Last week, Canadian Governor-General* Michaëlle Jean caused a huge storm in the media by eating a piece of seal heart while on a visit to an Inuit community in Nunavut, northern Canada. In the context of increasing international (and domestic) outrage against the seal hunt in Canada, Jean had this to say about her act (all quotes from this article):
“These are ancient practices that are part of a way of life,” Jean said, framing her gutsy gesture as an act of solidarity with the Inuit. “If you can’t understand that, you’re completely missing the reality of life here.”
(For those of you wondering what on earth this has to do with Muslim women, don’t worry, I’ll get to it.)
Michaëlle Jean. Source: Canadian Press, via Toronto Star website
Enter PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.) Let me be clear that I am a strong advocate that animals should be treated ethically, and that I don’t oppose the objectives of an organisation like PETA. Their methods, on the other hand, are horribly problematic, and PETA has come under criticism time and time again for campaigns involving offensive representations of slavery, the Holocaust, the KKK, non-status immigrants, and women (several times over.) (Warning that some of the linked articles contain partial nudity and/or images of torture of humans and animals.)
PETA’s response to Jean eating the seal meat was predictable:
“It amazes us that a Canadian official would indulge such blood lust. It sounds like she’s trying to give Canadians an even more Neanderthal image around the world than they already have,” said Dan Mathews, vice-president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
After essentially labelling traditional Inuit hunting practices as “blood lust” and Neanderthalic, the PETA spokesperson claimed that the indigenous people’s hunt was not the main target of their anti-seal-hunting campaign. However, as the article then tells us,
That doesn’t mean animal-rights activists approve of Inuit seal-hunting traditions. PETA yesterday likened Jean’s sampling of seal heart to “taking part in the beating of women in the Middle East because it is part of local practice.” (emphasis mine)
Yeah. So what we can learn from PETA is that:
1. The Middle East is the only place where beating of women happens.
2. Beating of women is an integral part of Middle Eastern cultural practices. (You know, they’ve probably got it on all their travel brochures. “Come visit the Middle East, and celebrate our cultural pride by taking part in the time-honoured tradition of woman-beating!”)
Do I even have to go into all the ways that that’s wrong and offensive? It’s as if people have these images of oppressed Middle Eastern women (usually interchangeable with Muslim women, of course) just waiting around in their heads so that they can be expressed in metaphors that are completely out of context. Sigh…
*The Governor-General is the representative of the Queen of England – Canada’s official Head of State – in Canada. Although this places her in an officially powerful position, the reality of a constitutional monarchy means that she is basically just a figurehead. I’ll save you all my rant about why it’s problematic that Canada celebrates having women of colour GGs while having pathetically low representation of them in parliament.
Tags: Michaelle Jean, Middle Eastern women, PETA, racism, sexism
Ugh.
PETA is just made up of a bunch of extremists (hello Al-Qaeda, Tamil Tigers, IRA) who go to extreme lengths to bring attention to their cause. Even though animal rights activism in and of itself is a legitimate cause, like the various political/nationalistic grievances of different oppressed groups are today, the general public loses sight of those rights/grievances whenever these groups come to dominate the publicity for these causes. Like because of PETA’s aggressive and sometimes ridiculous campaigning for their cause, alot of people get turned off from the message they’re trying to convey by just thinking, “What are these crazy animal rights folks up to now?” And how shameful of PETA to first claim that all men in the Middle East beat their wives (like as though men in the West don’t do that) and then by claiming that another culture’s food habits amounts to animal cruelty, which makes them come out looking like (predominantly white) Westerners exercising their bad habit of judging what other cultures can and cannot do according to Western wisdom.
If I may say so, EPIC WIN on the title of this post!
PETA’s tactics are infuriating, especially since it frequently resorts to comparisons of atrocities against humans, essentially trivializing the magnitude of those horrible events in history. I nearly blew a fuse when I first saw its KKK campaign, and what frustrates me is that the organization is completely unapologetic of its methods. This recent statement saddens me greatly, given that PETA so swiftly demonized, generalized, and massively stereotyped two different cultures at once.
PETA may think its provocative campaigns will gain public support, but in reality, they alienate many communities, particularly people of color. I am acquainted with a few white women who are avid supporters of PETA, and even after repeated explanations, they still cannot comprehend why I find the organization’s methods so offensive. To this day, I am still unaware of what PETA has actually done for animals, and instead, I associate the group with racism, sexism, and misanthropy.
I support ASPCA, mainly because the group has made strides in promoting the ethical treatment of animals, without resorting to disturbing tactics.
