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.

Yes

YES! Please support the campaign.

Please back this campaign, I know it's just the tip of a very exploitative and degrading iceberg, but we should be rid of it in a family newspaper.

I dont think page 3 should ever be banned its been around for year i dont see any harm in it

Yes support the campaign. Its not a bit of harmless fun its a suppurating zit on the face of our society imho.

YES OBVIOUSLY

OF COURSE YOU SHOULD

It really really really doesn't need saying why.

Yes please. Bit you have to ask really.

Absolutely should support the ban on page three, when we have men displaying their bits in the same way then okay, but what does it tell girls, boys, women and men to be constantly bombarded with these images of women whilst men are invariably portrayed fully clothed?

Please, please back the campaign. I have a 6 year old daughter who thankfully hasn't yet been exposed to The Sun's exploitation & degradation of women to sell papers but while standing next to a new stand at M&S the other day, she asked me why there was an almost naked woman on the front of the Star. I don't want my daughter exposed to Page 3. Put it where it's opted for and paid for by adults, not in the view of and hands of children. I grew up in a house where I saw those images every day from the moment I could crawl. I know how it made me feel and I don't want my daughter having any of those feelings. I fully support the No More Page 3 campaign.

Really honeybunny14? You really don't see the harm in women being so trivially objectified like this? You really don't see the issue in making it clear that women's bodies are simply there to titillate a male audience? That women are there to show off their 'charms' rather than demonstrate their intellect in any way shape or form?

Or have you just not bothered to engage your pretty little brain on this issue?

Yes, please back the campaign. Pornography, soft or otherwise should not be in areas accessible to children. Nudity or topless sunbathing is not an issue, but in page three it's a narrow definition of beauty (young, slim with large breasts, overwhelmingly white) and in a place that children are commonly exposed to in a context of providing photos for titillation.

Absolutely - I think this is an important campaign. Have signed petition myself already.

Please please please back this campaign. I am completely fed up with the constant stream of images that objectify women, and view them as no more than sexual objects for nake gratification, and to have naked teenagers in a national newspaper is an outdated anachronism.

It is important that we be seen to making a stand against Page 3, and all other porn in public spaces like shops. Pornographic images have been proved to be linked to increased rapes. I don't want my daughter exposed to sexualised images of waxed splayed women every time she goes to buy a pint of milk. And by porn I do include Page 3 as well as Lads's Mags.

Time to reclaim our place in society.

It is important that we be seen to making a stand against Page 3, and all other porn in public spaces like shops. Pornographic images have been proved to be linked to increased rapes. I don't want my daughter exposed to sexualised images of waxed splayed women every time she goes to buy a pint of milk. And by porn I do include Page 3 as well as Lads's Mags.

Time to reclaim our place in society.

YES I think Mumsnet should definitely back this campaign. Absolutely no deliberation required. I would be extremely disappointed if they didn't.

It seems a strange one to have to take time to think about. If The Sun never had Page 3, but announced tomorrow that they were going to start carrying photos of topless teenage girls in their paper, there would uproar. But as it's been around for ages, people seem scared to say anything about it..they don't want to 'rock the (male) boat', is that it?! Weird - our kids need to see women in the paper doing important things in the world, not getting their knockers out.

I remember what it felt like, as a young girl, to be sat next to a man on the bus looking at Page 3...& I'm sure most of the Mumsnet community do too.

Please support this campaign Mumsnet, for the next generation of little girls (& boys).

Yes, I would love Mumsnet to support this campaign!

Yes, please support it.

Yes, please support the campaign. Topless images of women have no place in a newspaper. When I buy a newspaper I want it to contain news, not soft porn. It's the context that's very, very weird.

Hello all,
Think the response is pretty clear that we should get right behind this; which is great, and we will.

We'll say so publicly as loud as possible tomorrow, put some more information on the campaign up and also ask David Dinsmore, Sun editor, on for a webchat.

For those who haven't, you can sign the petition here.

Do let us know if you have any thoughts about other things we could do collectively to raise awareness/ increase the pressure.

Thanks for all the input.

Yes, please do back this campaign.

I have a son and a daughter and I'd really rather neither of them is exposed to Page 3/ similar, for the sake of their future adult relationships.

That is great news that you are going to support it.

I have already signed the petition. I can't believe there are still people out there who think it is ok to have women degraded so publicly. It still always makes me feel really uncomfortable when I am sat next to men 'reading' page 3.

I was surprised the hear the sun editor saying that they have asked their readers and the females readers were particularly keen to KEEP page 3 (didn't like being told what to do by 'Guardian readers' apparently...)

Yes, absolutely, please back this incredibly important campaign. For everything I and others went through in the 70s, 80s, 90s as young women; for breast feeding mothers today and for everyone's daughters. News not boobs.

Yay! Thanks Justine. Really good to see MN get behind this.

Yes I agree it should back the NMP3 campaign.

Soft porn is not appropriate for a family newspaper that can be seen in the entrance of most shops and cafes.

It also sends the message that woman's place in a newspaper is decorative, and men's place is making and writing about the news.

The paper has no age restriction.

I have nothing against nudity but a lot against sexism and sexualisation in material children can buy.

It's for adults, not a family newspaper.