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

[StephanieDA]

No, the women who pose for Page 3 are not 'coerced'. But I think they are exploited. Every young person wants to be sexually approved by the opposite sex. Posing topless in a newspaper is the quickest route to mass sexual approval, and our culture says it's just a bit of fun, so where's the harm? What I am sure these women are not told is that every other career will be immediately closed to them, including the fashion and lingerie modelling industries who do not accept 'glamour models'. I think these women, some still teenagers, are too young to appreciate how this 'choice' will affect the rest of their lives.

Most of us make some bad decisions when we are young, luckily for most of us they can be kept private.

The same handful of glamour models who made a good career out of it are trotted out every time as justification. It's not many over 42 years. What's happened to the rest? Who's checking?

I saw a documentary a few years ago called 'Page 3 Teens' which was about a teenage girl trying to decide whether to go topless. She spoke to various ex-Page 3 models (including Katie Price as I remember) and their advice was 'no' and in the end she decided against. What the models told her was that Page 3 can be an open door into the sex industry, and if you are not one of the 'lucky' few, and other career options are severely curtailed, you end up going on to pose for lad's mags - you don't get long there because they always want fresh meat - and then it's lap-dancing, prostitution, pornography - these are the 'careers' which welcome you with open arms.

The more 'normal' Page 3 is seen, the more young women start to self-objectify and feel they are making an empowered choice. I don't think our culture tells the truth about this issue, we don't hear the stories of women who did not make a successful career out of Page 3.

I don't think it's right that middle-aged male newspaper editors have the power to flatter young women into this industry, I don't think it's right for our culture to offer young women this 'choice'. Their naivety is being used so that men can ogle breasts, and this is degrading to them and all of us.

[ivykaty44]

I don't buy the sun newspaper - and tbh had forgotten about page 3.

TBH my feeling are that instead of being made to drop page three the newspaper should be made to be put in cellophane and placed on the top shelf with other pornographic material.

In doing this it would make the daily selling of the newspaper much much more expensive and by putting it on the top shelf give a different slant to the people that read this paper.

[GirlOutNumbered]

Another one agreeing with startail.

There are more worrying trends in the media than a pretty girl with some boobs.

[ExpatAl]

Really good point ivykaty - I like that idea. It has no place on the news stand anyway.

[Nancy66]

Stephanie, you are right to say that not many page three girls make a good living if they are relying purely on modelling for their income. Most have other jobs.

You're wrong to say that posing for page three results in other areas of the fashion industry rejecting them. Page three girls don't have the sort of bodies the fashion industry wants. Fashion models need to be very tall and very thin - which page three girls (on the whole) are not.

[ChairmanWow]

'Girls'. Ugh.

[StephanieDA]

Fair point about the fashion industry Nancy, but clothing catalogues take models of more varying shapes and sizes and that's a huge industry to be barred from if you want to make a career out of modelling.

[Mapal]

I have signed.

The sun is sold on the newspaper rack at my work. Porn mags are not for obvious reasons. Copies of the sun therefore invariably end up in the canteen, often left open at page 3. I have had situations where I have attended informal meetings in the canteen, the only female (work in a male dominated office) and had to clear away the papers before we began.
I was shocked at how upset and self conscious I felt. I was red in the face!
I'm not a prude, I don't have an issue with soft porn, nude pics, whatever you want to call it. But I shouldn't have to face that in my work place. It put me on the back foot in a professional setting.
It's only in the work place under the guise of newspaper. It's disgraceful and anyone who won't sign - shame on you.

[higgle]

What a loads of nonsense that appearing on Page 3 blights the model's careers. if you look at the list on Wikipaedia and go through the 60 or so individual "Page 3 girls" listed it seems to have opened the doors to some fantastic opportunities for some of them. Image consultants, artist, writers, video producers, lots of main stream acting and some chart sucesses. Linda Lusardi is probably teh best example of someone who has had a good mainstream media career, but there are many others who have been seemingl given a springboard into worthwhile and satisfying roles.