This is going to sound horrible, but every time PETA pulls an idiotic stunt, I take a bit more pleasure in eating a really awesome burger. ;)
PETA really is disgusting. They are racist, sexist, xenophobic, and so self-righteous they look down on vegetarians for not being fully committed to animals rights and environmentalism (apparently my love of dairy products means I hate animals and the planet and am uncommitted to justice). Now this?! This is a low blow even for PETA, but at least it takes away all pretenses about just how much of a racist organization PETA is (I am still not sure how they get people like Andrew 300 and Common to be their spokespersons). That comment is beyond disgusting. And as for Inuit seal hunting they seriously need to back off. The Inuits and other groups that hunt seal/whale are not responsible at all for over-hunting. That blame falls squarely on the shoulders of corporate whaling/seal-hunting. People who have a respectful relationship with animals are not going to over-hunt them. I don’t know why I am so surprised by this comment. I guess it’s b/c there is no way PETA can justify it. It’s racist and xenophobic..period. In their messed up little heads they can justify the KKK campaign and the use of women as sex objects, but even the most twisted PETA spokesperson can not begin to justify this than being anything other than complete garbage. Grrr. I wish the person who made that comment would visit the Uni. of Florida, maybe they would get tasered.
Awesome title and great post!
Haha, thanks for your comment on the title! :D
Your point about all the people that PETA alienates is bang on. I don’t really care how effective their strategies are as attention-grabbers if they’re going to offend so many people in the process. And I totally hear you on your last sentence – even though I’m vegetarian, comments like PETA’s here almost make me want to go out and sample some seal heart. Talk about backfiring!
I’m a vegan, and somewhat active in animal rights stuff (not as active as I’d like to be), and most animal rights activists I know really hate PETA, and especially hate that PETA is always the animal rights group that gets press. Whenever there’s an issue involving animal rights, the newspapers will always go to PETA and get a predictably outrageous quote. There are plenty of animal rights organizations that take their missions seriously (HSUS comes to mind as the big one), but PETA takes the tack that any publicity is good publicity, and refuses to acknowledge that they’re discrediting the entire animal rights movement in many people’s eyes.
They were just attacking cultural relativism (a practise that is alive and well) – but badly. Otherwise it’s a good analogy. They could have said, for example, “taking part in the female genital mutilation of women in the Nile River basin because it is part of local practice” and they would have been bang on the money and made a good analogy as well. their methods do suck though.
Wow. Really, PETA being racist and sexist is never a surprise but this is disgusting twice over.
And there’s not even a pretense of making sense! The beating of women, which is not exactly rare in North America, is not a communal social practice. The analogy is totally illogical, except that the speaker can count on default racism making the connection for listeners.
And, I’m sorry, but in what parallel universe do Canadians have a Neanderthal image problem? At least in the US the biggest stereotype of Canadians is that they’re dull people with health care who get their mail delivered on time.
great post krista! p.s i’m still waiting for the links so i can get cracking too! xox
So Canadians are neanderthals, eh?
And ditto on the awesomeness of the title. :D
“…I associate the group with racism, sexism, and misanthropy. ”
Me, too. And I am a supporter of animal rights. PETA is a bad joke.
I hadn’t heard this, though, so thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Yeah most vegans I know hate them. I keep seeing these ridiculous campaigns come up every few months and wonder why people still give them money. If we can organize boycotts against diamonds and fur can’t we pressure celebrities stop doing promos for them so their donations will dry up and I won’t have to read about this kind of stupid for just a little while longer.
You know I am veg/pretty much vegan but I don’t expect the whole world to be and it bugs the hell out of me when people don’t grasp things like that Northern people pretty much subsist on animals/hunting/fishing because IT IS TOO FREAKING COLD TO GROW ANYTHING OUT OF THE EARTH THERE. Christ.
Sorry it’s tangential to what this post is about, I don’t know where to start. I am just sick of reading these PETA makes an ass out of themselves stories, and I hope this plus the economic crisis will make people seriously rethink giving them $ and kill them for good.
[...] June 4, 2009 by Krista This post was originally published at Muslimah Media Watch. [...]
[...] PETA Fails at Talking about Humans, Yet Again [...]
@forsoothsayer
No. They were/are practicing orientalism/islamophobia–not to mention their default anti-Native stance. Like others who have posted I am a long time vegan/pescetarian and I strongly support the ethical treatment of animals (as my spoiled-ass rescue dog can attest). But the tactics and media strategies employed by PETA are a huge turnoff for me. Bravo to Michaëlle Jean for taking this stand in favor of local practices. The notion that the Euro-American West has a moral high ground is laughable on its face.
Great post Krista.