“Sexism! Click bait!”

That was a response from one person recently to a Twitter promo for an article about PETA on the Toronto Sun site, with the cute headline PETA hits paws button on ‘I’d Rather Go Naked’ campaign.

I don’t know if she clicked on the link for the article. It may have been the accompanying photo of Pamela Anderson’s nude shoulders in the PETA campaign that set her off. And the word “Naked.”

Maybe the headline was just too cute, and came across as fluff. But I found it to be an upbeat and informative, albeit lite, report about PETA ending the campaign that featured naked celebrities “often cavorting with furry friends.” The campaign has been successful, apparently.

“Nearly every top designer has shed fur, California has banned it, Queen Elizabeth II has renounced it, Macy’s is closing its fur salons,” PETA senior vice-president Dan Mathews is quoted in the Sun article.

The report also has an accompanying video showing some of the memorable celebrity posters in the campaign, including Ms. Anderson (bless her).

The tweeter’s response got me to thinking about a bigger picture:

It’s OK for people from all walks of life when the media publish recipes with photos showing the tortured, murdered, butchered and cooked remains of animals on dinner plates. But a photo of a very much alive woman’s bare shoulders is just not acceptable for many of those same people. (I wonder what they would do if they suddenly found themselves naked in the proverbial Garden of Eden? But I digress.)

I doubt the tweeter was objecting on religious grounds. But “Sexism!” is a moral cry made by some feminists who are opposed to the sexualization of women in any context. I get that.

But if some of those feminists sit down to dinner and eat pieces of tortured, murdered, butchered and cooked pigs or any other creature, I don’t get that.

Are they psychologically hooked to animal flesh, like smokers to tobacco? Or do they simply not care?

Either could be seen as a credibility issue for some people, i.e. vegans.

In truth, I don’t normally think about what other people eat. Live and let live, yes? I’m not going to call anyone out over their diet. But the tweeter got me reflecting on all this (thank you, tweeter).

Increasingly, people are seeing the murderous meat culture as a neverending holocaust for the animal kingdom. Pamela Anderson’s bare shoulders are not a big issue for them.

Click.

— Jillian