[brummiegirl1]

I totally agree with you Mapal. Where i work a man there always used to openly read the sun and open onto page 3 and as a woman it made me feel self concious and uncomfortable too.

Picture the scene if it was the other way round and men were on the front covers of newspapers and magazine and on page 3 in nothing more than a tiny thong in suggestive poses with the news in brief! Can you imagine the uproar! It wouldn't be allowed and if it was it would have been booted out years ago!

Any other group of society you can't discriminate against aor be made to feel uncomfortable nd rightly so but why are women allowed to be treated this way and it is classed as normal or if you disagree with it you are a prude? It doesn't exactly promote equal treatment for women.

[ashesgirl]

My dad used to read it, that was uncomfortable. I didn't have a choice to get away from it as a kid.

[countrykitten]

Yeah, I can really see how flashing your breasts on page 3 would help you to become a writer....artist......higgle what nonsense!

[StephanieDA]

Ok higgle, that's 60 then over 42 years. Over that period there must have been around 10,000 'Page 3 girls'. What happened to the rest of them?

[MrsClown1]

brummiegirl1 - very interesting point of yours re turning the tables. I did a little experiment. I found 50 men who read the sun and profess to thinking page 3 is innocent fun, some I knew and some I dont, to do a little survey. I asked them whether or not they would still buy it if on page 4 there was a picture of a very fit young guy just wearing a g string or tight pants, some showing their behinds etc etc. Only 4 of them said they would have no problem with that. The rest said that they would be embarrassed and feel insecure if their partner was looking at it! Even I was shocked by the response. That is the reason I dont understand why the people who say 'they will not sign,just innocent fun etc etc' dont see it as a gender issue. Of course it is.


I remember years ago when I was breast feeding my son in public I worried that someone might say something. My husband said 'I will just ask the hypocrite what paper they read if they read the sun they can f..k off.

[Nancy66]

The Sun did use 'Page Seven Fellas' for a while and to my knowledge the paper was not deserted by hordes of distressed male readers.

[StephanieDA]

I bet there'd be an outcry though if there were page 3 hunks displaying their private sexual parts for us women to assess and compare.

[brummiegirl1]

I know they used to have page 7 a while ago, TBH i wouldn't be interested in that but page 7 is hardly prominant as page 3 which is visible as soon as you open the paper, also there are constantly pictures on front covers too of women, not topless maybe but not weraring alot either.

I don't think half naked men should be used either but TBH i don't think they are to the same extent that women are.

[StephanieDA]

96% of objectified sexualised images of human beings in the media are of women.

[MrsClown1]

nancy - just telling you the result of my little survey. Dont understand why you had to use the lowest form of wit in reply but then again its the usual response I suppose.

Personally, I dont want to look at naked men or women in the papers, I want to read news about things that are important. I realise that is my opinion.

Another interesting point. My DH and I are from Sheffield - home of the Full Monty. We went to see the live show the other night. Excellent I may add. By the way before anyone calls me a hypocrite - I have also been to see Calendar Girls. Sorry I digress. My DH who works with all men during the week was amazed at the response of the men he works with. They all said they would be too embarrassed to see it and didnt think DH should be going with me!

[ashesgirl]

God yes page 7 fellas. Why did they axe it? Seems pretty damn progressive of the Sun in the 80s

What's weird is I just can't imagine them trialling that now. We must have been more right on back in those days!

[MrsClown1]

just as a matter of interest, why were they axed does anyone know

[ashesgirl]

Seems it wasn't very popular and so it was short-lived.

Interesting article from 2005 about how some women were just starting to question page 3. Shows a distinct different in attitudes just in these last 8 years.

www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/nov/15/pressandpublishing.genderissues

[ashesgirl]

difference even

[MidnightMasquerader]

Interesting article. Although women have been questioning Page3 since well before then. But slammed and publicly ridiculed along the Clare Short lines for doing so. From the article...

...would find you labelled a prude, a bitch, hairy, smelly, mentally unhinged.

Now women aren't letting such misogynistic clap trap silence them. :)