PETA and New Search for African American/Mixed Race for Sexual AR Campaign November 24, 2009

I want to believe that this Craig’s List Ad is a Hoax. I have no words for this. It has to be a hoax, no?

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URL: http://ow.ly/EXk3

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African American or Mixed-Race Vegan Actor Needed for PETA Video

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Date: 2009-11-23, 10:04AM PST
Reply to: job-bdwht-1478953353@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

 

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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) will be featuring a video on PETA.org in mid-January 2010 called the “State of the Union Undress.” This video will feature an attractive woman dressed in business attire proudly and powerfully reciting a speech, which will be approximately five minutes long about PETA’s hard work for animals in 2009 (she will be able to read from a teleprompter during filming). It is meant to be a parody of President Obama’s state of the union address, but instead of being about America’s progress, it will be about PETA’s progress. As the woman reads the script, she will begin removing articles of clothing until she is completely naked. It will be a sexy video with a powerful message. Full frontal nudity will be shown on this video (by the end of the video, the woman will have no bra or underwear on). We’ve done similar videos in the past and have achieved incredible success, including coverage on Fox News and hundreds of online outlets.

 

We have found that people do pay more attention to our racier actions, and we consider the public’s attention to be extremely important. Part of our job is to shake people up and even shock them in order to initiate discussion, debate, questioning of the status quo, and of course, action. The current situation is critical for billions of animals, and because it is our duty to continue drawing attention to the plight of animals abused in the meat, clothing, experimentation, and entertainment industries, we are willing to use all legal means at our disposal in ways that will capture the public’s imagination. Our goal is to make the public think about the issues. Although some consider our projects that include nudity to be controversial, many express support for these tactics.

Requirements for the actor:
1) She must be vegan or vegetarian and supportive of PETA’s work.
2) She must be 18 or older with a valid ID.
3) She must be African American or mixed race. The goal is to have her ethnicity resemble Barack Obama’s as closely as possible.
4) She must be willing to be completely nude on camera and know that the full frontal nudity scenes will be publicized on PETA.org and possibly reposted on hundreds of other media outlets.
5) She must be capable of a fun, sexy, and easy flowing performance and be excited about the animal rights message.
6) She must be fully aware that we will be pitching this video to many media outlets and be eager to represent PETA.
7) She must be available to film sometime in mid-December in Los Angeles (we will discuss specific dates once an actor is chosen). The filming will be at a private studio where the actor will work with a professional crew of men and women, including a female PETA staffer who will be there to assist her.

To Apply:
Please e-mail a photo (preferably both a head shot and a full body shot) to the “reply to” e-mail address above (send as attachment, preferably JPG format). Please include answers to the following questionnaire in the e-mail body:

Name:
Age:
Race:
City in which you currently reside:
E-mail address:
Phone number:
Are you vegetarian or vegan?
Do you have any concerns about going completely nude in this video?
Do you have your own transportation?
Do you have any acting and/or modeling experience? If so, please list highlights.
Do you have any other thoughts/comments?

Only submissions with clear photos attached will be considered. If desired, we can also refrain from publishing the actor’s name.

• Compensation: The video will receive massive media coverage online and probably on television news outlets as well. Fox News has picked up previous versions of this video. As a nonprofit organization, it’s difficult for us to pay the actor in money, but we can assure her that we’ll do everything we can to pitch and publicize the video to make her as well known as possible. If desired, we can also refrain from publishing the actor’s name.
• This is a contract job.
• This is at a non-profit organization.
• OK for recruiters to contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

PostingID: 1478953353

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Agriculture Proposal Gives Meat To The Poor–To Get Rid Of It

This is just another glaring example of what is wrong with the system of  food and agriculture in our country. People are cutting back on their consumption of meat, vegetarian and vegan diets are on the rise and the devastating health effects of a high meat low plant food diet such as heart disease are beginning to see a decline. What does the NASDA do in response to this positive change? It works hard to make sure that the poor get the remaining meat just to get rid of the excess. This is so sickening and wrong. Here’s the article:

http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Politics/Politics/agriculture_proposal_gives_meat_to_the_poor_221120090946.html

Raising the environmental footprint of veganism… November 21, 2009

Fake Plastic Fish reports that PETA is promoting plastic wishbones for Thanksgiving.

Ugh. The company says they are recyclable, but like most plastic items that are technically recyclable, I am sure most communities in the US won’t have the facilities to take these, even if people were to actively seek to recycle them.

It’s not like I don’t partake in plastic-wrapped cookies & things (which I hate — most of our garbage can is full of plastic wrappers, I think). Though I do make an effort to avoid things like individual plastic cups of pudding or yogurt (I can make the former, & could make the latter too, I suppose — at least with yogurt I try to buy the massive containers, which can at least be re-used for food storage or for planters etc. so at least a teensy bit better, I suppose).

It does bum me out, though — a lot of go-vegan rhetoric* is focused on showing that we can have the same heavily packed, heavily processed food as omnivores: fake beef jerky, individually wrapped! Packages of marshmallows! Microwaveable dinners in plastic trays!

There’s something to be said for convenience, of course — & like I said above, I certainly end up buying things wrapped in plastic. I just wish it wasn’t so inevitable sometimes. (& really, while no one “needs” individual servings of vegan yogurt, definitely no one needs a freaking plastic wishbone!)

Yeah, yeah, I know the average environmental footprint of a vegan will be much smaller than an omnivore. That doesn’t make me feel much better about knowing that plastic I use today will outlive me many times over. It’s disgusting.

(I don’t know what’s up with my posting flurry either, btw!)

* In the US/UK, at least, which is where my experience is from. Thank you to commenter Soj for reminding me that of course, this is not a universal experience.

