The controversial PETA ad targeting fat (women) meat eaters is gone, literally. The billboard, hoisted high in the skyline in Jacksonville, Florida has been replaced with a new ad targeting "the folks who couldn't take the joke" about the previous billboard.
Plastered on a massive roadside billboard in Jacksonville, the first billboard depicted a very large woman in a bikini with the tagline "Save the Whales. Lose the blubber: go vegetarian.
Fat, feminist, lesbian, queer and other plain reasonable folks protested the sign, as well as protested PETA, which has a record of depicting various people and groups in stereotypical and hateful ways.
A recent post on Feministing.com, put the "blubber" ad in context of PETA's bad behavior quite well: "Their common approach is to take bodies that have been socially marginalized and attack. They have sexualized women, dressed as KKK members and openly mocked the GLBT community.Â
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One of my personal favourite excuses was, we employ the minorities so we cannot be racist . Because their cause is certainly a worthy one, they believe they have the right to "other" at will.  Other than being highly offensive, what PeTA does not realize is that their actions have life and death consequences in the real world."
A new sign, reading "Gone. Just like all the pounds lost by people who go vegetarian," has been staked in the ground in Jacksonville. But while the "blubber" billboard is gone, it will not soon be forgotten.
"ERFette," a blogger chronicling her debate with PETA's president Ingrid Newkirk about the "blubber" fiasco and oh so many other body-related issues on her blog, What's Written on My Body, says she will keep readers up-to-date on Newkirk's response to the mass critical protests from the queer fat feminist community and her personal debate with Newkirk in particular.
Read more of Stephanie's work here.
