The Role of Professionalization Regarding Female Exploitation in the Nonhuman Animal rights Movement

Adams (2004, The pornography of meat. London: The Continuum International

Publishing Group Ltd), Deckha (2008, Disturbing images: PETA and the feminist

ethics of animal advocacy. Ethics and the environment, 13(2), 35–76), Gaarder (2011,

Women and the animal rights movement. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press),

Glasser (2011, Tied oppressions: an analysis of how sexist imagery reinforces

speciesist sentiment. The Brock review, 12(1), 51–68), and others have criticized

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for sexually exploiting young

women in outreach and fundraising efforts. This article extends these critiques in

addressing the problematic relationship between objectified volunteer female activists

and Nonhuman Animal rights organizations (Animal Liberation Victoria, Fish Love,

LUSH, and PETA). These organizations have largely professionalized and have

consequently refocused their priorities on fundraising for organizational maintenance.

An exploration into the social movement literature on the phenomenon of

professionalization casts the use of young women’s bodies for financial gains in a

more troubling light. The Nonhuman Animal rights industry that exploits the sexuality

of female activists ultimately exploits archetypes of women as nurturers and

temptresses. These groups also utilize women’s vulnerability by targeting female

consumers and their sensitivity to body image. This article places female

objectification within the logic of social movement professionalization. These

organizations merge advocacy with capitalist interests to the ultimate disadvantage of

women and Nonhuman Animals alike. The exploitation of female stereotypes and

ultimately the female body, it is argued, is ineffective in challenging ideologies of

oppression as both a practical and a theoretical matter.