I support Page 3, who's with me?

[Beth9009]

This might not go down well, but I cannot accept the campaign to ban Page 3. Here's why:

There is nothing wrong with the naked female body. A woman posing with her breasts on show is not lewd nor is it harmful to children.

Hypocrisy - Page 3 is no different to male models posing shirtless in women's magazines.

Prudishness - People who claim that newspapers should be banned from showing topless women are no different to the Victorians or to people in conservative parts of the world who don't allow women to show bare legs. It's the same principle.

Market mechanisms - if there is a demand for something and a consenting adult willing to supply it, then who is the government to get in the way?

Freedom of choice - if you don't like it, don't buy the Sun!

Lurcio....you speak the truth!!!!

Aerosmith

...low animal cunning...

Now we are getting somewhere for a Friday night thread

Confession time - I found threads like this quite helpful in opening my eyes as a woman considering feminist theory. It took someone making the statements that the OP was making and reading the considered responses that made me question my own views on how women were treated.

Of course, I didn't start from the same black hole that the OP appears to be in and I don't think that I was ever such an arse but sometimes these types of threads do achieve some purpose. Shame for the OP that it might not have been the one she was aiming for.

People, don't waste your time on this man. He is taking the piss!!!

I can see how that works Blistory.

Apparently even dressing our schoolgirls in a full burqa won't work. Nicetabard. In fact you are even more likely to get groped apparenty Nanny McPhee style warts might scare the buggers off?

Oops not you Blistory...the stupid man who decided to call himself 'Beth'! Blistory I see where you are coming from!! x

Blistory YY someone on FWR used to say to remember the lurkers. She might still say that as I can't remember who it was

A lot of people over the years have posted to say that seeing the regulars tackle objectionable posters with facts, sense and stats have been helpful in understanding the arguments & often coming out with saying well yes actually I'm a feminist

And then picking up the baton and taking their turn in debunking the trolls. So personally I think it's great that people have the energy to keep on with this sort of thing, because there is always going to be someone quietly reading who takes heart from the postings / gets on board with the feminism thang.

I know you know that but wanted to say it

I got groped on the bus before Xmas. By some young lad who put his rucksack on his lap so he could rummage inconspicuously. I am 45 and was wearing a big warm coat and playing candy crush. I gave him the evils then moved. It was not about being sexy, or attractive or anything. He was doing it because he wanted to.

Tallwivglasses - I like that poem.

I had to go and have a little lie down after Beth claimed to be a feminist I laughed so hard

NiceTabard - I agree. I never called myself a feminist before MN. Dittany told me to fuck off once, such were my views. I listened and learned though and found threads like this very useful. Op puts forward some mild, easily understood misconception, and gets the might of MN to explain why she/he is wrong. I hope it stands.

I agree Blistory I don't think I was ever as ignorant as the OP but I was definitely a man pleaser and had twisted views on what equality and feminism were. I definitely swallowed a lot of the patriarchal bullshit whole. My first relationship was emotionally and verbally abusive and it fucked me up, it was me that was wrong.

The difference between me and the OP is when presented with different viewpoints was I didn't dismiss them, I took the oportunity to discuss, learn and form opinions that were finally mine. I still need to check myself and shake patriarchal dogma from my head but I've been a far happier person and been able to form secure and respectful relationships with both men and women as a result of it. It helps to view threads like this and get a grasp of how twisted my thought processes were. I've still got a long way to go but I like the journey I'm on.

My husband is in the police....his work has a LOT to do with the internet and computers (hence my name) and he has taught me a lot of stuff to look out for. So that is what I do...and this 'Beth' ain't no Beth! Whne DH gets home tonight I am going to show him too.

OMFG porto what were you thinking?

If you had been wearing just a thong, or better still, nothing, then he would have had his sexuality, um, something, and that wouldn't have happened.

Win win!

Apart from the bit where it's january and you'd have been really fucking cold.

OTOH nipple action!!!

I am really coming around to OPs way of thinking. Just waiting on the age when compulsory female nudity kicks in. A cursory glance at our culture, society and papers tells me that girls need to be KIT OFF from 10. Is that young enough though, to prevent catastrophic errors in sexual development in boys? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe girls should be nude from birth. Interestingly, this will also mean they have to stay indoors lots in colder climes, in a spectacular full-circle with those pesky arabs the OP keeps citing. The strangely brown ones. You know, with the URGES. Not that OP is racist, obv.

Oh you haven't lived until Dittany has told you to fuck off!

Great thread by the way. Lots of funny posts, lots of clever posts and lots of plain piss-taking ones. Fab.

Scuse the errors, I'm upstairs and my ipad charger is downstairs so I'm now on my phone .

I fear if I had got my tits out on the bus, it wouldn't have just been the groper running scared Far too cold for that mullarkey though. It was a handy discussion point as I told dd about it and we talked about what to do if someone touches you and you don't want them to.

I miss Dittany.
I don't think she ever took any notice of me, but my, I learnt.

Porto it was Dittany for me too! I remember you in the olden days before FWR was even created! It is so good to see you here and fighting the good fight Dittany was pivotal for me too, in that when I joined MN and saw what she was saying I just thought yes, that's IT! She is/was fab. I miss her.

The baton gets handed on though, and I hope, and feel, that a certain amount of uncompromising passion is still here and going strong.

Like I said . [a bit maudlin]

Buffy - to be fair, I deserved it.

I hope Dittany is doing well. I often wonder what she is doing now.

I wonder does she ever lurk, comments like these must be nice to read.