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, most definitely yes!

Yes please do support it

Yes, please do support it.

Yes, please support the ban.

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

Yes.

1. If there were pictures of men as well, then that would be different. Why should only semi-naked women be ogled over? It reinforces the idea that women are objects and that their appearance / bodies / sexuality are a commodity.

2. It normalises sex and porn. If a normal, every day paper, which claims to be the leading redtop and which frequently campaigns on important issues, publishes topless pictures then it must be fine.

3. It means girlie mags have to go further to titillate - why should men buy girlie mags unless they have something "better" than a plain vanilla picture of a girl with her boobs out?

I do not support a ban on 'page 3' but i totally support No More Page 3 and Mumsnet should too.

No

Yes, please back it. MN support for the campaign would make the world of difference. I've been a member of the campaign for about 18 months now.

Mumsnet should absolutely back the no more page 3 campaign. I do not want my daughter to turn into an object when she reaches a certain age. We have to challenge this and start changing the way women are portrayed in the media.

There's a lot to be done but this is a damn good place to start.

I think that page 3 is far from the most worrying thing in the newsagents, but a simple petition saying "please choose to remove it" is unexceptionable IMO. I wouldn't want MNHQ to actively campaign for it, but I'd be in favour of you issuimg a one off statement saying "yes we agree that we'd prefer it if the Sun ditched Page 3"

It just seems a bit, idk, disingenuous. A campaign by Sun readers is one thing. That makes sense to me-- for them to ask for changes to the newspaper they actually read and pay for. But for Mumsnet? Even if the Sun did take out Page 3 I wouldn't start buying it. Would anybody here? What's the mumsnet/right wing tabloid crossover (I'm sure there are some, obv)? Are all you lot wanting the Sun to change actually going to start buying it once it's sufficiently detitted? I'm not saying you won't (though I am saying I won't); I'm saying what's the motivation here? It seems like middle class busybodying to me.

I don't agree with the Sun so I don't buy it. But I don't think everything I don't like should be banned. I think there's room for offensive stuff, actually.

Yes.

"Woman possesses boobs" is not news.

I'm astonished that you've never seen page three Anatana. That's really something.
Growing up a working class girl in a working class community it was everywhere when I was a child. And yes it was uncomfortable.

We never had it because of Hillsborough.

No Anatana I won't buy the Sun whether they ditch it or not, but my reasons for wanting it gone are not middle-class snobbery, it's about the message that the Sun drip feeds into society every day with page 3. That a woman's place is with her clothes off and tits out for the lads. That our job is to 'cheer the lads up', to 'brighten their day' with our knockers, that we are a primarily decorative species whilst the men make the news. Why shouldn't someone cat-call a pretty woman out of his car window if his newspaper suggests that we like it because what we aspire to is to be 'appreciated' like this? I firmly believe that all women are affected by page 3, whether they choose to purchase it or not.

Do I need to be a smoker to have a view on passive smoking?

Genuinely can't believe you had to ask this if you should support this. Of course you should, for crying out loud! It will, at least in part, go some way to making up for the utter balls up of a feminist "debate" you had at Blogfest.

Yes, please back the campaign.

Yes please back the campaign. Imagine it had never existed, would anyone be in support of actually 'introducing' a daily sexy pic of a semi-naked teenager into a newspaper? There is no good reason for it to be there.

Yes please support this campaign

Yes, please support the campaign.

I think you should back this campaign. Having an objectified half naked person (male or female) right at the front of a newspaper where all the 'serious' news is supposed to go is just creepy. I'd feel the same if it was a picture of a bloke. Plenty of room and opportunity for seeing naked people elsewhere.

Yes, support this campaign.

I signed the petition previously and think yes MN should support the NMP3 campaign.

Yes, please support the campaign.