I don't know what to title this

I saw an ad today.

It was on the side of a bus. There was part of a pig on it, with a speech bubble coming from his/her mouth. In the speech bubble were the words "THOSE LOOK FAKE." To the right of that picture were the words "All natural ingredients". It was an ad by Chipotle or something, I don't know.

At that moment, I was struck by the patent obliviousness its makers had undergone while producing it.

In this society, we feminise animals and animalise women. You already know my thoughts on animal-human equality; I won't go into that. But the very byplay of it was breathtaking.

Here was the image of a pig, criticising "fake" ingredients. By which, I assume from the image of the pig, she/he meant fake meat. Something that the pig was supposed to replace. The pig was endorsing her/his own destruction, his/her own degradation.

I remember scenes in which my friends, male and female, would point at women on TV and say "those look fake." The disapproval of women for trying too hard to be accepted, just as much disapproved of as the women that don't try at all.

I can't help but make the connection. We are told that animals want to be killed and eaten, that they want to participate in their own exploitation. Likewise, we are told that women want to be consumed and put on pinups for so-called "admiration", that they want to participate in their own exploitation.

This exploitation, for women, means pornography, stripping, and showcasing their bodies for others' consumption. We have been taught so well that women want this that we, as women, begin to believe it of ourselves. That we want to be exploited. That exploitation is "freedom" and "empowerment".

Since when was allowing your body to be dismembered any way someone else wants "empowerment"? Since when was giving away your freedom to choose who gets to see your body "freedom"?

Since the "liberal" men decided that it would be best for them, I guess. And slowly but surely, they even convinced women that their bodies are public property. That their bodies aren't theirs to possess and share when they want to. That to be "free" and "empowered" they have to give up their power to anyone who comes across it.

I can't believe that they convinced me that I had to accept my own degradation to be "cool". Not "cool" in the popular way, but "cool" as in the "socially acceptable" way. As in, "she's cool."

They convinced me, and they've convinced my human sisters, and they convinced themselves, and they are raping us because of that. Rape rates have steadily risen whenever pornography becomes more common. We are being raped.

At least the animals haven't been convinced that they want to die.