Photo Credit: www.peta.org

One of PETA's advertisements advocating against those who wear fur

As anomalous activist organizations seem to be growing popular in mainstream society, there appears to be one group that consistently stands out from them all: the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Notorious for their eccentric attention seeking actions in order to recruit bystanders towards animal rights and the vegetarian diet, PETA has embarked on, yet again, a new mission. Starting in December, PETA will launch a porn site dedicated towards alluring those who prowl the Internet and drawing them to their cause.

Registered under the domain, www.peta.xxx, the organization will feature racy photos and pornographic videos that will be interspersed with undercover pictures taken from animal factories alongside graphic videos of animal suffering. The website will also feature recipes for vegan and vegetarian diets.

PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt discussed this new venture, stating that, “We try to use every outlet that we can to speak up for animals. We anticipated that this new triple-X domain name would be a hot topic and we immediately decided to use it and take advantage of it to try to promote the animal rights message.”

While she does have a point that society is attracted to unconventional standards, she fails to acknowledge that there is always a limit to how peculiar one can be while still aiming to sustain a respectable image.

Although sexual appeal has been used quite a bit throughout history, PETA’s efforts have gained them a dishonorable reputation. Tagged as an anti-feminist organization previously through their licentious advertisements to garner support, they continue to uphold that label by launching this site.

Jill Dolan, director of gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University, vehemently opposes this decision.

“Exploiting porn to get people’s juices going seems lame; [PETA] exploiting pornographic images only of women to make their point is retrograde and misogynist,” Dolan said. ”Come on, PETA. Don’t be Neanderthals.”

Not only has PETA received grave judgments because of this venture, they maintain resentment that the public expressed previously about their exposition of woman’s nude bodies in their anti-fur campaign. Although a few angle adjustments prevented viewing nude bodies in their entirety, many were outraged at what they believed to be disingenuous and degrading advertising.

As they further embark on these extremist missions, PETA continues to broaden the gap between those who fiercely support them and those who do not.

Although pornography is considerably more accepted in modern culture as opposed to decades ago, it is still heavily rejected. There are countless associations, religious groups, concerned parents, and law enforcement agents in the world attempting to prevent not only the youth’s access to pornography, but terminate the legality of the entire industry. In fact, Great Britain recently passed a law requiring that everyone endeavoring to gain access to porn sites opt to give their name to a nation-wide list.

Even people like me, who aren’t undertaking the duty to prevent pornography, sit there bewildered at how close PETA is coming to destroy what is left of their reputation.

Yet, the vegans and vegetarians who are fully against the ridiculousness of the association lose credibility when making an effort to gain support of animal rights. Countless new activist organizations, such as the Vegans (and Vegetarians) Against PETA, publicly stand against PETA in hopes to bring genuine sincerity back to the animal cause.

Although this is just another one of PETA’s bizarre schemes, it seems to fall under the continuous category of criticizing human behavior with no focus on animal rights. Sure, mixing in images of the horrors of factories will be unpleasant for most people viewing this website, but it most certainly will not change the majority of visitors into hard-core vegetarians.

Though PETA seems to have ensnaring advertising under control, they lack the effort of actually doing anything substantial for the animals.

That’s one of my issues with most organizations in today’s world. Raising awareness is great. However, why not physically do something once it has been publicized? From people believing that that they are taking a stance against cancer by changing their Facebook status showing the seriousness of the issue to PETA launching this porn site, I see few organizations or people doing anything in actuality to prevent the problems.

Now, I’m not criticizing the scientists that are desperately trying to find cures for cancer for not finding one yet. What I don’t believe in is this misconception that awareness equates to change. It might be the first step towards progress, but it will not amount to much if people just sit there talking about it. Action, and action alone, brings change.

As a vegetarian myself, I do fully support the ethical treatment of animals and hope that more people join the fight against animal cruelty. However, I also understand that if I want people to respect my lifestyle, I must respect theirs.

Not only does showing no tolerance for meat-eaters ensure that there will be a no tolerance for vegetarians, but it also enforces today’s consistent lack of compromise between different ways of life.

From politics to social issues, compromise is the key element to achieving harmony and progress in the future world. Organizations like PETA only reinforce the issues that are so ever-present in today’s chaotic world.

And as PETA shows no moderation towards the issue of animal rights, they continue to alienate themselves in modern culture. Their extremist call for universal vegetarianism is not only extremely unlikely, but is also invalidated by the more atypical activities they undertake.

As PETA fights for people’s support, the issue largely preventing their success is their selves. PETA really seems to be its own worst enemy.