To ask you all to sign the "No More Page 3" petition?

[UnrequitedSkink]

It's a bit of a no-brainer really. How are we ever supposed to show our kids that women are more than just sex objects when Page 3 exists? It's archaic and totally unnecessary. It's also an anachronism and offensive. Please sign if you believe that pictures of topless girls don't belong in a so-called family newspaper.

More info here and a facebook page here

Fantastically, the petition has gone from 2,000 signatures yesterday morning to over 16,000 today!

Lol, not a thing wrong with looking........

Betty I'll sign that petition

betty let's petition to get it back!

Found this in a blog post here and it pretty much brilliantly encapsulates how I feel:

It?s a pretty good rule of thumb, when wanting to test the sense of any life situation, to ask yourself: how would I explain this to a child? If you can?t communicate the logic of something in simple terms a kid can grasp, there?s a good chance it might be completely ridiculous. Extra light mayonnaise, for instance. Or why they let the contestants on Four in a Bed decide each other?s scores.

Now, I?d like you to think about how you would explain the existence of Page 3 to a child who has never encountered it before. Go on ? have the imaginary conversation in your head. I?ll wait.

Tricky, isn?t it? Because when you stop to think about it, Page 3 is like an embarrassing old curtain pelmet from the 70s that everyone has somehow forgotten to take down. I like to think that when it finally ceases to be, just like smoking in restaurants, it?ll seem oddly incredible that it was ever A Thing in the first place.

Yanbu, I signed! It seemed to go up about 2000 between opening the page and signing. Hope it continues!

Hell Yeah!! :) Page 7 hunk could brighten up my day!!

YADNBU!! I've been 'banging on' [feminists or anybody who even occasionally might possibly think 'that's a little bit sexist' never do anything except 'bang on'] about this on this thread for days and days!

Welcome to 2012 MNers! It's good to part of a revolution that's been a long time coming! Nice one OP and and and !

whoops! meant this:

It's just some boobs in a paper! Willing models who have decided to do it.

Give people their own choices to make instead of taking it away because you don't like it. It's a page in a newspaper. You know what paper and you know what page. You don't have to even look at it

Should we also be petitioning to ban Heat's Torso of the Week? Has to work both ways doesn't it?

For fucks sake find something important to start a petition about!

I have signed it and (I think?!) linked it to Facebook. As I said in the petition when asked my reasons, it's because I don't want my daughter's growing up thinking this is such a normal thing to do that it is done in one of the most popular newspapers in the world. Ie they are making it "respectable" and normal to relegate women to nothing more than a pair of breasts.

However, I don't think there's anything that ridiculous about extra light mayonnaise is there (hopeful, thought it was something I could have on a diet?!).

SPSFanjo - I've said all this before on the other thread but I'm willing to say it again: not buying the paper doesn't help! I don't buy it and it's not looking at it that is the problem, I'm not 'offended' by some boobs, I've got my own thanks. But the context in which is sits is everything. The tits are there with no context at all (it's a NEWSPAPER) and in the meantime the largest-selling newspaper tells society this is what women are for. They exist for the appreciation of the male gaze and this is our highest achievement, we like being ogled and men have every right to judge us all on our bodies and not treat us as anything better than a 'thing' for their amusement/entertainment/pleasure. This really hit home when Ennis wins gold and the largest pic of any woman in the Sun at that time is reserved for a woman with no top on. What does that say about how society should value women? What our role models are? And all this in a 'family newspaper' that sells itself with free Lego promotions. What is a young girl whose boobs are just developing supposed to make of all this: that her tits are public property and if they don't grow to look like that woman's she has failed? That this is the best way to achieve success as a woman? The way to be loved?

If you think it has no negative affects on society then take a look at the @EverydaySexism feed on twitter. Tweet after tweet by women who can't even get home on a train without being groped, harrassed, told they are fit/ugly, or sat opposite men masturbating whilst looking at them (that comes up so depressingly often). Of course there is a link when that is how the Sun tells society to treat women: we love a bit of 'appreciation' and our looks and what men think of that is our chief preoccupation. If the way things are depicted in a national newspaper made no odds then why do advertisers spend thousands sticking their products in them?

Finally, I suggest you read this so you understand the arguments involved, since by saying 'don't like it, don't buy it', you clearly don't: slaveofthepassions.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/no-more-page-3/.

The women in the photos chose to model and get their boobs out. They know men will be looking at the pictures and women too yet still do it. It is their own choice!

Just because you don't like it doesbt mean it has to stop!

It's one page in one newspaper!

What about the pictures of half naked men in magazines? That obviously needs to stop too then??

This is a load of bull shit tbh.

Women trying to women making choices that's all it is. If they are willing I can't see how that can bother people!

You haven't read that link have you...?

Tweet after tweet by women who can't even get home on a train without being groped, harrassed, told they are fit/ugly, or sat opposite men masturbating whilst looking at them (that comes up so depressingly often).

People like that are sick, I cant imagine banning page 3 would have any impact on their behavior at all. Page 3 in the grand scheme of things is very very mild!

Been harassed on the street isn't because one woman got her tits out for a newspaper its because the men doing it are dickheads! They would do it weather Miss Tallulah from Wales poses for a photo or not.

Don't blame women getting their boobs out for why some men are wankers.

Yes page 3 is 'mild' but this is the message it gives people! Look at that woman with her tits out! Women love a bit of that! They love to be 'appreciated'! They love it when I grab them and tell them what a nice pair they've got... Of course there is a link!

SPs - I'm not blaming the women that do it, I'm blaming the Sun.

..or to clarify, the Sun promoting it reinforces this whole culture.

Any sane intelligent person damn well knows that there is a massive difference between appreciating a visual image and copping a feel. Plus the fact, if they dont know the difference what would happen if they cant look at innocent enough images on say page 3.....they will turn to darker methods to get their kicks wouldn't they!

If we need to petition about anything I would have thought it would be illegal porn sights/kiddie port etc etc rather than piffling page 3!

So a newspaper is forcing men to behave like that?

Bull shit. If that's the cause then every man that has looked at page 3 will be wanking in train cabins and groping women!

I think every man has seen page 3 at least once so in that case all men are dirty perverts then who want to call you ugly while wanking.

I didn't say a newspaper was 'forcing women to behave like that', I said the Sun perpetuates this culture of objectification by normalising it.

sorry: 'men to behave like that'!

How would your children ever see it if you don't buy the paper. Unless they sneak looks in the paper shop, which is both highly unlikely and there's a lot worse in Zoo and Nuts which are on the same shelves.
I honestly think it's an anachronism now as there are so many images all over the internet, it makes page 3 just look like a saucy postcard from the seaside.