Sexist or Sexy?

The billboard above has caused a certain amount of controversy over in Canada, enough in fact it get it banned.  The PETA made ad, which features 90's icon Pamela Anderson in a bikini with her body parts labelled like a piece of meat in a butchers has been labelled by Montreal officials as 'sexist'.  However PETA, who made the ad deny it is sexist and have said, if anything, the propaganda poster is 'sexy'.


I have to say, I side with PETA on this one.  It seems that the Canadian officials either don't 'get' the irony in the poster, don't want to aggravate the meat industry (which is a whole other issue for another time) or worse, are paranoid about authorising anything that may possibly offend anyone.  Firstly, Pamela has been running around in nothing more than a swim suit for the best part of two decades now, so the notion it's at all shocking to see her half naked is ridiculous.  Secondly, the intention of the advert is quite obvious and clever which isn't something you can always say about PETA's methods (red paint and cat walk shows come to mind).  I do understand how the picture itself can be misinterpreted as sexist - reducing women to body parts, like a piece of meat - but that's half the irony in it.


Anderson, who is Canadian-born, released a statement following the ban stating "In a city that is known for its exotic dancing and for being progressive and edgy, how sad that a woman would be banned from using her own body in a political protest over the suffering of cows and chickens," - she has a point.  I like to think censorship in almost all forms is wrong and when (as Pamela said) the intentions are political, you do have to wonder why such a advertisement would be banned.  That said, if only someone would have taken down those hideous and offensive David Cameron billboards in May the world would be a much better place.....