Why the ‘No More Page 3’ Campaign Makes Me Twitch

There has been celebration in the ‘No More Page 3‘ camp as recent insider reports suggest that The Sun’s infamous Page 3 may be gone for good.

For those of you not familiar with the campaign, they are aiming to get rid of Page 3 in a bid to tell the world that women deserve to be on the same platform and have the same respect as men. The campaign has some serious momentum, with universities across the country refusing to stock The Sun. The campaign also sees support from some pretty huge organisations including UNISON, Girl Guiding UK and Women’s Aid.

All in all I think the motives of this campaign are pretty admirable. It’s true that sexism IS still an issue in our society, it’s true that rape culture DOES exist and we SHOULD be doing something about it. Yet, there is something about the No More Page 3 campaign that just doesn’t sit comfortably with me.

No More Page 3

Taking a look on their website, you can see their clearly stated aims.

1) It’s 2014! Page 3 was first introduced in the sexist 1970s. A lot has changed over the last 30+ years in our society, we think it’s time The Sun caught up…

Yup. It’s the 21st century, so why are we still afraid of sex? Why do we demonise it and treat it as something demeaning? Newsflash, it isn’t. Sex is all around us and we should be talking about it, embracing it and (god forbid) enjoying it. I agree, it is wrong to simply portray women as sex symbols… there’s some pretty sexy men out there too. Let’s get their kit off and on Page 3 too please!

2) It’s soft porn in the UK’s no.1 selling family newspaper that children are exposed to. Until 2003 the models were only 16 (and made to dress up in school ties and hats – seriously!) It’s never been OK. One day we’ll look back on this and think “oh my goodness, we did what?!”

This point hugely gets to me. I think because it is a point which is grounded in such good intentions. I think it’s not entirely appropriate to leave The Sun about with young children in the house. BUT you’re probably not going to pass your 5 year old a copy of “horny horny housewives 2: the cumming” so why pass them a newspaper you don’t want them seeing? If you want to give your children a good lesson, why not teach them to think critically about what they see in the media. Which would probably rule out any chance of them picking up The Sun as a credible source anyway.

As for “Until 2003 the models were only 16”, I don’t necessarily agree with it but it’s in the past. What about the real issues of children being shipped off into marriages which still happens in the world today? Although neither is right, I’m far less concerned about what was happening to 16 year olds 12 years ago than I am about 12 year olds going through the horrors of sexual abuse today.

censored sign

On that note, please do check out Girls Not Brides and offer what support you can.

3) What does it teach children? They see page after page of pictures of men in clothes doing stuff (running the country, having opinions, achieving in sport!) and what are the women doing in this society they’re learning about? Not much really, other than standing topless in their pants showing their bare breasts for men. It’s not really fair, is it?

I think I’ve covered a lot of this before. It’s another irksome point because it’s grounded in such good intentions and there are so many examples of weak female characters and portrayals in popular media. The basis of this is entirely genuine and something I can entirely agree with. I think it is extremely important that we teach our children they can be whatever they want to be. Would I be ashamed if I had daughter grow up to be a glamour model? To be honest, it depends entirely on why they’re doing it. But if it’s a job they enjoy and want to be doing, I am sure as heck not going to tell them otherwise. Besides, the biggest issue that the above point raises, is that men and women aren’t shown in equal terms throughout the paper. I really don’t see how one page topples it that far. There should be more women politicians in focus and women’s sport should get more support and coverage, I completely agree with that, but that’s a bigger societal issue than just Page 3.

4) Women say, do and think so many interesting and incredible things and should be celebrated for their many achievements. They are people, not things! Not ‘that’. The fact that we hear ‘look at the tits on that’ or ‘I’d do that’ is disgusting, disrespectful and objectifying. Page 3 of The Sun is the icon that perpetuates and normalises this horrible sexist ‘banter’.

This point I out and out hate. Just a thought, if men are turning into uncouth, objectifying creeps who can’t see that a woman can be simultaneously sexually empowered and well accomplished, maybe the problem doesn’t lie on our side of the camp. We have seriously got to let go of the notion that sex and achievements can’t go hand in hand.

Personally I like to believe I’ve done fairly well for myself and I quite enjoy the thought of being able to turn a man ga ga with my curvaceous ways (although doubt the success of the latter point). The more we tell men that we’re going to lock up our scantily clad women because they’ll forget we can be successful in other ways, the more we tell men it’s one or the other. It isn’t. Oh and by the way, it works both ways. Men can be sexual entities and successful… in fact isn’t that the premise of best seller Fifty Shades of Grey? Or half the vampire novels out there? So why are we hell bent on letting men be sexy and successful but saying women can’t be?

5) Every single weekday for the last 44 years in The Sun newspaper the largest female image has been of a young woman (usually of a very particular age, race, physicality) showing her breasts for men, sending out a powerful message that whatever else a woman achieves, her primary role is to serve men sexually. Pretty rubbish that really.

As I just said, if men can’t look at a woman showing her breasts without thinking her primary role is to serve men sexually, it’s the men that maybe need to have a rethink. Not us by locking ourselves away. I find this ethos scarily close to victim blaming and it makes me shudder. Incidentally, the other large images in the magazine are generally full of propaganda and celebrity culture. The Sun is just an awful newspaper – Hillsborough anyone? But I don’t think it’s awful because of Page 3.

6) The Sun newspaper could be so much stronger without Page 3. Because currently, any story they run about women’s issues such as rape, sexual abuse, harassment, domestic violence or the dangers of online porn is drowned out and contradicted by the neon flashing sign of Page 3 that says ‘shut up, girls, and get your tits out.’

To be honest, The Sun would be so much stronger if it wasn’t The Sun. I actually think it’s important that the two issues are side by side, we should be talking about sexual empowerment in the same conversation as all these other serious which by the way are not women’s issues. They are EVERYONE’s issues.

The sun lies about Hillsborough

If you didn’t read that as me shouting it and pulling my hair out in frustration, you read it wrong. Newsflash, men get raped too, men suffer abuse too, men suffer domestic violence too. The term women’s issues not only over looks that but it says it’s on us, it’s our problem. No. Just no. The issue is that there are people out there who do awful things like that and get away with it. That’s a bloody issue.  I’m not even going to get started on the “dangers of online porn” comment. That’s an article for another time.

They finish up by saying:

• *CONTEXT* We love breasts! And have nothing against the women who choose to show them, we simply feel that a family newspaper is the wrong context for these images.
• *EQUAL REPRESENTATION* all we are really asking is that women be represented with respect in the newspaper, rather like men are.

Again, I have to say I think at heart I agree with so much of their ethos. I just really feel they’re picking the wrong battles and are at serious, serious risk of giving out the wrong messages. I’d like to see a page 3 with men and women of all different shapes and sizes embracing who they are and a society who equally embraces it

I dream of a society where we can all be equal. Where we are all free to be who we want to be. We are all free to be the empowered sexual creatures that we are and know that we are safe to be that. I think myself and this campaign have the same pipe dream. I hope I see them at the end of the road at our shared destination, I just refuse to take that route to get there.

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