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Pressure Groups – Who Loves Them!

Does my gourd look big in this? So asks PETA, now claiming vegetables are good for men’s sexual stamina. Vomit bag at the ready if you click to enlarge.

Arwa Mahdawi wrote a piece in the Guardian today that got my aging grey cells jingling. I enjoy reading Arwa’s stuff, she’s an interesting writer and often makes a lot of sense. Her essay was about the advertising campaigns of PETA – ‘People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’.

I remember this shower of nutters from my time with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They were constantly trying to infiltrate the ruling Council of the Society so they could take it over. They harangued their members into joining the RSPCA, which gave them the right to vote at the annual general meeting, then turned up en masse every year and tried to vote their representatives onto the Council. Thankfully, at least while I worked there, they never succeeded.

Arwa Mahdawi, herself a vegetarian, was lambasting these crazed “animal lovers” for the disgusting adverts they produce in an effort to persuade everyone to give up eating meat (note the above image from PETA’s latest public offering):

Peta’s latest act of tofu terrorism is a new ad centred around masculinity. “Traditional masculinity is DEAD,” it announces. “The secret to male sexual stamina is veggies.” It brought this thesis to life with a puerile video featuring men vigorously waving vegetable genitalia. Nothing has ever made me want to eat a carrot less. Or an aubergine. Congrats, Peta: you’ve put me off fruit and veg. I’m craving a hamberder, as I believe the meat-treats are called in the White House.

Peta’s ads are so distasteful that I sometimes wonder whether the organisation is a genius invention by the meat industry, designed to make animal rights activists look ridiculous. In December, it irritated the internet with a plea to stop using phrases such as “bring home the bacon” or “flog a dead horse” because they trivialise violence against animals. Peta also has a good record of irritating feminists with misogynistic advertising that treats women like pieces of meat.[1]

If there’s one thing I detest it’s pressure groups. Well, actually, there’re quite a few things I detest but that’s for another day. Pressure groups spend all their time trying to force, coerce, or harangue folk into accepting what their own warped belief systems are festering. Christians probably rank near the top of the list, and those blasted Jehovah’s Witnesses that come waking you up at two o’clock on a Sunday afternoon trying to flog their sodding Watch Towers.

We men can’t open our computers these days without being told we’re all crazed, lecherous, sex-fiends out to ravish and rape any woman who dares set foot out her front door. #MeToo, which incidentally, I once supported, has now become just another platform for the men-hating, vitriolic, Germaine Greers of this world. She once wrote, “women have no idea how much men hate them,” which is just about the most generalised load of bollocks to spew forth from any rampant feminist’s orifice.

There have been sicko perverts around, like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, since the dawn of time. The curse of social media, however, is relatively recent and solely responsible for the upsurge in misandry (it’s like misogyny, but the other way round) that is causing men to fear going closer than half a mile from any woman, for fear of the dreaded scream…

“Sexual Harassment!!!! His coat brushed my sleeve as he past, officer. I think he wanted to rape me!”

No! For Gawd’s sake, he was just late for work and rushing to catch the 8.45 from Paddington.

Of course there’re crapbags out there. Women need protection from them. No reasonable man would argue with that. But, ladies, don’t judge us all by the Weinsteins of this world.

#MeToo began as a worthy cause, but has metamorphosed into a monster pressure group. Its vocal supporters would have women believe that all men are lechers. Well, I have to admit, yes we are. In a sense, they’re quite right. I doubt there’s a red-blooded, heterosexual, male out there who after a couple of pints wouldn’t readily admit (though not to his wife!) that on the train, the bus, in the supermarket, or anywhere else where ladies gather, when entering such establishments his eye doesn’t immediately roam to the prettiest wenches around. I’ll freely admit to the occasional glimpse at forbidden fruit. I may be seventy-three (nearly), and my hair a delicate shade of white, but as the old adage dictates: there may be snow on the roof, but there’s still a fire in the cellar.

That doesn’t make us all dangerous rapists. It just makes us – well, men. And yes, we have a responsibility to respect, and protect, all the ladies – whether seventeen or seventy – with whom we share this planet. 99.99% of us will do that. So, please, don’t let the fanatic feminist brigade condemn us all for the few rotten apples floating around in the barrel.

RJ’s dictionary definition: Pressure group ~ a bandwagon jumped on to enable one to feel superior to others.

As for PETA, their core ideal may be good. And the ethical treatment of animals is a cause I could support one hundred percent, but not when it’s corrupted into the rotten political structure that exists under the title of, ‘People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’.

[1] “There’s one thing that really puts me off veganism: Peta” Guardian, 20th January 2019

3 Replies to “Pressure Groups – Who Loves Them!”

  1. Yes, pressure groups, in these days of social networks, Twitter, Facebook etc have grown in strength to a level never before achieved. In doing so their members do tend to go over the top at times. One member will try to out-virtue another; someone else out-pearl clutches ’em, then it can become a race to simply out-stoopid stoopid, losing sight of logic and all common sense. The internet has great advantages, but equally unfortunate draw-backs.

  2. You are on a rant today RJA. I agree on PETA, women as meat was completely offensive and I see the impact here in Newfoundland of their anti-sealing stance which has resulted in an industry in dust and millions of seals now eating the cod stomachs, destroying that livelihood too. It is appalling. They are an extremely wealthy organization.

    As to #metoo. You are a man my dear and I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been assaulted and in my circle alone. I am so glad this has come to the light of day but many, many women are still afraid to come forward because of losing their jobs.

    So please save your rage for the men (50% say they would rape if they could get away with it) those perverts, paedos and rapists who are still out there prowling. And fight so women and girls can feel safe in this world. It ain’t about you. And yeah, female trafficking stats are now through the roof.

    XO
    WWW

  3. Twilight ~ I’ve become very critical of social media. As with almost everything these days it gets commandeered by the menagerie of ignorant and unwashed all vying for the most attention, which usually involves who can broadcast the most outrageous lies and half truths. It’s a splendid vehicle for dodgy pressure groups like PETA to spread their message around.

    WWW ~ You were quite correct, I was on a rant. I feel the need to rant more as I age, or maybe there’s just more to rant about these days. You don’t need to feel concerned that my words in any way contradict your feelings of revulsion for the perverts, paedos and rapists. I am equally repulsed, perhaps even more so given they are of my own sex.
    I would take issue on one point: I’m not sure the figure of 50% that you quote is totally accurate. The only official ‘study’ I could find (Edwards et al, 2014) concluded that of the 73 college students who took part in the survey 1 in 3 said they would commit rape if they could get away with it. Later analysis of the study concluded it was heavily flawed.
    My concern is that this latest upsurge in misandry being spread by a #MeToo campaign out of control, will result in the exact opposite effect to what it was aimed at achieving, Such outrage focused on men generally is likely to cause an upsurge in misogyny that will do nothing to curb the vile antics of the men this campaign was aimed at, and possibly cause a dangerous backlash.
    It is about me, very much so. Me, and all the other decent men out there being tarred with the same sordid brush. The only men who hate women are those who would do them harm, and that is a very small minority.
    But I really don’t believe we’re poles apart on this issue. We have equal contempt both for the scum who use their power positions to make women’s lives a misery, who need taking down a dark alley and given a good thrashing, and the truly dangerous rapists and murderers who need locking up for life.
    It’s a complex social problem and I fear we’ll never completely solve it. Hormones, evolution, childhood issues, mental illness, and a host of other factors probably all play a part. And yes, it’s peculiar to the male sex, but thankfully only infecting a very small proportion.

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