The XX Factor

PETA Does Porn

The animal rights group PETA has always walked a fine – and, some would say, wavering – line between earnest activism and shock value. First, it was holocaust imagery. Then, a proliferation of naked celebrities (some, like Pamela Anderson, took the “All Animals Have the Same Parts” ad concept a bit more literally than others). And now, in a bizarre but not completely illogical move, PETA has decided to take its vulgar ad campaign to the extreme, by launching a porn site.

The plan for the site, according to the Australia Herald Sun:

PETA’s sexy side displayed in galleries and videos will quickly give way to the sinister world of animal mistreatment uncovered by the group’s hidden camera investigations in a very different kind of graphic content.

Leaving ethical considerations about the objectification of women aside for a moment (if that’s even possible), PETA’s foray into the sex industry is, at the very least, misguided and, at the very worst, completely depraved. And here’s why.

It would seem that there are two types of people – other than the publicity launch-driven curious – who would visit peta.xxx. One type is the unwitting individual who accidentally stumbles across the site, either in search of porn (in which case, an abrupt switch from bow-chicka-wow-wow sex to graphic violence toward animals would be a deterrent – one would hope), or in search of the regular PETA website (in which case the porn enticement would be unnecessary, since the user is already acquainted with the organization and actively seeking out its homepage).

The other type of person who would visit the site is someone who doesn’t come across the site by chance, like his or her misguided brethren, but deliberately goes in search of a website that offers both explicit sexual content and graphic violence toward animals.

What kind of target audiences are these? Porn-seeking individuals who, after being assaulted by images of beak-less chickens and eyeless rabbits, feel disgusted and betrayed by the site, or, even worse, porn-seeking individuals who aren’t deterred by images depicting the graphic mistreatment of animals? How does this help PETA’s stated cause for the porn site: to promote veganism?  

PETA’s history of using controversial tactics to garner media attention may get people talking, but there’s a long way to go between searching the Internet for porn and volunteering at a local animal shelter. The only “action” that the site is likely to prompt is the quick closing of a browser window.