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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

....to want to ban page 3???

736 replies

DianaVreeland · 20/07/2012 16:07

I remember seeing a page 3 girl for the first time when I was about 6 as my neighbour bought the Sun. I cringed inwardly, and haven't stopped feeling the same since. I have 5 nieces 3 nephews and my own 2 sons.....I hope they could grow up without seeing images of women objectified like this. Clearly I am not showing this to them but at some point I know they will. Does anyone else feel the same?

OP posts:
missymoomoomee · 09/09/2012 18:06

As her disgusting message (which I was going to refer back to) has now been deleted, I think my point has been proved, it was personal and insulting, if it wasn't it wouldn't have been removed.

GoldShip · 09/09/2012 18:07

You're seeing what you want to see.

She said if her daughter felt she had to do it to make money for her she would kill herself.
This is after me posting how I kept a roof over my mums head.

It's been deleted now anyway so obviously I'm not being unreasonable.

GoldShip · 09/09/2012 18:10

Anyway I would like us all to get on and stop bickering. It's made me realise that there's much more important things!

Very un-mumsnetty hugs to everyone :)

emcwill74 · 09/09/2012 18:36

Super, glad all that's sorted. May I say GoldShip that whilst I don't agree with your arguments as you and I feel very differently on this topic, neither do I feel any animosity/dislike towards you. It is the Sun that I take issue with, not the models. This is not a personal attack on anyone from me.

So, that said, remember to sign here everyone that feels as I do that it's time the Sun got rid Grin

www.change.org/nomorepage3

JamieandOscarSittinginATree · 09/09/2012 18:44

Me too

Back2Two · 09/09/2012 19:07

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn due to privacy concerns

PlentyOfPubeGardens · 09/09/2012 19:08

yes, hugs all round from me Smile

FarloWearsAGoldRibbon · 09/09/2012 19:37

Also popping back in to say that whilst I disagree with these images, my animosity is directed at the publishers and not the young women involved. I would certainly not want my DD to do this, but I would not love or be proud of her any less as a person for having done so.

missymoomoomee · 09/09/2012 19:55

Also nipping on to say I respect everyones points of view, even those I don't agree with, and dish out a few more un-mumsnet-like hugs too Grin

jenny60 · 09/09/2012 20:12

Said it in July and happy to say it again: YANBU.

P.s. if my daughter ever decided to become a 'glamour model', I would have failed as a parent, as would her father. If my son wanted to look at this stuff, we would similarly have failed.

AllPastYears · 09/09/2012 21:29

"P.s. if my daughter ever decided to become a 'glamour model', I would have failed as a parent, as would her father. If my son wanted to look at this stuff, we would similarly have failed. "

Ahhh, now I get the point of Page 3 - it's so we can tell Us from Them. Grin

suzydelarosa · 09/09/2012 21:40

You are definitely not being unreasonable. But I've found that you have to be careful about when you raise it because (a) Page 3 been around so long, its an absolute institution and people are not only used to it, it's their 'newspaper heritage' and (b) it's the Sun with everything that goes with that.

After weeks of seeing the Sun open to page 3 in the small coffee room area at work, I finally complained to my boss and asked if the Sun could be quietly removed from the area. Surely as a female manager she would understand that it's hard enough to get respect, let alone when there are tits on display at work.

But no, not only did she say that she didn't condone censorship, she acted like my complaint was an affront to the working classes and 'their newspaper' and that, of all things, is not allowed. I think if I was I was offended because I was a muslim or for some other reason than just being a woman she would have taken me seriously.

The Sun needs to get with the 21st century - its an embarrassment to this country that there are naked women in our newspapers today.

FreudiansGoldSlipper · 09/09/2012 22:59

it is nice that after a spat we can all come together again and on to the next one :)

good luck with the career as a midwife

and i shall sign that petition ....

