Menstrual Poetry

PETA, You Just Make It So Easy

When many people hear someone start talking about PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, many of their minds immediately start freaking out, sending out red flags and wanting to scream ‘NOOOOOO’ at the top of their lungs. The biggest reason for this is because PETA is made up of a bunch of hypocrites; people who believe that animals shouldn’t be mistreated in any way yet don’t seem to give a shit about their fellow humans and even go as far as to say that people shouldn’t buy pets at pet stores because it is the equivalent of buying a human being as a slave. People also shouldn’t call their pets ‘pets’ because again, they make the comparison between having pets and owning slaves. I don’t know about you, but my cat has never once sparked something in my brain that made me start comparing her to owning slaves; but hey, that just may be me–But I doubt it.

A lot of people hate PETA, some people think it should even be classified as a terrorist group, which I have to say, I can agree with. The thing is–When it comes to organized groups, some members of a particular group can get a little skewed and a little extreme, hence describing these people as extremists or describing an entire organization, as PETA has proved itself to be, as an extremist organization. (Think of the pro-lifers who deem it necessary and effective to blow up Planned Parenthood clinics regardless of whether or not they actually perform abortions at that location.) You may be thinking to yourself right about now “But wait, just because members of a particular organization go all loony and start taking their efforts to dangerous territory that doesn’t mean these organizations are necessarily bad!” And you’d be correct with that assumption. Just because a wide range of PETA supporters feel it’s A-OK to tell small children that their mothers are going to burn in hell because they wear fur coats or post videos on their websites from PETA that show images that may be triggering, offensive and are just downright disgusting that could be seen by a young audience without as much as a warning posted before the video, it doesn’t mean that the organization as a whole is bad. However, when it comes to PETA, their marketing tactics are not only skewed, but they are so horrendous and in general bad taste that even when they try to explain or stand by their tactics, they come off as arrogant, obnoxious, ignorant and/or belligerent–And that’s being nice. How they choose to market themselves as an organization is their fault and theirs alone and when it comes to what ads they choose to release to the public, it is downright appalling.

PETA has put out severely sexist and just plain baffling ads that they should just stop trying to explain their tactics and simply come up with another way to tote their hypocritical bullshit to the public or hey, just stopping their organization all together is another viable option; I know of a lot of people who would be rejoicing if this were to happen.

After so many people have had negative reactions to their ads, PETA took it to the media in order to clear up any misconceptions people had about why they use naked women in the majority of their ads while the rest of their ads are degrading towards all people; all people who aren’t brainwashed by the many clever methods the organization uses to lure people in and keep them yolked and asking for more, that is.

When it comes to the unapologetic and purely sexist ads PETA uses to get their name out into society, they attempted to defend the nature of their ad to The New York Times, saying:

While cruelty to animals is a serious matter that should elicit widespread public outrage, efforts to reach the public through more serious means often fall on deaf ears in a world in which sex sells and there are both a war and an economic downturn.

Basically they just come right out and say it–PETA wants people to see their ads, have people say “Hey, hot chick.” and move on. That is what happens when you repeatedly use naked models and actresses in your ads; your message is not heard. Their comment also makes it sound as if they had used other types of marketing that simply didn’t work; however, that doesn’t seem to be the case as I went digging around for PETA ads.

In this appalling ad which came out in 2000, we can see that PETA has been using the technique of ridiculing women for the past 8 years at least.

Yeah ladies, how dare you go natural and opt not to shave your pubic region. Even PETA thinks it’s disgusting! This ad actually seems to go against the message they’re trying to get across and just using this ad as an excuse to ridicule women who don’t shave or wax and in turn, not living up to the social expectancy. The right way to go about this ad would be to say for ladies who do go all natural to feel good in doing that and think of animals whose fur is used for making fur coats, fur-lined gloves or whatever and make the conscious decision to not wear fut just because women know how good it may feel to them to not go through the torturous and painful act of waxing. But that’s just me, you know, not looking at it from the sexist goggles.

Ms. Magazine received 150 letters when they asked for their reader’s opinion on the above PETA ad and out of those 150 letters, only 6 agreed that PETA was on the right track and did not deem their ad to be sexist or discriminatory towards women and from my snap judgment, I’d have to assume that those 6 people happened to be PETA supporters.

PETA also likes to use images of naked actresses, or in this specific case, failed actresses with one big hit that did nothing but make her come off as a complete idiot–A lot. A recent 30 second ad spot they put out featuring Alicia Silverstone appeared pretty much everywhere for a good week or so.

