Should we back the No More Page 3 campaign? Please let us know what you think...

[JustineMumsnet]

Hello all,

As some of you will know, there have been a few on-board debates about the No More Page 3 nomorepage3.org/ campaign, and whether or not Mumsnet should 'officially' join up as a supporter.

Previous threads here here here and here have been on balance supportive but not of a sufficient consensus for us to feel comfortable putting our full weight behind the cause.

With our most recent blog post on the issue, however, support seemed a bit more clear cut and there were lots of calls for us to back the campaign.

So we thought we'd canvass support more officially and widely. Do please use this thread to let us know whether you think we should sign up.

Obviously this is by no means a precise science, but in order to try to get a representative Mumsnet view, we will be placing a bit less weight on the views of those who have signed up to Mumsnet very recently.

Definitely.

[quote gritts1]I wish someone from Mumsnet could explain why certain newspapers were not considered in the brilliant Lads Mag campaign? Just one example 26th Aug 2013 on the front page of a certain national newspaper, a third of the page devoted to Abbey Clancy in her bikini below the headline 'Have you seen Abbey's pussy?' She had lost her cat. Bearing in mind the soft porn content on page 3 of this NEWSpaper, I see various similarities.

www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+sun+26th+august&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=VoneUvqOOeXF7Abnn4GIDQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1138&bih=470#q=the+sun+front+page+26th+august+2013&tbm=isch&facrc=&imgdii=&imgrc=rcc7oIIoSTNcfM%253A%3BCAJOteOikqs2vM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.thepaperboy.com%252Ffrontpages%252Farchive%252FThe_Sun_23_8_2013.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.thepaperboy.com%252Fuk%252Fthe-sun%252Ffront-pages-today.cfm%253Ffrontpage%253D1969%3B180%3B230[/quote]

Yes I can gritts - that particular campaign stemmed from the Let Girls be Girls campaign which was all about children being exposed to prematurely sexualising images/messaging. It sought to remove lads' mags - the covers of which were frequently pretty pornographic - from kids' eye view not to remove lad's mags per se, encouraging retailers to insist on modesty covers or move them to the top shelf out of the direct eye-line of children. The idea was that parents couldn't do anything to stop their kids being exposed to those images - whether they chose to purchase the mags or not.

The argument re NMP3 goes a step further than Let girls be girls/ lads mags did - it's not just about young children being exposed to things, it's about the effect on women/children/society as a whole of sexist/ objectifying images appearing daily in a hugely popular newspaper.

Yes please

Yes please

Depends what you mean. A statement to the effect of "X% of mumsnet members think Page 3 is sad and crap" would add something, to the extent that Rupert needs reminding that one part of one of his newspapers offends a lot of people, who have a lot of spending power.

On the other hand, a "mumsnet backs this campaign" declaration would have me, for one, asking "who is/are mumsnet?" - and would have echoes of media organisations waging "campaigns" against one another, which seems less respectable. The vast majority of NMP3-supporting organisations, from what I can tell on their website, are not media businesses and so their motivations are harder to question for someone looking to play the (wo)man, not the ball.

How would we feel if the Sun, or the Daily Mail, organised their online readers to click on a "petition" telling us we shouldn't say "cunt" on threads? Or picked out some choice comments from the BCAS threads or similar, to berate us about our depravity? I don't think they're the same thing at all, but it's easy to make them look like the same thing, for people who want to think they are.

Yes, definitely.

yes back it please.

Yes. Please support this.

Absolutely yes Mumsnet should back the No More Page 3 campaign. I'd also really be behind you endorsing the Child Eyes campaign.

Yes please

Yes, please support this.

Yes!!!!!

It's a yes from me.

Yes, support it.

I believe that it is vitally important for Mumsnet to support the No More Page 3 Campaign. Children (and adults!) via the Sun's Page 3 are daily exposed to the idea that men wear clothes and do important things, and that women are naked - for men. In this day and age!!!! It is a dinosaur relic from a sexist past. When I was with my little boy in the barber's shop the other day, his 10 year old friend picked up the shop's copy of the Sun while his father was getting his hair cut, opened it at Page 3, and silently put it down again, with such a bewildered look. I felt so sad. It really does matter, the need to change the nation's view of women so that we really are co-creators of society, equal, active, intelligent and above all, human-beings sharing the same planet earth. Young girls need good strong female role models too. There's nothing 'wrong' with pictures of naked women - just not in a daily family newspaper. So please Mumsnet, consider supporting NMP3. They are neither prudes nor 'spoilsports'. Don't leave them to carry our burdens of equal representation alone. The National Association of Head Teachers has called for it to end, Girlguiding UK, Unison, as well as the Scottish Parliament. What stronger endorsements could you have than those?

Yes from me. Absolutely.

I would be really pleased if Mumsnet got behind this campaign - in fact Mumsnet would look a bit out of touch if it didn't.

Yes, I'd like MN to back this. It's just not appropriate in a daily newspaper.

yes

A definite yes from me too

Yes please, Justine

Yes definitely think MN should support this campaign

Yes, I think this is just the kind of thing MN should get behind.

Yes please do. The increasing sexualisation of women in the media must be debated in order to stand a hope of being curbed. We have a responsibility to give our children a chance to grow up without this constant undercurrent of misogyny around them.