YNOT – Even though the notion of a porn site promoting animal rights may have started as a publicity stunt, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals appears to be taking quite seriously its promise to launch a website within the dot-xxx domain space. According to the Associated Press, the site — rumored to combine explicit nudity with images of animal suffering — may launch as early as November.
“We’re hoping to reach a whole new audience of people, some of whom will be shocked by graphic images that maybe they didn’t anticipate seeing when they went to the PETA triple-X site,” Associate Director of Campaigns Lindsay Rajt told the UK’s Telegraph.
Many in the adult entertainment industry have shied away from or been outright critical of the new dot-xxx sponsored Top Level Domain, but PETA pre-registered PETA.xxx and began promoting the project early. The organization is known for its shock tactics and is accustomed to the public outcry its campaigns often generate.
“We try to use every outlet that we can to speak up for animals,” Rajt said. “We anticipated that this new triple-X domain name would be a hot topic, and we immediately decided to use it and take advantage of it to try to promote the animal rights message,” Rajt said.
As for the site’s content, PETA so far has promised new material, particular in support of the group’s no-fur and vegan messages.
“When people first visit the site it will be very enticing, and once they go just a little bit deeper, that’s when they’ll be confronted with images that we hope will make them stop and think and get them talking and hopefully encourage them to make a lifestyle change to a plant-based diet,” Rajt told the Telegraph.
She told the Huffington Post, “The racy things we do are sometimes the most effective way that we can reach particular individuals.”
Some observers remain critical, and not just because of PETA’s history of outrageous publicity moves. Jill Dolan, director of the program in gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University, slammed the planned site rather forcefully.
“Exploiting porn to get people’s juices going seems lame,” she said. “Exploiting pornographic images only of women to make their point is retrograde and misogynist. Come on, PETA. Don’t be Neanderthals.”
J. Justin Wilson, a senior research analyst for the Center for Consumer Freedom, went even further in his evaluation of PETA’s latest stunt, calling the group “whack jobs.”
“They don’t seem to be changing the debate anymore, I think in large part because people are writing them off as whack jobs,” he told the AP. “This is one more example of them being their own worst enemy. If they’re trying to win the hearts and minds of people considering being vegetarians, this is probably the wrong way to do it.”
Rajt fired back at both critics.
“Our demonstrators, the models, all chose to participate in our campaigns,” she said. “It’s not a very feminist thing to do to turn to women and tell them whether or not they can use their voices, their bodies, to express their voice.
“I think the bottom line is we live a in a 24-hour news cycle where over the years we’ve found our racier actions are kind of a fast-track way to get people to stand up and pay attention about the plight of animals.”
