Peta provokes scandal with ‘animal rights porn’

ANIMAL rights group Peta is coming under fire for its controversial decision to launch an .xxx porn site. Peta believes the "graphic, uncensored material" will draw attention to animal abuse, a claim that has been ridiculed by feminists and academics.

"Exploiting porn to get people's juices going seems lame," says Jill Dolan, director of gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University, told Reuters. "Exploiting pornographic images only of women to make their point is retrograde and misogynist."
 
Jennifer Pozner, executive director of the advocacy group Women In Media & News, goes further. "PETA is extremely disingenuous", she said. "They have consistently used active sexism as their marketing strategy to garner attention. Their use of sexism has gotten more extreme and more degrading."
 
Peta associate director Lindsay Rajt explained the group’s decision in a column for the Canadian Times Colonist. "It is often our racier actions that get people to pay attention to the plight of animals", she wrote, going on to promise visitors "anything from exotic skin flicks to shocking hidden-camera video footage".

Rajt argued the site would "open people’s eyes to what truly dirty things are being done — not in someone’s fantasy, but in reality — to animals exploited in the meat, fur and circus trades".
 
Peta has made waves in the past with its ‘I'd Rather Go Naked than Wear Fur’ campaign, based on glamour shots of naked celebrities. High-profile pornographic actors Sasha Grey, Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson have all appeared in Peta adverts.
 
Rajt denies that the group has lost focus in resorting to shock tactics, expressing hope that visitors to the .xxx site will be tempted to visit the main page. While that may seem a vain hope, her chances should be improved by the presence of three sexy models in the top four stories on the Peta UK home page. ·