No More Page 3 petition

The Guardian has a piece on the endemic sexism.

I hate page 3. It is so insidious and I HATE that so many intelligent women seem to see nothing wrong with it...many of them I am sure because they have been told over and over again how 'harmless' it is. It is all about keeping women in our place and these men WANT us to feel uncomfortable when we see it as they think that weakens us and makes us vulnerable.

I am STUNNED that people can even argue the point for keeping it because there is no point.

Startail it is all part of the same thing. Men laughing at feminists is part of the same thing too.

I have signed, thanks for reminding me OP.

or even FGM

FMG!

Well FMB bothers me and so does Page 3. I think we can be concerned about misogynistic practices on a number of levels, thank you very much.

I see the 'Haven't you got anything else to worry about?' brigade are out in force.

Startail and other's who think the say no to page 3 campaign is crap yet find time to post on threads like this - in all seriousness I suggest you read one of these:

The Equality Illusion

Living Dolls

Start joining the dots...

Startail

Oh and yes op I have signed petition and and joined the fb page too. I don't think expecting our daughters to not be faced with a fake news blurb that mocks a barely legal teenager with her tits out in a the largest selling newspaper in the uk is a waste of time [shrugs]

Startail
Fussing a bout a few tits in a news paper is a disgusting waste of time.

A waste of whose time? Clearly the OP does have time to post a simple blog about something she believes in. You are being absolutely ridiculous.. you have wasted just as much time posting to disagree with her.. shouldn't you be out not wasting time doing something important?

By the way Startail - men are not 50% of the population.

Startail, where does arguing against those who are against page 3 rank in the Global Waste Of Time Index? Taking time out to do that must impact on your campaigns to stop harm against women.

I'm at a bit of a crossroads with my feminism at the moment, so a handy list of causes in importance order would be great. If you have time.

So what you are saying Startail is you want women's breasts exposed in a daily newspaper for the titillation of men? You want men to keep that privilege?

"I certainly don't fight those where victory would be counter productive."

We're talking about Page 3 here, right? Tits in a daily?

How would a victory be counter-productive? Nobody's trying to ban sex. Nobody's even trying to ban breasts in The Sun. They're politely requesting they no longer exhibit them. Other newspapers cope without breasts. 'Political correctness gone bananas'. I love it. So all newspapers except The Sun are crazily PC, then?!

I give it 5 years; 10 at the absolute outset - before Page 3 is seen as anachronistic as the Black and White Minstrels and smoking in pubs. :)

What do you mean by political correctness?

Sorry, but if you succeed in banning page 3, which fortunately you won't.

It won't be seen as a great step forwards for women's rights it will be seen as the nanny state and political correctness gone bananas.

Starting at the bottom means supporting the campaign about toys, it means bringing up our daughters to believe they can be anything the want, it means proper research into why so few girls do serious computing. It means supporting your local refuge, the minimum wage, it means a thousand worthwhile causes.

Page 3 and the objectification of women is a distraction.

Sex sells, partly clad boys sell Holister's over priced hoodies, Rafa Nadal's torso sells Nike. Scantily clad women sell everything.

It is both human nature and a billion dollar business. It's one we can never win.

I'm a realist I don't fight battles that can't be won. I certainly don't fight those where victory would be counter productive.

yes i have supported this petition

feminists have always been laughed at it has always been a way to put women down what else are we called hysterical, unreasonable, man haters the list is endless

i support this along with changes making women lives better in this country and other countries and issues that yes are more pressing but if a man or woman wants to laugh at me so be it what is there to be scared of if we fear what others think so much changes will not happen. i know far more men and women who see the bigger picture that small changes make way for bigger changes and both need to be made

Ugh, sorry. Being, um, 'strident' only makes people more entrenched in their views.

It's just frustrating because it seems so obvious that you will never change fundamentally entrenched mindsets when it comes to the really big issues like women's status in SA, FGM, etc, etc, until the more 'everyday' issues are seen as anachronistic, outdated and inappropriate.

Why would people change their views on such huge - often culturally entrenched - things and accord women full equal status, when women are still seen as play things, objects, sex-class citizens, the doers of home-drudgery, etc?

Whenever you tackle, change or try to improve anything, you start in a manageable way, in bite-sized pieces, starting small and building up, honing, tweaking, with the bigger overall picture always in mind. Why would this be any different?

That's, of course, not to say that people shouldn't also be out there trying to tackle the big stuff now too. But you're never really going to get anywhere while the 'small' (seemingly insignificant, but intrically woven into the fabric of society) stuff is left unaddressed.

This is why, for example, Page 3 matters to a lot of people.

Just because you don't get nor understand that this is an important issue, doesn't mean you need to be so rude and dismissive to people who do care.

Most people aren't so unilateral that they can only care about one thing. In fact, many people understand how one thing weaves into another and contributes to the huge overall situation we are currently in.

It's rude to care about women all over the world who are in real danger.

It's rude to point out that moaning about Page 3 makes feminists a laughing stock both with men and with a lot of women too.

Well if that's the case I shall continue to be rude!

I will continue to care what men think because if you believe in equality you do care what the other 50% of the population thinks. That is what equal means.

Beside the simple point that, like it or not, it is still men who have the power in the World.

for that reason, if for no other, we need to start with the issues that no right thinking person, of either gender, can disagree are wrong.

That is a really good article MsGoldblum. It really exposes how the media sexually depicts and silences women in equal measure.

Despite what Startail thinks, this is really important stuff. It is this underlying misogyny which ensures we aren't considered equal. It is all about male privilege and sense of entitlement. Just like killing baby girls, FGM, rape etc. It all comes from the same place.

Hey, good Guardian article there (by Kira Cochrane). It even mentions Mumsnet.

Thanks for the support MrsC and MsGoldblum. I saw that link in passing this morning on FB MsGoldblum. I'll have a proper read now.