I spoke about Keith Basso in my previous blog (author of Portraits of the ‘Whiteman’), who also says jokes are political, analytic, and serve as cautionary tales to highlight the dangerous and stupid people to an entire community. One subculture of animal welfare, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), jokes about actors Kate and Ashley Olsen because they wear animal fur and promote a fashion line, which uses fur. In retaliation, PETA launched its “Trollsen Twins” campaign by unveiling an ad featuring images of them in the most unflattering photo that PETA could find (http://features.peta2.com/trollsens/) The ad, which carries the tagline “Fur is Worn by Beautiful Animals and Ugly People,” was unveiled at the Olsen’s Walk of Fame star on Hollywood Boulevard in December 2007. To coincide with the unveiling, PETA launched a website developed entirely to the Trollsens—who are known on the site as “Hairy-Kate” and “Trashly,” which features “Fatal Fashion”, an animated dress-up game complete with animal skins and the accompanying blood. Visitors to the site can also pick up free Web banners showing the Trollsen sisters draped in animal skins—and blood. PETA is telling the rest of us not to be like the Olsen twins. They tell us that by wearing animal fur, we are condoning animal cruelty and say there is absolutely no reason to kill animals for their fur when there are so many fashionable and humane alternatives.
Sign the pledge to be fur-free: https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3191
Wow this is definitely an extreme way to stop the Olsen twins from wearing fur and get more people to stop wearing fur. However, I feel that they maybe going too far and that they should not mistreat people (The Olsens) in order to get us to stop mistreating animals. It just goes against exactly what they are saying we need to do. This is the problem I have with PETA. While I do not believe that we should mistreat animals by any means, I also do not think that PETA's extreme methods are the best way to get their points across.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Kayla that PETA goes too far sometimes. However, none of PETA's dreadful behavior has stopped the Olsen's decisions to wear fur. Mary Kate is even featured on the cover of Marie Claire's Sept. 2010 issue, the photos inside show her modeling fur garments. The Olsen's also depict a healthy amount of fur in their collaborative line, The Row (www.therow.com).
DeleteI agree with the previous comment. I absolutely support the advocacy of animal rights and do not believe the mistreatment of animals is ever okay and shouldn't be socially acceptable by any means. However, I do feel that this campaign crosses the line. I feel PETA could have, and in the past actually have, taken a different approach to get the same point across. This attack on the identity and character of the Olsen twins is on the verge of defamation and I do not believe it is a beneficial campaign for PETA. On the contrary, I feel this type of slanderous campaign speaks negatively about the character of the organization PETA. It affected me in the same way negative, slanderous political campaigns do. Rather than support, I was put off by this type of campaign.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post. I completely agree that we should not be doing this to animals, and I firmly believe that God did not put animals on this planet so we could have a fashionable jacket or fashionable boots to wear. I was surprised to find out that the Olsen twins did this, and I will be sure never to buy any of their stuff. Animals should never be mistreated.
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