 50-something woman who said that she was going to stop trying to conform to the thin image the mass media wanted women to have. I decided I'd stop worrying about my weight then, too.
In twenty-oh-three, when I was 51 years old and the closest I had ever been to 200 pounds (a limit I still didn't want to exceed), I was diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic. It's important now for me to keep my weight down, which I have constantly struggled to do. I now face a shorter life expectancy plus the prospect of going blind and of possibly losing a foot or leg or two. I am thankful to have a great job with superb health insurance benefits, but this raises the stakes for me if I ever lose these benefits.
While I don't want women and girls to lose weight just because they need to conform to an image, we need to keep in perspective that there are health issues, too.
billboard?
It's really sad that women have had to to extreme measures to look like models on runways. A person's body, regardless of gender, is what it is. God did not create trash. All of our bodies are uniquely different. We're supposed to be different! If we all look the same as those super skinny models, alot of deaths would occur along the way. As they already have had, with bulimia
and purging. It's awful that our culture expects so much out of HOW WE LOOK !
Today's billboards of women are computer finished, to look a certain way. There is NO WAY a woman could ever look like A COMPUTERIZED picture!
I am a woman's rights activist in my own way one the internet. I have a book about a particular woman's issue- breast cancer, and in my own little ways, I do talk to women and try to convince them we are all our natural selves- be happy with you got-whatever you got, is uniquely you!! Why can't we all get this thru our heads? It's time to go back to our natural ways and give up the "costumes" we wear every day just to "fit in". We spend hours in the bathroom before work, making sure we don't look odd. It's a wonder that we don 't install a bathroom in every bathroom of our houses!
They should be encouraging a healthy bodies that can live longer and work harder - not bodies that fit into regulation sex appeal.
And most of all, we should all value all living beings - whether we choose to follow vegetarian lifestyles or not.
Exactly!
This billboard actually said PETA on it, although not in very big letters. And their print ads will always say PETA on them. But I find that the way I hear about their ads and campaigns most of the time is through news stories or blog posts. So, you'll usually know it's them, all right.
Overjoyed that NOW has its own blog and I will be a regular poster.
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