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.

I'm absolutely delighted that Mumsnet are backing this, and the supportive comments here are so refreshing.

It is nothing to do with class, politics or age. I'm over 40 which happens to mean that I was born at a time when women's consciousness was being raised and we, as their daughters, were brought up to believe that we COULD change the world (no matter how big or small the group of change-makers might be). So I find the whole 'nobody gets it under 20 or over 40' argument extraordinary. I can't speak for the under-20s, but if they really don't understand the politics and implications of objectifying women, then our generation has failed them and we need to make damn sure that we do what we can to rectify that.

The debate around supporting FGM is interesting. Clearly that's an important issue and we should be fighting that too (these campaigns aren't mutually exclusive). However, the ubiquitious and casual misogyny behind Page 3 makes it a bigger, and more significant, enemy.

It's very sad that some people have ingested the patriarchy to the extent that they sit back and say 'well, this is how things are, we/they should just put up with it'. The Pankhursts must be spinning in their graves.

Good for you, MNHQ. And good for you, ladies and gents, for standing up for something that has such an effect on us and our children. I salute you!

Would be good if there could be more signatures on the petition really, I just had a twitter argument with a troll who just kept on about it being too small a number to make any difference :-(

Yes, please support this campaign.

So pleased to see that MN are backing this campaign. I'm 100% with you all the way and have signed the petition.

Lets make this ridiculous addition to the newspaper a thing of the past!

Shame dinsmore declined the webchat, did he give any reasons?

I think it is good to see mumsnet is backing the campaign. One thing I like is that the campaign is a request and not seeking to ban or legislate.

As a father to a young girl I think that having our biggest selling newspaper having half a page set aside for minor titillation is quite sad.

Signed this a while ago. Delighted to see MN is backing it.

I missed StarBallBunny's post, but I'm at it. How pathetically stupid and ageist to dismiss people over 40 or under 20 - and on what basis do you make such a pathetic pronouncement?

I think the amount of signature is pretty spectacular actually considering loads of people still don't know about it. I'm quite impressed by the way they are trying to raise consciousness too.. I love the way they have sponsored a Women's football team :)

Taking something positive and making it even more so.

Not dismissing, just by accident of birth, marriage education and where I've live, finding myself between two worlds.

The vast majority of my northern roots and very down to earth rural Welsh school peer group are incredibly practical people, working hard to make a living in pretty low income parts of the country. They still live near their parents and many use family for child care. They are an old fashioned bunch in the nicest possible way, kind and generous and hard working. However, I suspect many are not comfortable with gay marriage, they'd have been by how long I BF DD2 and think pg 3 is just a pair of tits.

They might or might not approve of naked boobs in their newspaper, but they won't have thought deep feminist or intellectual thoughts about it.

Because I went off to RG university and married an Oxbridge graduate, I've ended up living in an area where my DFs are NCT attending graduates who'd get the campaigns point far more easily (they are the sort of women who no doubt post on MN, their DHs are distinctly less sexist than mine, who is still a work in progress).

As for the under 20's looking at the way the six formers at school dress and the way some of the DDs peer group behave. I fear they are so corrupted by the idea that looking sexy gives you power (fucking spice girls) they are going to need far more re-education than banning pg3

Please support no more page 3

Yes definitely

Well I think you may just have insulted a fair few people Starball. Do your relatives know what you think of their intellectual capabilities. Regardless of background and education people can have well thought through opinions.

Finally it might be that if page three wasn't ogled in sixth forms across the country that some under twenties might not think as you seem to think they all do.

Celebration of breasts or dehumanising?

No under twenty something has really got a clue who the spice girls are. You're showing your age.

I will support but I do think there are so many more pressing issues for women. This is the tip of the iceberg.

Yes absolutely support the campaign. It's the drip effect, start small and eventually we might have equality for all.

I totally agree Kleptronic - you have to start somewhere. Think positive! If - no when - this succeeds, it will send out a message about change. Signatures are being added slowly (for some) but maybe this gradualness mirrors the way that more people are slowly becoming aware of the sexism that women still face.

I don't think this is a very important thing for MN to get behind. No, it's not nice having norks spread out on a page, but neither are arses and other highly sexualised and unobtainable images in the Sun and tons of other media outlets (which frankly I find a whole lot more revolting - a couple of tits really doesn't bother me).

Page 3 has become such a symbol of feminist campaigning - it just seems so easy, get rid of Page 3 and we've won something. I hope for such a change of ideas that Page 3 falls out of favour all by itself, becoming an anachronism.

There are so many more important things to campaign for, problems that women face that need higher profiles: getting the MN brand associated with this sort of easy headline-grabbing stuff seems to me like a media-licking activity frankly. Sorry MN - luv you really apart from this campaign.

Seriously, have you got nothing better to do? What exactly is being hoped to achieve by banning page 3? As far as sexualisation is concerned, page 3 is a very small fish in a very large pond. Children are being exposed to explicit images through pop videos and other forms of media which are far worse than page 3.
I teach primary aged children and I have witnessed children dancing at school discos emulating their favourite pop star by writhing around the floor, yet I have never had one pull open their shirt and give me a sexy wink.
As with everything in life, it's about censoring what your children should, and should not be exposed to. if you don't want your children to see boobs in the paper, don't buy The Sun. Also, I assume that we're all adults so would have been brought up with The Sun and page 3. Have we ended up with any long term effects after being exposed to boobs on page 3? Thought not...

Have you rtft? Longterm effects of Page Three include expecting men to make the news and women to decorate it.

Some very stupid people on this thread

No, I haven't read the entire thread as I have neither the time or the notion. People like Robyn Thicke, with his derogatory lyrics and videos, are capable of doing more damage than page 3.

Have we ended up with any long term effects after being exposed to boobs on page 3? Thought not...

38% of women in the UK feel uncomfortable with breast feeding in public.

Do you think there might be a correlation with the over sexualization of breast that means getting your tits out for a newspaper is Ok and women being ashamed to use their boobs for what boobs are for?

Maybe? Just maybe?

Also many women in the campaign have said they felt completely uncomfortable sitting next to a man in public reading page 3, in public places as they were often being ogled at the same time. When you say it's OK and that men need to stare at boobs all the time...you cant be surprised when men stare at boobs all the time.

Would you really not feel weird about your teen daughter sitting next to a man on the train reading page 3?

No you should keep out of it.
It is not harming anyone and another way of controlling what people do.
But I bet you will to appease the PC brigade. Ho hum.