I'm opposed to this (and most of PETA's publicity campaigns), because - as you said - 'seeing people dressed like this in a public place could be terribly triggering to POC'. We do not live in a post-racist society.
However:
'What this campaign tells me, is that to PETA I am less than a dog.'
Does this comment not presuppose that to be 'less than a dog' is *possible*, as if there were some kind of objective hierarchy already in existence within which you had been 'relegated'? Is that not predicated upon the cultural bias that nonhuman animals are 'lower' than humans?
Do you *own* a dog?
'I believe in preventing cruelty against animals but not at the cost of dehumanizing the weakest members of society.'
Dehumanisation is only abusive because the alternative to being human - to be not human - automatically makes one and one's freedom fair game. The Greeks had two words for life, from which we derive 'zoo' and 'bio'. Bios is 'organised life' which exhibits political activity and zoos is 'naked' life, where the latter was considered inferior and subject to the former. When someone is dehumanised, their political activity is constrained and all of the 'rights' they 'have' as 'humans' are 'revoked'. Having such 'rights' is the only thing that stops one from being 'fair game' for all of the other humans, who are entitled (by the same rights that were removed from the dehumanised person, that are *always* witheld from nonhumans) to do whatever they desire to those things without rights - own them, abuse them, destroy them.
Evidently, this would not occur if humans refused to surreptitiously endorsed the view that nonhuman animals exist only to be used and abused by humans, and human animals entitled to use and abuse anything they like - so long as it lacks the rights of humans.
Although much of your blog articulates well why this and many other PETA campaigns have been unacceptable, I believe that your language also happens to expose your internalised hatred of animals and everything nonhuman.
Animals are bred, broken, raped, tortured and abused on an hourly basis in our societies. They endure all of the horrors that all humans have endured since the inception of civilisation - they just don't have the opportunity to write poetry, songs, blogs, articles and academic papers about it in syntax we understand.
'I believe in preventing cruelty against animals but not at the cost of dehumanizing the weakest members of society.'
Only when *all* humans are 'dehumanised', and by this I mean the dismantling of the systems of rights and corresponding *entitlements* that lead to almost all of the abuses suffered by human and nonhuman animals, will we have achieved a measure of freedom.
It is not people's lack of right to own property that causes poverty, but the presence of this right in the hands of a few. It is not women's lack of rights to other people's bodies that causes patriarchy, but the *presence* of this right in the male class. If one 'earns' the 'right' to self-determination in the eyes of state, the bourgeois, the white class, the male class, the heteronormative class, this is transient and can be (and repeatedly has been) taken away at any convenient moment for any 'reason'. The entitlement to grant this self-determination, in other words the *entitlement* to determine the end of anything that lacks self-determination, must be removed.
ninbroken52
· 10 months ago
PETA's such attention whores. they couldn't care less about animals. they care about getting noticed.
i hope some day they're gone. not likely to happen though.
Skye
· 10 months ago
Anyone who gives money to this organization after this stunt should be publicly humiliated.
Penny
· 10 months ago
PETA has turned into People Engaging In Toolhead Acts.
Michelle
· 10 months ago
Wow. This is just so many levels of crazy and horrible.
Ezekiah
· 10 months ago
Every time I hear about them, it's one more fucked up stunt they are pulling. They clearly don't give a shit about women (which was on display in their "lock (fat) women up in cages in bikinis and compare them to pigs" routine they did), and after this fucked up stunt it's obvious again about their complete disregard for anyone who isn't white. However (as a trans guy) I'm curious about what transphobic shit they've mangaged to pull...
Ana l Hardwood Floor
· 10 months ago
I suggest PETA will work silently in their own way if they really care for animals a lot. Not to the point that they abuse their publicity, even they reach to a point that it is not justifiable at all. I care for these animals as well but why did some PETA people decided to post nude behind animals or uses vegetables as covers? What is this all about? Does it really help in achieving their goal? Just asking...:-)
Scrapbooking Ideas
· 9 months ago
PETA will do just about anything for attention...
Trægulve
· 8 months ago
PETA Really need attention
plussizecostumes
· 3 days ago
Excellent blog. This post is very important for those person who wants to get a perfect dress up.Thanks for this knowledgeable post..
All Comments
However:
'What this campaign tells me, is that to PETA I am less than a dog.'
Does this comment not presuppose that to be 'less than a dog' is *possible*, as if there were some kind of objective hierarchy already in existence within which you had been 'relegated'? Is that not predicated upon the cultural bias that nonhuman animals are 'lower' than humans?
Do you *own* a dog?
'I believe in preventing cruelty against animals but not at the cost of dehumanizing the weakest members of society.'
Dehumanisation is only abusive because the alternative to being human - to be not human - automatically makes one and one's freedom fair game. The Greeks had two words for life, from which we derive 'zoo' and 'bio'. Bios is 'organised life' which exhibits political activity and zoos is 'naked' life, where the latter was considered inferior and subject to the former. When someone is dehumanised, their political activity is constrained and all of the 'rights' they 'have' as 'humans' are 'revoked'. Having such 'rights' is the only thing that stops one from being 'fair game' for all of the other humans, who are entitled (by the same rights that were removed from the dehumanised person, that are *always* witheld from nonhumans) to do whatever they desire to those things without rights - own them, abuse them, destroy them.
Evidently, this would not occur if humans refused to surreptitiously endorsed the view that nonhuman animals exist only to be used and abused by humans, and human animals entitled to use and abuse anything they like - so long as it lacks the rights of humans.
Although much of your blog articulates well why this and many other PETA campaigns have been unacceptable, I believe that your language also happens to expose your internalised hatred of animals and everything nonhuman.
Animals are bred, broken, raped, tortured and abused on an hourly basis in our societies. They endure all of the horrors that all humans have endured since the inception of civilisation - they just don't have the opportunity to write poetry, songs, blogs, articles and academic papers about it in syntax we understand.
'I believe in preventing cruelty against animals but not at the cost of dehumanizing the weakest members of society.'
Only when *all* humans are 'dehumanised', and by this I mean the dismantling of the systems of rights and corresponding *entitlements* that lead to almost all of the abuses suffered by human and nonhuman animals, will we have achieved a measure of freedom.
It is not people's lack of right to own property that causes poverty, but the presence of this right in the hands of a few. It is not women's lack of rights to other people's bodies that causes patriarchy, but the *presence* of this right in the male class. If one 'earns' the 'right' to self-determination in the eyes of state, the bourgeois, the white class, the male class, the heteronormative class, this is transient and can be (and repeatedly has been) taken away at any convenient moment for any 'reason'. The entitlement to grant this self-determination, in other words the *entitlement* to determine the end of anything that lacks self-determination, must be removed.
i hope some day they're gone. not likely to happen though.