GoldShip · 10/09/2012 08:05

Thankyou :o

emcwill74 · 10/09/2012 09:47

Fantastic article about growing pressure for an end to Page 3 here: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/caroline-criadoperez/page-three-girls-bare-boobs-barefaced-bullies_b_1862125.html through this campaign/petition: www.change.org/nomorepage3 Top story on Twitter last night!

thebeesnees79 · 10/09/2012 10:14

that's a great article. I.really hope things change but to be honest I can't see it being banned.
I hate the fact that I am so self conscious about breast feeding in public and I feel its all because of over sexualised attitudes to breasts.
anyway gold good luck becoming a midwife and I hope you achive your goals x

CapuccinoCannoliLover · 10/09/2012 15:22

Added my name to the petition. I have two DSs and I don't want them having the wrong idea about women when they grow up. Yes, it is up to DH and I to make them see women as equals, but outside influences/peers and all that.... I hate page 3 and can't believe it exists in 2012.

AllPastYears · 10/09/2012 18:27

Added my name too. Comments on that article very depressing!

MUM2BLESS · 10/09/2012 19:55

What we put up with will never change.

I remember the names of some Jilly Johnson, Sam Fox (dad her manager) I found that very strange and Gillian de.... It was in my house as we grew up.

Still going in 2012 what a shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What happened to self respect?

emcwill74 · 10/09/2012 22:04

AllPastYears - the comments below make me want to slit my wrists. However, they also remind me of why we need a campaign to get rid of this so much. They prove the point in the damage page 3 does to society in themselves.

toptramp · 10/09/2012 22:43

OK page 3 is totally tasteless and I don't like it but if my daughetr decided to be one I wouldn't feel liek I'd failed as a parent. I would be far from pleased but she is her own person with her own opinions etc. I hate the Sun. I have no intention of buying it but dd is rather obsessed with my tits. In a very healthy milky way!
This is the main problem with page 3; the over sexualisation of breasts. I remember an ambulance man getting very embarassed when I breast fed my one year old to comfort her after a minor accident.

LadyBeagleEyes · 10/09/2012 23:19

"The comments below want to make me slit my wrists".
Either go ahead emcwill74 or admit that might be a bit of an exaggeration. Hmm.

Consuelaa · 11/09/2012 01:06

I hate to break this to you but a topless pic of a woman is really tame compared to what's on the internet. Anyone who has seen internet porn will just be like "meh" and shrug their shoulders if they were to then see page 3. I'm surprised so many people find a pair of bare boobs so shocking. What happens if you go to the beach on holiday and some women take their bikinis off what do you do go up to them and tell them to cover up because there are children around?

I don't expect anyone to agree with what I am about to say but trying to make boobs taboo will just make them a "forbidden fruit" and make them seem even more naughty and boys/men will lust after them even more. If women were able to walk around topless I wonder if men would eventually get used to it and get over themselves and stop seeing boobs as such a big issue?

If you do succeed in banning page 3 what will you do next? Start campaigning for a ban for pics of women in lingerie or swimsuits?

FarloWearsAGoldRibbon · 11/09/2012 04:09

It is not about finding breasts shocking.

It is about finding pictures of them in a newspaper inappropriate.

When my child sees a topless woman on a beach getting a tan, or a mother breastfeeding in public I do not mind at all.

If my child comes across men sniggering over page 3 and speaking of the young woman they are looking at as if she were a piece of meat, as I did as a child, I will not be happy. If these pictures make her feel less confident about her body and the place her gender has in society, I will not be happy.

Of course there is worse in online pornography. That is a separate issue. The issue with page 3 is not erroneously believing it to be hardcore pornography of the most extreme kind, the issue, for me, is the message conveyed by a young woman's body being treated as a commodity in a mainstream newspaper. It normalises it. It condones women being judged as a pair of breasts on legs not a person. Having to search for something online does not give out the same message of 'this is a normal thing most men do' as having it in the Sun.

I have been sexually assaulted, twice, because two men saw me as something they could use, not a full human with rights. The more these young men with bad attitudes are supported in the belief that women are less important than the entertainment value of their bodies, the worse this attitude will get, I fear.

TroublesomeEx · 11/09/2012 05:53

So many women speaking out in support of page 3?

It would seem the men have won.

If women were able to walk around topless I wonder if men would eventually get used to it and get over themselves and stop seeing boobs as such a big issue? (sorry to 'pick on' your post - it was just a more recent example) No, men would stop seeing them as such a big issue if breasts were seen as just part of a woman's body, as something that feeds babies rather than as a play thing and something for their titillation.

Some women are so completely indoctrinated into the male gaze.

This really is a case of turkeys voting for Christmas. Well done.