Sun's Gone to Iceland - Mum's Sold Down the River...

[notsosunnysusie]

I popped into Iceland this morning and was confronted with today's upsetting front page of the Sun at child eye height (topless model escaped from Page 3 next to gay sex wife murder headline). No other newspapers, just the Sun and it's pornographic, sexist image and headline on the front page. I was very glad I had just dropped my children off at school and didn't have them with me to see this. As I stood in line to pay I noticed on the front entrance doors a big advert saying "The Sun's Gone to Iceland" rather than the usual "Mum's Gone to Iceland". Now not only did I feel upset by the Sun's Page 3 image on the front page but by the shop that I was in selling me down the river as a mum for some presumably profitable business deal with the Sun, not caring that the majority of mums - their loud and proud self-professed target customers - would not wish to have their children see this front page when buying food for the family. The cashier agreed with me that nobody would want to see that when coming in to buy food and gave me the numbers of her store manager (who wasn't in) and Head Office, so I'll be contacting them shortly to tell them that I will boycott Iceland until they remove their partnership with the Sun and go back to being a food shop for mums (and parents in general?), not a soft porn promoter. I bet I'm not the only mum who has been personally negatively affected by pornography and it's pernicious, addictive, almost all pervasive presence in our lives, our relationships, our marriages through the men that we love or have loved being addicted or blind to the harm that it causes, and therefore a mum who doesn't want soft porn reminders of that hurt being served with my ice-cream...

I went in for yoghurt for school pack lunches, I came out shaking and upset.

Would you like to join me in my boycott of Iceland until it is once more a food shop where mums, dads and our children can safely go? I know the excellent No More Page 3 campaign which mumsnet voted to support is already working hard with all the supermarkets to treat the Sun as the porn that it is but this feels extra pertinent with Mums being substituted for the Sun and only the Sun. Iceland does not sell newspapers. Why chose the Sun to sell to Mums who've gone to Iceland? Is Iceland really as misogynist as that? Is that really how little Iceland thinks of the Mums that keep them in profit?

And Aldi's.

I didnt go into the newsagent as I know it will be there. They, mcColls, do have their porn in bags

I abhor this. The misery porn at childs eye height at the tills in other supermarkets are just as bad. But shaking and upset? I think that's a step too far and may stop your actually very valid point being taken seriously.

I think that of you feel strongly enough about something in a shop and you have the courage to challenge the 'powers that be' about it there and the then, you probably would feel shaken....adrenalin does that to you. The point is still a valid one for me.....well done to the Mum involved! Sadly Iceland have probably received free or very cheap marketing in the newspaper and this is a back to back arrangement. It's the Iceland Head Office Marketing Director that should be challenged.......

It does seem odd that Iceland choose to partner with a sexist newspaper when their target market is 'mums.' Well done for complaining OP, that's a brave thing to do when you're feeling upset. And I absolutely get how these covers - murdered woman headline next to provocatively posed topless woman - are seriously triggering for some women. I don't think inclusion of the emotional reaction detracts from the very valid point made here, in fact I think it strengthens it. Iceland Head Office needs to know the real effects on customers, it's not taken seriously at all.

A coincidence as I have just written to Mumsnet about this issue. I can remember the 2010 Mumsnet Lads Mags survey specifically mentioned the unsuitable nature of certain magazine's and newspapers being around children. Great work was done on the Lads Mags but nothing on newspapers. The Sun's front page yesterday with sexualised headlines and sexualised pictures of Helen Flanagan, plus the typical sexy page 3 content should not be displayed next to a till at children's height within Iceland or anywhere else. I personally do not wish to expose my under 10s to sexualised imagery in a supposed family environment ever.

It's just as valid with the women's mags. Rape. Murder. All there on the fronts.

Totally disgusted by this. It would be good to keep this thread going so as to gather support for the OP.

NMP3 have shared this discussion on their Facebook page

I re-arranged the papers in M&S yesterday to cover it up and complained to the shop assistant that served me.

Could not agree more with the original post. Well said.

Good on you OP-Iam sick to death of this as well. Bad enough when I'm on my own but when my kids are with me it makes me really

A self proclaimed family newspaper and a family supermarket both need to consider the word 'family'. Sell it by all means but lets keep sexualised pictures and stories away from children. It's 2014, not 1974.

I agree but not surprised I don't think Iceland are particularly feminist given their main campaign is centred around the idea that women should do all the shopping and cooking!

Well done OP