The ad spot was put on websites and blogs of supporters and also on sites with webmasters who, like myself, wonder about the credibility of an organization who puts something out that a lot of people most likely turned the sound off for to watch and got pretty much the same effect from it–Hot chick, naked, pool…scene from Wild Things?

Other ads that show the true sexist core of PETA include:

The third ad in particular looks more like it came out of a page of Maxim, but again, PETA wants to shock people, they want people to look at an ad that looks as if it should have came out of a softcore porn magazine, enjoy the image of a size 0 woman and not grasp that the fact that there is even text on the image. The latest ad to be put out by PETA is this little gem:

That is now two ads with the text ‘Be comfortable in your own skin’ written across it and by the nature of those ads in conjunction with the others makes me sense some sort of odd connection; that being the size of the women on these ads.

PETA wants women to be comfortable in their own skin and to lay off the buying and selling of animal fur. Okay, got it. Now, why is it that these ads specifically tell women to be comfortable in their own skin but only use women who are sizes 0-2, muscular and socially accepted as being the ideal, beautiful woman? Why not get a woman who is vegetarian or vegan to pose for their ads who looks like they actually eat? PETA is basically saying that yes, you should let animals keep their fur because you should be comfortable in your own skin–as long as you’re a size 2 and conventionally beautiful. There is not one other ad from PETA that uses women of varied body shape or size. This assumption is obvious since all of these ads have this fact resonating through them and not one ad from PETA has used a male nude body. PETA obviously respects the rights of animals over women since time and time again, PETA continues to disrespect women and simply throw their naked bodies up on an ad and say “Look at me.”

PETA’s public protests and demonstrations are also a glimpse at the sexist ideas they give their supporters to take part in such as topless women under plastic wrap and fake blood with a label reading ‘Human Flesh’ in an attempt to give the public passersby a shock by reenacting how meat is packaged. A nearly naked woman painted like a snake to bring attention to the way snake skins are harvested. Girls in yellow bikinis while holding up egg-shaped signs that read “Chicks Suffer for Eggs.” And perhaps the display that really rubbed me the wrong way–The one and only time a woman of a varying size is pictured at a PETA demonstration “just happens to be” a demonstration on pigs.

So thank you PETA, for making it so easy for people to not take you seriously, think your organization should be labeled as a terrorist group, shove images of conventionally beautiful women down our throats and objectify more women with one ill-conceived cause than I thought possible. Your organization isn’t worth the time I put into writing this post, but what you stand for needs to be seen.

Pro-Life Extremists Contradicting the Term ‘Pro-Life’–Again

The term “pro-life,” for me anyway, is quite simple. Using such a direct term leads people to believe that pro-lifers are all hooray for life. They think life is rad, that it should be cherished and that everything deserves the right to live their lives. This should mean that all life should be cherished and that all people, animals, rodents, insects and on should be given this right, correct?

Well, not quite. Pro-Lifers are very soon to “stand up” for the rights of fetuses, yet I’m sure that they have killed insects that have begun inhabiting their home, have set mouse traps if they’ve ever encountered a mouse running freely through their kitchen, most eat meat, most also support a war that is killing millions of innocent people who don’t deserve to die, oh yeah, and people who are already alive and living their lives such as women (who have and have not had an abortion,) abortion providers and abortion clinic workers are all told that they either should die, will die “and burn in hell,” or pro-lifers feel that they must do “god’s work” and take them out of the equation completely.

The pro-life agenda is made up of scare tactics, bullying and yes, killing people who they believe are doing work that is wrong and that they don’t approve of. In most cases, conservatives make up the majority of the pro-life population and oddly, as we all know, conservatives are also the big backers of the Iraq war–Where millions of innocent people are dying. Given these facts, as well as also simply being delirious and believing that they are doing “god’s work” by spreading their movement, one quality rings loud and clear–Hypocrisy.

Once again, the pro-life movement’s real agenda is ringing out loud and clear. As more and more coverage is coming out in the media about the anthrax attacks of 2001, it seems that Bruce Ivins, a biodefense researcher accused by the Department of Justice of being solely responsible for the anthrax attacks, may have been motivated by personal anti-abortion politics.

Former Senator Tom Daschle and Senator Patrick Leahy, both being Catholics who had voted in favor of abortion rights, were sent letters containing anthrax spores. Ivins, as well as his wife Diane, have very deep roots within the pro-life populace. Diane Ivins has served as president of the Frederick County Right to Life and Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati newsletter that criticized Catholic senators who supported abortion rights was found in the Ivins home.

