Losing Clothes, Gaining Rights

To the editors:

As a full-time activist, a student of public policy, and a woman who sometimes removes her clothes for a cause, I feel obliged to respond to Courtney Fiske’s April 13th column (“Veganism as Sexism,” column, April 13).

As an organization staffed largely by feminist women, PETA would not do something that we felt contributed to the very serious problems that women face. PETA’s “naked” demonstrators and models choose to participate in these actions because they want to do something to make people stop and pay attention. We believe that people (including men, as shown in the link that Ms. Fiske provided to our “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign) should have the choice to use their own bodies to make social statements and that there is nothing shameful or “wrong” about being naked. This tactic has been used since Lady Godiva rode naked on a horse to protest taxes on the poor in the 11th century.

Readers might find it interesting to consider that it is the societies that allow women to wear revealing clothing that are the ones in which women have the most rights and the most power. Likewise, it is the societies that punish women for wearing revealing clothing in which women have the fewest rights and the least power. Should women only be allowed to participate in activism if they promise not to show their bodies or use their bodies as political statements? If people choose to use their bodies and sexuality to convey a message, aren’t those of us who censor them—even if our motives are good—also somewhat guilty of disrespect and repression?


LINDSAY RAJT
April 14, 2009
Lindsay Rajt is a manager of the Campaigns Division of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.