An anti-fur group (the Anti-Fur Society) on Facebook posted a link to this story in the Daily Mail about Rihanna arriving at Heathrow wearing what appears to be a fox fur lined jacket. One of my Facebook friends shared the post and commented on it. I read the post, read the story, shrugged and started reading the comments.
The comments on the Daily Mail’s website are pretty bad. Terms like stupid pig are thrown out. The anti-fur site is much, much worse. The singer is a called a whore, slag, cunt, bitch, ugly and stupid cow among other things. There is not one single rational argument against wearing fur in any of the 800 plus comments. There are plenty of rational arguments that could be made, of course. Even as someone who has been known to wear fur on occasion, I can come up with some. I’m not going to here, because why should I do their work for them?
Me? I don’t care if people wear fur. I wear leather. I eat meat. I don’t care if people hunt for meat, but I’m not thrilled about hunting for trophies. I do understand why other people might have reservations about any or all of those things, even strong reservations. I can understand why people would be anti-meat or anti-fur activists. What I don’t understand is why the only form of commentary used on this particular page against those who disagree with their views was to degrade the person they disagreed with.
The best anyone could come up with about why Rihanna shouldn’t wear fur is to call her a fucking cunt.
Wanna call me a cunt because I ate lamb for lunch or because I’m wearing leather shoes? Do you think it’s OK to refer to me in print as a fucking bitch if I wear a fox collar? I’ll put it on for you. Go ahead and call me whatever you want. See where it gets you.
Mostly, It gets you nowhere. If your best argument against wearing fur is “you’re a fucking cunt” then you lose. Demeaning women who disagree with your views accomplishes nothing. In fact it turns people away from your cause. That is true regardless of what your cause is.
It puts you in the same category as bullies like the Westboro Baptist Church.
If you’ve followed the success rate of their tactics at all, you may have noted that gay marriage is considered perfectly acceptable by more Americans than ever. People find them and their views repellant. That is what happens when you spew hate.
If you have to demean human beings to defend your cause, then this particular fucking bitch is not going to support you. It doesn’t matter what your cause is.