“Anthrax threats had been used against abortion clinics prior to the attacks Ivins is allegedly responsible for. However, after Daschle and Leahy were targeted on September 18 and October 9, 2001 a flood of anthrax hoaxes were mailed to abortion clinics. As of October 16, 2001, over 170 abortion providers in 14 states and the District of Columbia had received threatening letters claiming to contain anthrax.”

The term ‘pro-life,’ while it may make you think of warm, happy, yay for life thoughts, it is simply a group of people who enjoy the hell out of intimidating and scaring people who don’t believe what they do and if they get really angry, they’ll just go out and kill you, which is evident since pro-lifers have bombed buildings and murdered abortion providers “to save the babies.” So say it with me, folks; pro-life does not mean that you get to go out and kill whoever doesn’t agree with you. Pro-life should mean just that, otherwise, these people should really think about renaming their cult group to “Pro-life for the babies, otherwise you’re fucked.”

Pro-Lifers Say No to Habitat for Humanity

We all know that “pro-lifers” want to destroy everything relating to reproductive health care and limit the types of reproductive health care women seek and are given. We also know that pro-lifers hate hate hate Planned Parenthood because they are “baby killers” (even though not all Planned Parenthood clinics perform abortions) and they distribute that evil poison-in-pill form known as birth control! Another widely known fact is that pro-lifers also do not give a damn about life after a person is born; no, they’re more interested in what goes on in the womb and they only care that that fetus gets out of the womb so they have more people in the world to fight with about reproductive health care and more people to tell off about how wrong they are when it comes to personal freedom and choice.

Yeah, the people actually alive and breathing on Earth right now really aren’t a concern to them, which can obviously be proven since they recently got a project for Habitat for Humanity shut down.

“An anti-abortion group has broken up a deal between Planned Parenthood and Habitat for Humanity by blasting out 10,000 e-mails to Habitat supporters.

Planned Parenthood is building a 23,000-square-foot regional headquarters on Central Avenue, and planned to sell Habitat the land next door for a token $10 to build three below-market-cost houses. The deal benefited Planned Parenthood because the city required the clinic to put up buildings as a buffer between its parking lot and Cohen Way.

“We could have put up any building we wanted,” said Barbara Zdravecky, president of Planned Parenthood. “We wanted to donate the land so Habitat could build more attainable housing.”

The email blast to 10,000 Habitat supporters started with James Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, (Wow, a man, what a surprise…) who said it showed a cozy relationship between Habitat and Planned Parenthood. This “cozy relationship” was then compared to pushing pornography onto children, among other things.

The bottom line is that Planned Parenthood is a fabulous place, a great resource to women and whom have helped several women, including myself so I am speaking from first hand, personal experience here. The clinic needed builds to put up as a buffer against this type of ridiculousness and instead of selling the land for an enormous price to someone else, they decided to practically give it to Habitat for Humanity because they are in the same field–The field of helping people.

These groups, while they hide behind their cloaks of “We want to help people!” actually wind up hurting more and more people and this time, they targeted Habitat for Humanity because they feel as if accepting a space to build and to help other people, that means that they have a cozy relationship with Planned Parenthood. It is because of the hatred that these people have against something they do not understand that Habitat will not be able to build in a space that was donated to them and will not be able to help the people who need it.

Go here to contact Habitat for Humanity and let them know that they shouldn’t be bullied by people who want to stop them from helping low income families.

The Anti-Choice Agenda Gets Even More Ridiculous

The anti-choice agenda is just getting even more ridiculous with every campaign that they introduce. The latest campaign The American Life League is pushing is The Pill Kills.

The message behind this campaign is that the pills kills babies and that by using birth control you are subjecting your body to chemical abortions. On June 7, the 43rd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut, which gave married people the right to use contraception, they will be gathering outside of reproductive health care facilities with what they are calling “peaceful protests,” but as we have all seen from pictures alone, their protests are hardly peaceful. This campaign is the starting point of the pro-life organizations pushing to make contraception illegal.

As usual with pro-life extremism, they are willing to do anything to push their agenda, including lying to women.

Take a look at their talking points section of the website, you can spot the bullshit immediately:

Q: Isn’t it better to be on the pill when you are sexually active?
A: Better for whom? The pill does not prevent you from getting a sexually transmitted disease, it is not 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and you could conceive a child who gets chemically aborted before the baby’s presence is even known to you. Moreover, sexual activity outside of marriage is seriously wrong.

Yep, if you are having sex outside of marriage, you’re just selfish thinking that you should be able to have sex without being shackled to a spouse. Don’t you know that you should be taking every child that god gives you? These people need to realize that pushing personal morals helps no one because not everyone thinks the same way you do. Imagine that.

