Animal Rights Movement

In listening to the presentation given in class today on the Animal Rights Movement, I was reminded of our class discussion awhile back in which it was stated that PETA advertises itself through the use of naked women. At the time, I had no clue what PETA was and I was confused at what message they were trying to get across by photographing naked women. But hearing the presentation on the Animal Rights Movement and subsections within, made it a bit more clear. Yet I still have a hard time swallowing the use of pornography in an attempt to support a movement. I understand the philosophy of using a graphic image to draw attention; I was, after all, the one who presented a movement built off of that same strategy. The difference, however, was that Justice For All uses pictures of images relevant to their movment. They show pictures of aborted babies to get the public thinking about abortion. Emmett Till's mother showed the world a picture of her black son's murdered body to get the world thinking about the racisist injustice occuring. But female nudity to draw attention to animals and their fur? Not enough justification if you ask me.

Although this type of advertising may attract the attention of the public (especially considering pornography is a million dollar industry), I do not think it is a wise strategy for PETA to use. I believe different methods of catching the attention of the public can be thought of than degrading women and their bodies. Where are high standards our country once knew? Where are the values? I believe the Animal Rights Movement works for a good cause and is an important movement. So the fact that naked women are photographed in their advertisments is like a double negative. Its hypocritical. Protesting one indecency to advocate another cancels itself out. I vote PETA finds a new strategy.

Presentation on N.O.W.

I found the presentation done on the National Organization for Women, or NOW, social movement to be particularly interesting. When I think of feminism as a movement, I often think of it in past tense because it is not a movement I often hear about in the mainstream news. I usually think of the fight for women’s right to vote and the struggle of women breaking in to the workforce as the feminist movement, but do not see it existing today. With the so called “third wave” of NOW, it is easier to put the present day action taking place into perspective. As we have learned in our class this semester, there is often much work going on under the radar that is not seen by the public eye. Just because I do not hear of large NOW protests going on, does not mean the feminist movement is a movement of the past.

I think that as more women achieve high levels of education, the power of women will increase and give more dominance to movements such as NOW. With educated women graduating school and seeking jobs, some of the top positions of power will be held by women. I think we will begin to see more action from feminist movements as the years go on, and roles of women in history will continue to increase and impact our society.