Oh, oh. A-list movie star Gwyneth Paltrow has endorsed a clothing company that uses animal skin in some of its products, and predictably, the animal rights ideologues are coming unglued. From the story:
The Hollywood star has been signed up by Italian designer Tod’s and is pictured draped in fox fur and wearing fur-lined boots feature in the company’s latest advertising campaign.
Miss Paltrow, 35, who is married to the Coldplay singer and vegetarian Chris Martin has won praise for her impeccable green credentials and is a fan of holistic practices and yoga. The decision to endorse Tod’s, a luxury goods company which also uses ostrich and snakeskin in its products, and describes itself as “refined, understated luxury, impeccable taste and enviable quality”, has come as a shock to animal rights campaigners.
Mark Glover, director of Respect for Animals, said: “Gwyneth Paltrow should be ashamed. I can only assume that Paltrow either is ignorant of the facts or lacks human decency and compassion.”
No, the people who are responsible for Darfur lack human decency and compassion. Those who block a solution politically should be ashamed
What one wears hardly rises to that level of importance. Assuming the clothing is not made of endangered species, I don’t see the problem. We have been wearing animal skins as long as we have been human. Indeed, wearing fur or ostrich hide is no more immoral in my view than wearing leather shoes made from the cattle we eat as steak.
Besides, fur is green. It is all natural. There are no petroleum or synthetics involved in its manufacture. Negligible carbon footprint. It is biodegradable. Heck, fur fits right in to the new global paradigm!
I certainly respect those who disagree, and laud them for living out their ethics—which is an aspect of human exceptionalism since only we refrain from or take actions based on purely ethical concerns.
So leave the poor, I mean rich, woman alone and find something more worthy of complaining about than a big time movie star being overpaid to permit her name to be associated with a line of ludicrously priced prestige clothing.
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