Q: Is the pill dangerous to my health?
A: Absolutely! There are links between the birth control pill and breast cancer, cervical cancer, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), infertility, birth defects, blood clots, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, shrinking of the womb, stroke, weight gain and much more.

These crazy people also claim that clinics such as Planned Parenthood make “big money” but last time I checked, Planned Parenthood gave low income women a place to go and receive safe and confidential health care at little to no cost whatsoever.

I am convinced that the pro-life agenda really doesn’t want to cut down on the number of abortions. With this campaign alone, they are pushing the thought that women shouldn’t use contraception and to those who are buying in to their agenda, they hear “Okay, no contraception.” and especially when it comes to teenagers, who are going to have sex anyway, they are actually making the numbers of abortions performed per year rise as well as the number of children parenting children rise.

If the anti-choice movement really cared about women, they wouldn’t be brainwashing them into thinking that birth control is bad for you, they wouldn’t be lying to people saying that birth control and abortion have harmful side effects that have been proven to be untrue and they wouldn’t be giving women more ways to become pregnant by using their personal morals as a weapon.

I plan on driving to my local Planned Parenthood on June 7 and seeing what the protest looks like there (even though the closest Planned Parenthood to me that I can even call local is about 40 miles away) and see if they’re really pushing the peaceful concept; I’m thinking no… I also plan on taking pictures and seeing how many of these people are willing to talk to me; could be a damn good time indeed.

Via Feministing.

A Lovely Example of Anti-Abortion Extremism

While reading some kick ass feminist news over at Feministing, a picture on their Flickr widget caught my attention.

The picture to your left is yet another lovely example of anti-abortion extremism. This picture was taken at the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC. By holding a sign that says something so incredibly hateful and ignorant you are doing nothing but putting more hate back into the world around you. By holding a sign that says “You killed the next president” first of all is grouping all women who walk in the March for Women’s Lives as women who have had an abortion, which is not true at all; it also goes to show you that anti-abortion extremists do not care what they have to say to you to make you think like they do.

When you look at this technically, a woman who has had an abortion less than 35 years ago certainly did not kill the next president, which was mentioned in the comments for this picture on Flickr. In all likelihood women probably just aborted fetuses that would have grown up to be the kind of people that pro-lifers hate anyway–You know, liberal, homosexual, atheists; the list can go on. Logically speaking in response to this sign, a woman may have also killed the next Hitler or the next Charles Manson; but no, pro-lifers can’t see it from that standpoint, they see it as “You killed an innocent baaaaaaaaaabyyyyyy!” and then whatever happens after that “innocent baby” is born is the mother’s problem…And welfare’s problem, because we can’t forget about welfare, another thing that pro-life people complain about.

Another point that must be brought up is that anti-abortion extremists must stop comparing abortion to the Holocaust. It is demeaning and frankly holds no weight at all in a debate. Are women having unwanted children and then sending them off to torture chambers and gassing them to death by the hundreds? Uhh, no. Aborting a cluster of cells is by no means comparable to millions of men, women and children being starved, overworked, tortured and gassed to death, sorry.

The Frightening Truth About Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Sadly, very few women know what the term “crisis pregnancy center” really means and that is exactly what crisis pregnancy centers prey upon.

There is a personal story from Allyson Kirk published on AlterNet of a woman who got caught in the trap of these centers, thinking it was a regular reproductive rights clinic, as these centers have tried their best to look like to lure women in and intimidate them into carrying their pregnancies to term.

After calling the National Abortion Federation Hotline seeking an abortion, she got a number for a health care clinic, but a crisis pregnancy center located themselves a mere two doors down from the clinic, where the woman ended up walking into thinking it was the clinic she was in search for. What these people put her through is sick, twisted and no woman should have to be put through this when making a personal decision regarding her body.

“She asked me about my religious beliefs. I was immediately defensive at this point. I asked her why this was a relevant question to ask in a medical facility. “Because I can’t properly counsel you on the issue of abortion unless I know your moral standing,” she said. I decided that this was not the kind of place I felt comfortable seeking medical care so I asked her to complete the free pregnancy test and then I would be on my way. I gave her a urine sample and she agreed to run the test, but only if I watched an educational video while the results were processing.”

