Of course Pam had to run her mouth:
How sad that a woman would be banned from using her own body in a political protest over the suffering of cows and chickens… In some parts of the world, women are forced to cover their whole bodies with burqas—is that next? I didn't think that Canada would be so puritanical."
For someone who was born in British Columbia, she certainly is clueless when it comes to Canadian ideals. Just because PeTA chose to stick a Canadian face on their misogyny, does not make it acceptable to the wider society. And of course, PeTA had to back their favorite lettuce bikini wearing spokesperson
"I think that city officials are confusing 'sexy' with 'sexist," said PETA senior vice president Dan Mathews.
PeTA and Pam are determined to miss the point. Of course we have women that wear bikinis. In fact, you can go topless in the city where I live -- but of course, they are more than willing to misrepresent Canadian values, because it allows them to deny that once again, they are reducing people to animals. It is offensive. Pam's individual agency in terms of choosing when to reveal her body is is not the issue, the issue is that her actions hurt other women. This billboard challenges the humanity of all women, and I don't see how anyone can reasonably look at this ad and claim that it is not reductive, unless they have placed an agenda over and above the person-hood of women.
I also feel the need to address the Burqa comment that Anderson made. Western women need to just stop it. Yes, there are certainly countries in which women are forced to wear the Burqa; however, there are plenty of women who choose to wear it as part of their religious practice. If we are supposed to respect Pam's agency, why is she so resistant to respecting the agency of Muslim women? No one stopped her from posing for the ad, we simply don't want to view it -- and that is a sign of our agency.
I am tired of White Western women pointing to Muslim women as uniquely oppressed, when plenty of sexist oppression happens in the west every day. I want to know why they never have anything to say when so-called Christian men are using the bible to justify rape, murder and torture? Yes, it absolutely happens, but of course we cannot blame Christianity, it is supposedly of peace, whereas; Islam is socially constructed as violent and oppressive. If she were to actually read the Koran, she would find that it is actually far less oppressive than the bible. It calls for both men and women to dress modestly and simply because some men in power have chosen to pervert the word of Allah, does not make it as anti-woman as White westen women are creating it to be. For Pam's statement to be true, you would have to completely ignore all of the work of Muslim women, who are using their religion as a spring board for their anti-oppression work.
This ad is just another case of PeTA, being PeTA -- but that does not mean we should allow them to present their anti-woman perspective without critique, even though it becomes tiring to repeatedly say the same thing. PeTA is determined not to value people, and we must apply the same determination to fight the reduction. Their approach does not liberate animals; it only offends the marginalized groups that PeTA routinely attacks.
