Women in PETA

The Washington Post has an article on interns at PETA.  It describes a few of the protests that PETA has held recently. Many of which, of course, involve naked women:

This self-assured knowledge is useful when the PETA interns are naked, which happens occasionally, like at a recent Friday demonstration when Kelsey Jaye stands with another "PETA Beauty" in a makeshift shower on Pennsylvania Avenue by the National Archives. They languidly wash each other with cruelty-free soap and ignore heckles from the gathering crowd.

This isn’t an unusual display, of course. PETA has a long history of objectifying women in the name of animal rights. What I found to be interesting about the article was a quote from one of the female interns.  Jaye, from the shower scene above, has participated in many demonstrations. She describes another naked protest, this one against bull-fighting:

"There were 50 demonstrators in a big naked pile, with arrows sticking out everywhere….It was totally empowering. It’s great to be able to use your body as a tool."

I don’t like PETA’s tactics, but THIS woman finds those tactics empowering.  I am uncomfortable getting all paternalistic towards another woman regarding what she chooses to do with her body: "Honey, I know you THINK this is empowering, but that’s because you’re too cold to feel the sexism."

This isn’t too far from the "sex work as empowering/degrading" argument. I don’t have a particular point I’m trying to make here.  I just wanted to put the article out there for the rest of the community to think about.