Eco-Porn and Sexploitation: Is Sex A Weapon or a Tool?

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Although most of us don’t talk about it all that often, pornography is, hands down, the Internet’s most lucrative industry. Sex sells almost as well as the luxury of anonymity home Internet service itself provides. If humans are two things, we’re clearly: sexual and pretty private about it.

Sex is exploited in countless ways from selling us beer and cars to entertainment and activism. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)  is no stranger to using naked bodies as a means to discuss the meat or fur (or animal testing or circus) industries, and it’s working: the organization has attracted high profile celebrities willing to bear all in the name of helping animals. If stripping down for a poster or a commercial saves the life of just one innocent chicken, mink, or baby seal, most any of those celebs will tell you it was worth it. The organization even launched their own PETA.xxx website when the sponsored top-level domain suffix was introduced in 2011 for the porn industry.

While the group puts tireless hours into legitimate campaigns addressing animal cruelty issues, successfully negotiates welfare and ethics standards with major corporations, and works nonstop to educate the public about cruelty to animals and the many ethical alternatives, they’re most often known—and chastised—for their own “exploitative” use of sex to get their message across. No matter what side of that debate you find yourself on, the fact is you’ve likely heard about a PETA campaign through something sexually suggestive. And you know the saying: there’s no such thing as bad press. But is there such a thing as perpetuating bad human behavior?

Just last month at SXSW in Austin, Texas, a documentary debuted about a German NGO organization entitled Fuck For Forest. The group essentially has two platforms: the environment needs saving, and sex can save the world. So they make erotic films (mind you, German erotica) in order to get their message across, using the funds from the site to buy up threatened rainforest land that could otherwise wind up in the hands of loggers and developers. And Polish filmmaker Michal Marczak made a film about their tactic. One has to ask: does watching people have sex make you want to go and hug a tree, let alone save it? They label it “eco-porn” and in an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, FFF member Natty Mandeau said, “A naked body is in many cultures considered offensive, while we poison our waters and destroy nature and animal life without remorse or respect. Maybe this disconnection and alienation of our bodies and sexuality is a mirror of how we are disconnected to nature outside ourselves?”

Point well taken.

Many humans are disconnected from nature, and healthy sexual relationships to boot, particularly here in the U.S.. We live in a country where, as I type this, we’re waiting on the nation’s highest court to decide whether or not two people of the same sex can legally marry. To say we have issues around sex is quite an understatement.

Still, does it call then for extreme measures? Just ask Jess, Greta, and Zach, the bloggers at NakedVeganCooking.com. They’ve said the gimmick has helped some of them heal over body image issues, and in PETA fashion, it certainly draws attention to their vegan message, even if cooking in the nude is less than appealing for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with what’s on the menu.

But the question still remains: is using sexual exploitation to promote a worthy cause really a good idea? While PETA celebs will tell you they choose to take their clothes off, unlike a baby seal quite attached to her fur, the fact is that using sex—no matter what the message—still triggers our brains to have a pretty typical response, namely that of objectification. We see the naked (most often female) person as a means to satisfy our (often suppressed) desires, rather than someone with whom we could have a meaningful sexually expressive experience. We perpetuate the belief that sex is a thing outside of ourselves rather than a core part of who we all are.

In using sex as a means for causes like saving the rainforest or the billions of animals killed every year for food, are we still perpetuating an intrinsically selfish human trait that’s more likely to compel us to continue to exploit others—humans or otherwise—to achieve self-satisfaction?

Perhaps, though, the conversation is beginning to shift. And even though we’re still capitalizing on what’s inherently problematic with our use of sex-messaging, maybe we’re at the precipice of addressing the bigger issues, namely our own (dis)comfort level with sexual self-expression and the expression of others, be they humans, forests, oceans or animals.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: patdebaz

Jill Ettinger

Jill Ettinger is a Los Angeles-based journalist and editor focused on the global food system and how it intersects with our cultural traditions, diet preferences, health, and politics. She is the senior editor for sister websites OrganicAuthority.com and EcoSalon.com, and works as a research associate and editor with the Cornucopia Institute, the organic industry watchdog group. Jill has been featured in The Huffington Post, MTV, Reality Sandwich, and Eat Drink Better. www.jillettinger.com.