Every time you criticize PETA, the anti-sex feminists win

Ilyka's got an excellent post up about how sometimes, politics isn't "just" politics when the issues affect you directly.  I'd comment further, but she's done an excellent job, so go read it.

Ilyka's post struck a chord with me after the kerfuffle in the comments sections over at Feministe, Pandagon, and Creek Running North over yet another misogynist, woman-as-naked-ornament PETA ad.

The drill goes this way: a political group (or a person, or a movie, or a show, etc.) does something that angers a lot of women.  Women complain.  Superior, patronizing trolls swoop in to lecture the angry about being hysterical, wasting their time on trivial matters, and (in the case of women getting tired of seeing female flesh all over the place with nary a bit of male flesh as prominently, or predominantely, placed) fling about accusations of sex hatred, zealotry, and right-wing fundamentalism.

Then, when they get their asses handed to them, they whine about how very uncivil we are.  Then, while insisting that we should remember our Duty to a much Higher Good than we lowly women, and that we must do more Useful and Productive things than indulge in our own concerns (and yes, you can practically hear the capital letters, like it was from a letter written in Victorian times), they call us humorless and doctrinaire.  Ah, the irony.

It doesn't just happen with gender though--you can witness this crap with people of color, gays, the disabled, the poor, whomever. Instead of "sex hatred," insert "hatred of Whites," or "hatred of straights," or America-hatred, or hating on the rich, or whatever.  Throw in as well Nazi comparisons, the spectre of rising facism, further lectures about hysteria and tone, and the vision of our basic rights to speech going to hell because! ZOMG! Those uppity people criticized the status quo!

Well, here's a ticket to the clue train for you idiots--people aren't going to like everything you do, and you need to stop your whinging.

And for the idiots who want to complain that I'm an anti-sex right wing zealot, I'm tapping my foot, waiting for some of you pro-sex guys to start stripping for the animals, for peace, for empowerment, or for fun.  Or even money, lots of it (contrary to popular belief, a lot of women rather like looking at the naked male form). 

It's time for quid pro quo, boys.  Until then, STFU about anti-sex puritans.

Comments

[Sheelzebub]

Irony doesn't equal sexist, cliched, or unfunny.

[Diane]

As a member of PETA, I can only say that irony is lost on a whole lot of people.

[Stephan Sokolow]

If I weren't a nobody living in the middle of nowhere with no car and no idea who to volunteer to (Watch the Penn & Teller: Bullshit! episode about PETA if you don't know what I'm talking about), I'd happily strip for a cause.

Of course, I suspect the "If I weren't a nobody" part affects most open-minded men. As I understand it, there tends to be an inverse correlation between open-mindedness and the desire to be a media star.