No More Page 3 petition about to hit 80,000 signatures. What do you think about this? Have you signed it?

[ashesgirl]

www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/dominic-mohan-take-the-bare-boobs-out-of-the-sun-nomorepage3

[TheOriginalLadyFT]

Well, then surely the answer is for all the patriarchy apologists - you keep on sticking your head in the sand about what damage portraying women in this way does, and don't interfere while others object.

The least you can do is not add your voice to the male "calm down, love, it's just tits" brigade

[TheOriginalLadyFT]

That was not aimed at you ashes !

[ashesgirl]

I know TheOriginal :-D

Handmaiden army out in brigade today!

[curiousgeorgie]

My SIL breast feeds everywhere, and is not shy or quick with a muslin and has never been told to leave anywhere. Not that your point was relevant but thought I'd answer it.

God forbid you people have actual problems!

[LittleAbruzzenBear]

The point about breastfeeding is, women who want to do it are made to feel dirty and ashamed and that they should hide away.......however, some girl with her tits out posing in a way that says 'fuck me' is acceptable? Porn has it's place and I'm sorry, but it is porn. The fact that people are used to page 3 does not make it ok.

[BillOddiesBeard]

Clearly the "calm down love it's only tits" is not just a male brigade.....I'm a female (as are approx 45% of the Suns readers)! I don't buy or read the Sun but am also not of a mind to judge those who choose to do so.
I do not find page ,topples sun bathing or nudity in films or plays offensive.....just my opinion.

The OP asked for opinions on what people felt about the petition surely this entitles people who don't agree with it to also post their opinions

[BillOddiesBeard]

Topless sunbathing not topples

[Onlyconnect]

Has anyone else tried emailing Philippa Kennedy and had it bounce back? I have tried several times.

[TheElephantIsADaintyBird]

There's such a huge difference in a woman breast feeding or sun bathing topless and page 3 women though. Page 3 is only there for the menz cos they like to look at naked women. It's ridiculous to even compare them!

[myalias]

I won't be signing the petition as I support local newsagents, if page 3 disappears people will stop buying this newspaper and quite a few paper boys and girls will be out of a job.

[ashesgirl]

Right myias, are you opposed to the internet too since it affects newspaper sales?

[Startail]

Humans are sexual beings if we weren't we wouldn't be here.

Men like looking at the women in the Sun, a large number of MNers have enjoyed a semi naked video of David Beckham.

I certainly enjoyed a certain episode of Merlin with rather a lot of topless knights.

I don't imagine my DDs have seen the Sun unless they've seen it at school, but I doubt they'd bat an eyelid.

DD2 certainly wouldn't, she is an expert on breasts (see extended BFing threads).

I know banning page three is about something far deeper and more complex than nudity not being perfectly natural and healthy, but that is not how 90% of the population will see it.

Now, if someone wants to start a petition against the vile sexist crap in the Daily fail, OK etc about wow unheard of actress has gained a oz or lost her baby weight without going to the gym, accompanied by a pile of soft porn bikini shots, I will be delighted to sign it.

As the mother of a somewhat fashion conscious and very strong willed, DD2 all the focussing on body image and weight by women for women frightens me.

A pair of breasts that a 10yo could work out aren't natural does not.

[myalias]

Ashes I am not opposed to the internet you see more breasts on the Daily Mail website than you do in The Sun are you going to target them too?

[ashesgirl]

Good god yes, would support any campaign that targets that homophobic, misogynistic rag

[myalias]

[Chandon]

I am so confused by people calling page 3 porn.

I worry for these people when or if they should ever encpunter actual porn. Or violent mysoginistic porn. That stuff should be banned. For THAT I would sign a petition and even march.

But page 3? and for those who compare it to male genitalia, boobs are not genitals. So many of you seem so confused.

Page 3 does not equal porn
Boobs are not the female equivalrnt of penii

[HairyHandedTrucker]

Of course I signed. It's not hard core porn of course not, but I don't want my daughter to think it's OK for men to see her as a pair of tits.

[HairyHandedTrucker]

You don't have to be exceptionally bright to see that normalizing women as sex objects is what leads to porn and further hardcore porn. Eventually all the sex in the media won't be interesting, it will no linger seem kinky and people will have to up the ante. Then what?

[HairyHandedTrucker]

Oh and for all the "breast are natural" types out there..yes they are and I would have no problem with breast being all over the place if they were being seen as just another body part and not put their for the "ooh phwoar loot" at those types. News in briefs isn't just a woman wandering in the studio who got a bit warm. She is there to tell men that tits are for them which is exactly why so many women feel uncomfortable breast feeding in public and why men comment when they do

[aquashiv]

Cindy age 18, 32-24-36 loves standing with her chest stuck out with a her mouth as if she is sucking a lollipop looking vacant yep no way linked to any sort of degradation of women.
Signed.

[newfashionedmum]

Yes was so happy about this campaign, signed some weeks ago. Page 3 made me uncomfortable as a girl and still even now. I'm bemused by those who don't think it's porn, what's it for then?
I don't want my daughter or her friends, male and female, to grow up in a world where breasts are more commonly seen as titillation than as baby feeding Devices. Yes they have a sexual function but in real life you only get to see a woman's breasts in a sexual context when you're alone in a room with her and you're about to do sexy things together.
I often wonder whether there's a causal link between page 3 and low breastfeeding rates...because they're overwhelmingly seen as sexual in many families, so young women feel embarrassed at the thought of using them to feed their baby. Correlation between sun reading families and negative attitudes to breastfeeding? Would love to see that research!

[lowercase]

Yes, the primary function has been reduced to men's sexual pleasure.
It's acceptable to have them hanging out of a tight top, but not to breast feed an infant.
It can feel like people have the nark with you for not making yourself sexually attractive at that time.
Women who don't dress up for men are often put down, dykes, weirdos etc.
Newfashionedmums comments really resonate with me, and have the ring of truth.

[WasabiPea]

I was alerted to the No More Page Three campaign quite early on via a friend on Facebook. I had not heard of it before, other than this one friend who "invited" me to sign. I read and signed and shared, but I immediately worried that the campaign wouldn't be taken seriously, and worried even about my own facebook friends and relatives and husband. Whether they would think it was a ridiculous quest. I worried that it was too big a task to be taken seriously and I was in awe of anyone who was brave enough to take on such a challenge. I'm so so glad that such brave people exist and I'm so so proud that people can and are uniting and fighting against this. Big trees happen from small acorns and I really wish that people would realise this rather than sit on their backsides and think nothing can ever be done. I have seen so much corrected in my lifetime through people power and this is a total history making exercise. The people who say Page Three is "Not Porn", OK, they may be correct in that it is not the hardcore pornography that is so currently prevalent (how that makes it ok is beyond me) and that there are more pressing matters in the world. Yes, there are SO many pressing matters in the world: hunger, thirst, poverty, violence. Violence against women and children often stems from a basic misogynistic view. The normalisation of Page Three is so toxic and I think that people are so used to this normalisation that it's hard to see this. I have a three year old son and luckily he has never come across a copy of the Sun... He is three, he understands the world on a really basic level but yet he absorbs everything, because he is three. If he came across a topless picture of a woman in a discarded paper in a park he is unlikely to ignore it or think "I shouldn't have bought that paper, that's not for three year olds". Images are powerful. Advertising executives know this. The world is hard enough. We should be working together to bring our children up in a world which is good for them.