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Original poster

....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:
LineRunner · 20/07/2012 18:24

I've seen Sun tits laid out on the art table at my kids' old infant school.

GhostShip · 20/07/2012 18:27

Line runner and who's fault is that?

FrancesFarmer · 20/07/2012 18:30

If you want to do nude modeling, there are plenty of pornographic websites/publications out there for doing that. A newspaper, even a rubbishy one like the Sun, is not the place for it.

For those who don't get it, the difference between a photo of a woman showing her breasts whilst breastfeeding and a page three photo is that the latter is sexualized - the first woman is feeding her child, the second is trying to turn men on. Thought that would have been obvious tbh.

malinois · 20/07/2012 18:31

linerunner I imagine you at least know the difference between jealousy and envy though Hmm

It does do harm, in normalising the objectification of women's bodies, although these days probably not so much as the DM's 'Sidebar of Shame'.

GhostShip · 20/07/2012 18:34

FrancesFarmer were you involved in the topic? I don't think you were because otherwise you'd understand how tha point isn't valid. If a child sees a breast it does not understand in what context it has seen it in.

It's not the place for it, why? It has been for years and is widely popular but for some unknown reason a few women are against it and want to ban it. Wow.

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 20/07/2012 18:41

YANBU

Snog · 20/07/2012 18:42

YANBU
What amazes me is how many women buy these rags or allow them into their homes

PuffPants · 20/07/2012 18:43

I hate that it exists.

However, I would never buy The Sun - isn't it just a comic? - so the risk of my child seeing it is no greater than if he stumbles on a lads' mag.

Don't like it? Don't buy it - they print what sells.

whiteandyelloworchid · 20/07/2012 18:44

yanbu.

my parents get the sun

yet object to women bf in public!
ffs

redyam · 20/07/2012 18:44

Why do a pair of boobs offend so many people? Isn't the real issue that people in Britain have such a problem with nudity?
Breasts are natural, and a part of who we are. Banning page 3 isn't going to help anything.

Snog · 20/07/2012 18:45

These are literally papers for wankers imo

LynetteScavo · 20/07/2012 18:45

GhostShip...my 9yo son does seem to realise the difference between seeing naked breasts in soft porn (which, lets face it, is what p3 is), breastfeeding, and art. How, I'm not sure! Confused

I do wonder how he would react if we went somewhere hot on holiday and women were sunbathing topless. (I'm guessing he, and his older brother would find it totally hilarious for 10 mins, then get over it).

So, if naked breasts are such a mundane thing, why does a national daily use devote a whole page to it each day? I suspect because it makes them different from the rest. And there are people out there who like a bit of titillation. Probably the same ones who thing breastfeeding is rude.

GenericNameChange · 20/07/2012 18:47

The crappy men's mags are even worse. Some of them are at the point where the covers are worse than what you'd find on a top shelf magazine!

yellowraincoat · 20/07/2012 19:03

redyam, I'm not offended by a pair of boobs. Boobs are great. I am the first one with my knockers out on foreign beaches.

I have a problem with the way in which the boobs are presented. Because it is just about a pair of breasts. Thus the woman is objectified.

I REALLY hate that pose where they hook their thumbs into their pants and invariably bite their lip. It is grim.

missnappyknickers · 20/07/2012 19:05

YADNBU...my FIL is a dirty perv and has in the past pinned up page 3 on the dining room walls..so when we would be having dinner we would be faced with tits all the time..MIL thought it was some kind of joke and appeared not to mind..I would of ripped his head off..he loved the news of the world as well..bet he misses it now..many a time when my eldest was younger the paper would just be lying open with pictures of tits,legs open,and my dd would be sniggering and questioning it..pissed me right off so stopped calling as much..still loves his dirty sun paper at 73 with his tits..hate page 3..is it still as popular today? know in the days of sam fox it was mega

liketochat1 · 20/07/2012 19:07

It doesn't really bother me if that's what people want to do. Loads of women dress (or undress!) and behave in ways I wouldn't. We can't shield children from everything.

Flaneuse · 20/07/2012 19:08

Well said, OP. I get so angry about the fact that it is still acceptable to degrade and belittle women in this way. I have channelled some of that anger into a bit of feminist activism. Object campaign on the issue of objectification of women - they have been focusing on Page 3 and the tabloid press recently - it was their submission and presentation at the Leveson Inquiry that caused Dominic Mohan to be recalled to defend Page 3. It will take a lot to chip away at the big media owners, though, I think - but I'm glad someone's trying.

FrancesFarmer · 20/07/2012 19:08

Ghostship, I agree that children don't get the difference although I think older children would start to cop on.

I don't like seeing women objectified full stop. It does more harm than good to us, as a group.

Tradition is not an excuse (anyway, page three only started in 1970, if wikipedia is correct).

GhostShip · 20/07/2012 19:12

For gods sake I wish you do gooders would stop trying to take away our choices.

I WANT to do page 3. If my body is being used as an object then that's because I'm ALLOWING it to be used that way.

It does you no harm at all.

GhostShip · 20/07/2012 19:14

It actually makes me feel quite powerful, the reaction I can get from baring my body. Why are you weakening women by acting like we're forced into it and like it its a bad decision?

I make money from showing what 'god' gave me. I'm very happy doing do.

yellowraincoat · 20/07/2012 19:19

Ghostship, it does do women harm, actually. All women.

I have no problem with anyone making any choice they want. It's nothing to do with being a "do-gooder", it's to do with being a bit sick of women always being presented in the same boring old way.

It's quite hard to argue with you since you seem to be taking arguments against it really personally.

It's a complicated issue in some ways. I don't like seeing Rihanna being slammed for always wearing tiny clothes. But I am really bored with pretty much all female musicians feeling like they have to be half naked to be considered relevant.

FrancesFarmer · 20/07/2012 19:21

Powerful? Really? The thought of thousands of sub-literate Sun reading males across the country jerking off to photos of me makes me shudder tbh.

Ghostship, you many benefit financially as an individual but over all, sexual objectification is harmful to women.

GhostShip · 20/07/2012 19:23

Really though, does it? Or does it just do it in your mind? Or when you spout buzz words like 'objectification' and talk about how it apparently demeans?

There's men with their tops off in my girlie mag. Do people object to that?

LynetteScavo · 20/07/2012 19:23

In the case of p3, the harm is not to the model, who gets paid well and if free to model or , but to society as a whole who will learn/continue to believe that women's breasts are objects which are slightly, "rude", and are mainly for men's ogling (and other) pleasure.

In fact, p3 affects me, and my family a lot more than lap dancing or prostitution. It's all part of the sex industry at the end of the day.

An ex p3 model used to live over the road from me. I always saw he in a slightly different light to my other neighbors.

IHeartKingThistle · 20/07/2012 19:24

I can't understand why it still exists. The thought of having to explain it to my DC fills me with horror. Can we ban it before they ask please?

YADDDDDDNBU