Emma Rachel Deane, UK, SSH Blog Correspondent
Britain is an odd place. We have an international reputation for stiff upper lips and conservatism, when in fact, much of our politics and our stance on many human rights issues are really rather liberal compared to the US and other western countries. And yet, there are still examples within our culture of mainstream British institutions hell bent on dragging us back to the dark ages. Like the third page of tabloid newspapers (including The Sun – Britain’s biggest selling newspaper) that show a girl in her late teens or early twenties posing in underwear or with her breasts exposed. This serves no purpose except for sexual entertainment. To be clear, this isn’t a “lad’s mag” or one of the top shelf publications your Dad might have had a secret stash of when he was a teenager. This is Britain’s biggest. selling. newspaper. What does that say about women today and how we should see them?
When a young woman’s maturing body is presented to us as news, particularly in such a powerful way as this, is it any wonder that street harassment, and the social acceptance of it, is so widespread? By putting a semi-naked woman on such a prominent page within a publication among news of foreign conflicts, natural disasters and welfare cuts, The Sun and other newspapers like it, are sending the very clear message that women’s bodies are just as attention-worthy and deserve to receive just as much public discussion as any other news story.
Sarah Faulkner is one of the women at the forefront of “No More Page 3”, a grassroots activist campaign calling for the voluntary removal of Page 3 by the tabloids. She had this to say about her earliest memories of Page 3. “My first experience of Page 3 was at school, when one of the boys would bring a copy of The Sun onto the bus. He and his friends would use the images in it to tease female classmates whose bodies had developed a little earlier than others. For the girls that were picked on it affected their confidence as they grew up. We are taught to enjoy male attention, if it makes us popular it must be a good thing, but if a woman’s sense of self-worth comes solely from men enjoying how she looks, then then that confidence is meaningless.”
It’s worth noting that prior to the Sexual Offences Act of 2003 (which outlawed the practice) many Page 3 models were just 16 years old when they posed topless for The Sun, wearing school ties and hats. The sexualisation of schoolgirls is a widespread problem, for which The Sun is not solely responsible, but as Faulkner went on to say, “The influence that a feature like Page 3 has on our society can’t ever be measured to reach a firm conclusion, but what we must accept is that it provides validation for people who already have negative ideas about the role of women and girls within our culture and certainly allows space for casual public discussion of women as objects.”
I agree with her. The attitudes that cause instances of street harassment are held together and even perpetuated by countless forms of embedded cultural validations. The tabloids are not accountable for the misdeeds of the advertising industry, or the tired gender stereotypes we see in film or TV, but when we’re discussing the content of newspapers we must do so while remembering Allen Ginsberg’s famous quote, “Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.” These tabloids have a social responsibility to us all and they must be held accountable.
The debates surrounding Page 3 have received more press than usual recently when, in January, The Sun appeared to remove the feature without explanation. Its sister paper, The Times, broke the news that Page 3 had been ditched for good. This turned out to be no more than a school-boy prank and sure enough, Page 3 returned a few days later under the headline “We’ve had a mammary lapse.” How witty. I have to say, the timing was impeccable.
The Sun managed to draw attention to the “No More Page 3” campaign and the debates surrounding it in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks at a time when discussions around freedom of press are very much at the forefront of our cultural zeitgeist. Faulkner’s views on press freedoms are very clear and are reflected in the No More Page 3 campaign strategy. “I would not support a government imposed ban on Page 3.” She said. “I’m not a fan of slippery slope arguments by a long shot, but that way danger lies. If the images are removed by force its far less meaningful than if the tabloids accepted that they have been at fault, which would propel a real shift in societal attitudes.”
The debates surrounding Page 3 are about as complex as it gets in relation to modern feminism. Many would suggest that these images are a result of second wave sexual liberation and so it falls to us as individuals to decide what female sexuality truthfully looks like and how to represent it in our media. I for one think that if Page 3 was, as its supporters claim, a beacon of female empowerment and a shrine to the female form, we would see much more of a variety of women “enshrined”.
The oldest model ever featured on Page 3 was 29. Considering the fact that the average life expectancy of women in the UK is 83, that’s already 65% of the adult female population ousted. We must then take into account that only four black women have ever been represented in Page 3 and only women with a size 6-10 dress size have ever been featured.
If we’re going to talk about Page 3 in terms of female empowerment, let’s bear the Page 3 criteria in mind and remember how few women we are actually representing in that empowerment. Comparisons have also been drawn from No More Page 3 and the Free The Nipple movement, a campaign that seeks to address sexist nudity censorship. Faulkner was quick to point out that No More Page 3 is not about nudity. “This was never about the exposure of breasts to the public. We have no problem with female nudity at all, this is about media representation.”
She went on to describe the complex relationship between the two campaigns. “I can see where they’re coming from, and I agree with what they’re saying. Female nudity is over-sexualised and therefore over-censored. When women sunbathe topless on the beach or breastfeed their babies, people see sex where there isn’t any, it’s just a body part. It would be great if women could do those things without the usual controversy or fear of harassment that accompanies them. Normalising female nudity is very important, but in order to do that we first have to desexualise it.”
That, in essence is what No More Page 3 is about. It’s about reclaiming our bodies and reclaiming our sexuality which does not exist purely for male entertainment. If we can stop turning women’s bodies into news, we can stop people responding to them as if they were newsworthy.
Sign the No More Page 3 petition here and stay up to date with the campaign at nomorepage3.org. You can also tweet your support @NoMorePage3
Emma Rachel Deane is a London-based retail manager for a fast growing women’s lifestyle brand and an outspoken advocate for women’s social justice issues. She can be found blogging on Raging Hag or tweeting @emmaracheldeane.