More on how not to protest dog-eating

Continuing with posting links that are months old (in a futile attempt to catch up), the Vegan Ideal offers a persuasive analysis of the problematic nature of campaigns against dog meat in Korea, specifically the petition by In Defense of Animals urging people to “not buy Korean goods, support Korean businesses, or visit Korea.” That’s right — they are going to boycott an entire country* (it’s kinda like freedom fries for AR folks!).

(Long-time readers of this blog will know that dog meat in particular has been a hot topic. Kindly refer to websites like Derailing for Dummies before making any tired, racist comments in response again.)

* Note: I know someone is going to bring up boycotts of apartheid South Africa; I don’t really think the two situations are parallel, for some of the reasons talked about in the post from the Vegan Ideal.

Vegan disaster relief November 20, 2009

Another old link, but something I haven’t seen discussed before: vegan friendly food relief items. Marie, the Filipina vegan blogger behind the mouth-watering How to Become a Vegan Domestic Goddess, compiled a list of easy vegan items one could donate to disaster relief efforts. This was spurred by the devastation caused by Typhoon Ondoy, which smashed into the Philippines in late September. Because I’m not a local, it made more sense for me to donate money — but her list provides some great ideas should I ever be in close enough proximity to an area needing relief that I can donate supplies.

I was also grateful to her for mentioning details on how to donate to the Philippine Animal Welfare Society, who have been helping companion animals affected by Ondoy.

Fear of a “Gender-bender” planet…(sigh)… November 18, 2009

http://www.naturalnews.com/027514_phthalates_feminization.html

This bothers me because I can’t necessarily say I would care if my infant son, Sun, were “feminized”. Who freaking cares as long as he’s happy!?

I am turned off by the phrase “gender-bender phthalate chemicals.” Mike Adams doesn’t seem to understand that the rigid heteropatriarchal heteorsexist able-bodied binary of female/male in the USA is, in itself, a problem; what does playing with certain toys have to do with exposure to “chemicals?” Is this guy serious? See below what I quoted (source: http://www.naturalnews.com/027514_phthalates_feminization.html):

(NaturalNews) In a bombshell finding that has far-reaching implications for society and culture, scientists at the University of Rochester have found that phthalates — the chemical found in many vinyl and plastic products — tends to “feminize” boys, altering their brains to express more feminine characteristics. The study has been published in the Journal of Andrology.

Phthalates are found in vinyl products (including vinyl flooring), PVC shower curtains, plastic furniture and even in the plastic coating of the insides of dishwashing machines.

The feminization process happens during pregnancy when phthalate exposure causes hormone disruptions in the unborn baby. This chemical feminizes males by disrupting the action of the hormone testosterone.

In this recent study, researchers found a strong correlation between the types of toys that male children play with and the level of phthalates found in their mothers when they were pregnant. Researchers discovered that boys exposed to high levels of phthalates in the womb tend to avoid playing with cars, trains or toy guns. They also avoided rough play, instead preferring more feminine toys and activities. (Barbie?)

Sometimes he can be very “know it all straight white middle class” guy who thinks he can speak for everyone and know what is “healthy” for everyone to eat.  He uses phrases and wording that are so encased in white middle-class heterosexual able-bodied male privilege…and it drives me crazy! But, at the same time, he feels strongly that he is helping many people. I have benefited from many things he has written, but he totally needs to take an awareness class around gender, whiteness, class, etc. because he is constantly doing this. I don’t think he’s aware of it. I think I should probably write him and let him know…

…and it’s not that he can’t write from the “white middle-class heterosexual able-bodied male privilege” perspective… I think what irritates me is that he doesn’t reflect on it or at least name where he is coming from, as opposed to making it as if it’s “common sense” or “universally” applicable.

 

A bunch of links & a query…

I’m really bummed I haven’t been able to post more here in the past few months — more about that later, maybe, but for now, a few links:

First of all, check out the blogroll (on the right hand side of the blog — click over if you’re reading via RSS feeds!). I keep stumbling on new awesome vegan blogs but also even more excitingly, more blogs by vegans of color!

Secondly, a link I’ve had open in a browser tab for literally months: Self-Delusion and the Lie of Lifestyle Activism. This argues that the impact of individual changes such as building a compost pile or recycling are generally not enough to make a difference (& in the case of the widespread habit of recycling, can be counterproductive because of the emphasis on recycling as opposed to reducing waste). This is partly because, the post argues, modeling a behavior is not generally enough to get other people to adopt it. I read the full post months ago & didn’t wade through the plethora of comments, but I’m sure being vegan would be something that the author would put under that category as well. I don’t agree with everything — though there are some good points made there — but I think as vegans & vegan activists there is a lot to think about regardless.

Thirdly, I saw the other day that Battlestar Galactica‘s Grace Park is now shilling for PETA. Sigh.

Right, now my query. This is generally not an easy time of year for me, between the darkening of the days (& the declining temperature) & the holidays. I’m doing a lot of work just to keep myself on any kind of even keel, but one thing that often gets put on hold is, well, doing activist things or even feeling excited or inspired by the issues. It’s not as if I’m contemplating stopping being vegan — that is most definitely NOT the case — more just that I haven’t had the energy or inspiration to go trawling through all the vegan blogs & campaigns & stuff that I used to do.

What do you do when you find yourself in kind of a rut? I know for burnout taking a break is a good idea, but it’s not that I’m burnt out (well: not in terms of veganism, although I did have a huge disillusioning infuriating situation earlier this year [related to other issues] that has made me really pissed off with certain aspects of the activist crowd where I live). I’m just kind of… maintaining at the moment. I want to be inspired & invigorated again (note: shock tactics won’t do the trick, so no one suggest I watch Earthlings, please). Suggestions?