Charity porn

[sawyl]

Julie Bindel has a good essay in today's Guardian on charity sexism — the process of using borderline porn images of women to boost the profile of a cause. For example, Bindel points out the inherent contradiction of a naked Mel B posing in support the Helen Bamber Foundation, an organisation which works with people who've been trafficked, raped and exploited.

Particular criticism, however, is reserved for PETA:

In Peta's world, it seems that it is perfectly acceptable to reduce women to the status of animals, or meat: one Peta image shows a woman being clubbed "to death" by a man; another shows a woman wrapped in cling film to resemble cuts of meat in a supermarket. Perhaps the most egregious example of Peta's work occurred in London on Mother's Day this year, when it staged an event that was ostensibly to raise awareness about farrowing-crate confinement, a technique used in factory farming, in which sows are squeezed into narrow metal stalls barely larger than their own bodies. A heavily pregnant member of Peta's staff lent her body to the cause - naked except for a pair of pink underpants - by kneeling on all fours in a metal cage

While I agree with the point that PETA are trying to make about factory farming, I'm not really convinced by their methods. Surely, to paraphrase Tom Regan, the goal should be to put animal rights and welfare on a similar footing to human rights and welfare, not to drag humans down to the level of animals.

Perhaps we need to take a leaf out of Riding Hood's book:

The firelight shone through the edges of her skin; now she was clothed only in her untouched integument here hair looked white as the snow outside. Then went directly to the man with red eyes in whose unkempt mane the lice moved; she stood up on tiptoe and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt.

What big arms you have.

All the better to hug you with.

Every wolf in the world now howled a prothalamion outside the window as she freely gave him the kiss she owed him.

What big teeth you have!

She saw how his jaw began to slaver and the room was full of the clamour of the forest's Liebestod but the wise child never flinched, even as he answered: All the better to eat you with.

The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody's meat.

No one should be anyone's meat. That's the point. Not pigs in cages. Not women pretending to be pigs in cages to raise awareness. And pretending otherwise diminishes everyone.