I'm going to preface this rant for just an unexpected moment with: I like Alicia Silverstone, I do. I like how she talks about veganism on popular shows, when asked for an interview, in a way that doesn't seem defensive, or angry; attributes that I inevitably end up producing whenever I'm trying to talk about it.
But seriously: she made awesome, totally articulate arguments for veganism--with her clothes on.
And I'm not to sure with what taking them off had to do with animal rights, especially in a world where this was done without a catch phrase of, "I'd rather go naked then wear fur" (not that this would make it a particularly better argument, but it would at least be a bit more explainable). Just talking about how awesome "vegetarianism" is, (because even though this is one of the rare times PETA uses a celebrity with a consistent advocacy, for some reason it's conveniently[?] left out and reduced to an advocacy that is still pretty down with exploiting animals) without your clothes (and wet!!! because wet naked is soooo much sexier then just naked alone) may, I suppose, somehow makes steps for AR, but a world where animals have rights, yet womyn are reduced to objects, is still a pretty sucky reality for me.
Though this doing things in actuality for animal rights is still a pretty weak argument for me. Naked womyn and PETA is hardly a new concept, surely the "shock" factor of which they claim this advertisement originally was supposed to do, is gone. Indeed, although it is breaking today, it isn't making any huge headlines (though it did warrant a few seconds on The View, but that was mostly so Elisabeth could tell everyone how not mad she is at Alicia, not to actually discuss veganism).
This isn't going to launch a new discussion of ethical discourse in America; it's just another situation where a womyn is being devalued as a person with ideas and feelings, and made into a sexual object where we can judge her physical attributes more accordingly. The fact that it has Alicia's face on it, the fact that she's a "celebrity", the fact that the ad is talking about vegetarianism is all rendered irrelevant when they're trying to accent her sexual attributes at the forefront. The blurb by the video ad on PETA's website by Alicia seems to be the final stamp on this ("I lost the weight" and "I look better now"), seemingly to advocate not to be vegan for any moral implications, but to use veganism as the method and the way to increase your sexuality, a way you too can render yourself fit to serve a male dominated fantasy.
And that fucking sucks.
