Digital Dissenter

For anyone who knows me, you were probably surprised that I didn’t find some way of turning last week’s post about the Julius Malema issue into an animal rights issue. Fear not! This week I’m back on my favourite topic: animal rights activism.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) get a lot of flack. Rarely can I hand out one of their cute “I’m not a nugget!” stickers without being asked if I subscribe to the organisation’s extremist tactics. Well to be honest, I do and I don’t.

PETA is extremely inventive in the way in which they approach their different campaigns. They are often in the news for either bearing all on sidewalks or for throwing red paint on fashionistas who dare to wear fur. Their online campaigns are equally controversial and often feature scantily clad celebrities posing in cabbage leaves or holding a strategically placed bunny.



PETA, being a global activist organisation also makes their campaign materials available to anyone who has web access and a decent quota. Which then raises the question of what exactly the people who download these posters and pamphlets are really doing with them? Are they really helping the cause?

One would of course have their doubts about a teenage boy printing out a poster of Pamela Anderson (one of PETA’s most renowned supporters and activists) in a bikini made out of cabbage leaves. When he looks at it does he see a sincere and convincing call to turn vegan or just Pamela Anderson in a green bikini?

As an activist, I like to think the best of people and hope that they would be moved by the message of the campaign – even if they only stopped and took notice of it for reasons far removed from what was originally intended. My thoughts changed somewhat this week when at the top of my Facebook newsfeed I saw a post from peta2 calling for all PETA supporters to vote for Pamela Anderson on ‘Dancing with the Stars’. I couldn’t help but think that if Pamela were to win as a result of support from PETA members, that it would amount to little more than a beauty queen winning a pageant and saying that the goal during her reign would be to promote ‘world peace’. Would anyone watching ‘Dancing with the Stars’ suddenly be compelled to turn vegan because they saw Pamela on the show? Yes, sure her involvement in the contest may demonstrate that she’s a healthy and fit woman who survives on diet that doesn’t harm any animal, but how many people will be making that connection? And how many people who make that connection will care?

I fear that at times PETA treads a thin line. Their campaigns that pander to celebrity culture are all well and good for attracting attention, but unless that attention can be actively translated into valuable action there is a vital missing link in their activism.