First of all, the woman felt the need to ask about the religious beliefs of the patient just to feel around and see if she had to intimidate her to stay there so she could “counsel” (ie: push her moral standing onto her patient and make her believe what she wanted) and the woman of this clinic, after seeing the hesitancy, started bartering with the woman over getting a pregnancy test done at their clinic. “You can have your pregnancy test if you watch this video.” That is not the way to treat the women who walk into your clinic, but they knew that this woman was hesitant and was starting to realize what was going on and knew that she should not be there, so I guess bartering is the only other viable option since these people are completely unprofessional and exist only to terminate a woman’s right to choose.

“The video I was forced to watch made false claims including: doctors who provide abortions graduate at the bottom of their classes and can’t get real jobs; abortion is dangerous and often results in serious injury, even death, to women, and abortion causes severe psychological and emotional damage to women. The woman on the video said many women who have abortions have nightmares of babies crying and have guilt about their decision so intense that it sends them into depression.

The second portion of the video showed an illustrated enactment of a surgical abortion procedure. A picture of a uterus with a fully formed fetus inside filled the TV screen as illustrated metal instruments appeared. The instruments were shown probing inside the uterus and dismembering the fetus. Then a suction device entered the screen, pulling the fetus out of the illustrated uterus for disposal.”

These centers should not be able to give women completely fabricated information. “Abortion providers can’t get real jobs?” Sorry, I believe that abortion providers have one of the most important jobs–Giving a woman power over her own body and giving her the respect to know that she can make her own decision. I would think that the people who “can’t get real jobs” would be the ones who make a living off of scaring the hell out of women who walk into their trumped up office. I would think that these people can only get jobs in which they must lie to scared and impressionable women in order to push their personal beliefs onto other people–whether they’re willing to listen or not because if they don’t, they’ll just barter with them–”We’ll let you out of this room as long as you agree to pray with us.” This makes me sick.

I am willing to bet that their claim that abortion results in serious injury and even death are taken from statistics published before the early 70’s, since they would be right–Back alley and illegal abortions that women are going to have to resort back to if abortion is ever outlawed, do cause serious injury and in a lot of cases, even death.

That, my friends, is why the option of a safe and legal abortion is a hell of a lot better than an abortion done with a wire coat hanger either in your home or in unsanitary surroundings because I, for one, would rather an already living and breathing woman be able to continue with her life before I would put the life of a cluster of cells before her.

Vote Pro-Choice and Go to Hell

Oh, the Catholic church is at it again with their preposterous shenanigans. Catholic bishops, being the men who form the delusions of speaking directly with god and informing others of his word, are going down their list of damnation and letting us all know that the latest memo says that reproductive rights trump everything.

Bishops have not only taken a poll, saying that all politicians who believe in a woman’s right to choose are going to hell, but if you vote for them, you have a seat reserved right next to them.

“It is important to be clear,” the bishops said in a 44-page statement titled “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” “that the political choices faced by citizens not only have an impact on general peace and prosperity but also may affect the individual’s salvation.” Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, chairman of the committee that drafted the statement, put those high-minded sentiments into plain English earlier this month. Support for a candidate who “espouses policies that are gravely immoral” is possible “only under exceptional circumstances that are hard to imagine,” he told the Cathedral Club of Brooklyn.”

But that isn’t all! Not only do these bishops condemn you to hell if you vote for a politician who upholds women’s rights, but you are also helping us follow in the footsteps of the Nazis:

“In our country we have, for the most part, allowed the party of death and the court system it has produced to eliminate, since 1973, upwards of 40 million of our fellow citizens without allowing them to see the light of day,” wrote Rockford, Ill., Bishop Thomas Doran in 2006. “No doubt, we shall soon outstrip the Nazis in doing human beings to death.” He continued, “We know…that adherents of one political party would place us squarely on the road to suicide as a people.”

Note: “The party of death” sure is clever and ranks up there on my list of “Funny things Catholics say for kicks while in the process of using scare tactics for conversion.”

I cannot even imagine how those who have family who had been tortured and killed during the Holocaust feel about now being compared to those who performed the torture and killing of their ancestors by a group of people who protect pedophiles and actually aided the Nazis. I suppose we have come a long way, however, since the Catholic church is now actually admitting that the Holocaust even happened; but the hypocrisy that spews from the mouths of these people every time they deem something immoral is becoming a bit more than I can handle.

The moral of this story, and the new law that god told the bishops to relay to all of us peons who do not get to speak with him directly, is that now to gain entry into heaven, even if we do everything else so-called “correctly,” if we vote pro-choice, we’re spending eternity in hell. Nice. I wonder what else god has in store for us in the coming years.

“This just in: All people who are interested in spending eternity in heaven with the pedophile priests all must wear clown noses and hop on one foot for an entire year.”