Words and Images Hannah Habibi

(Full article published in OOMK issue 2, 2014)

The Sun and supporters of Page 3 smear the No More Page 3 campaign as a movement of pedantic, humourless feminists, and it isn’t the first time the newspaper has responded to anti-Page 3 campaigners with ad feminam attacks.  In 2004 (before the current NMP3 campaign began) the Labour MP Claire Short called for an end to Page 3, prompting The Sun to brand her “fat and jealous”.  Despite the nastiness associated with the strip, the regular assertion that Page 3 is just “a harmless bit of fun” implies that those against it have no sense of humour.  

The Page 3 image is there for no other reason than the sexual gratification of men.  She’s a sex object. But when figures range from 300,000 women being sexually assaulted and 60,000 raped each year, to 1 in 4 who have been sexually assaulted, is it wise to be repeatedly perpetuating a notion that women are sexual objects?

When you find out that The Sun has a website and mobile app that allows you to view a Page 3 model in 360º, as if you were doing a bit of online shopping, the objectification of these women is inescapable.  The app even carries the almost dehumanising instructions “To see her from every angle, left-click, hold and drag your cursor”.

Exposing the implications of this objectification proves that Page 3 isn’t “harmless” - but is it still fun?  In the last few weeks The Sun decided to remove the only bit of Page 3 that I ever found laughable.  ‘NEWS IN BRIEFS’ was a tiny text box that appeared alongside the model, and containing a news-related quotation supposedly from the naked woman herself.  Frequently bizarre and implausibly worded, we’d have topless JODI, 23, from Camberwell quoting Voltaire in relation to the UK economic situation, or near-naked LUCY, 21, from Middlesex lamenting political turmoil in Egypt.  Some might say this was tongue in cheek - bringing the news to the boobs – but The Sun was revelling in the absurdity of the juxtaposition of photo and comment, so NEWS IN BRIEFS looked like plain old taking-the-piss out of women to me– cos we all know attractiveness and intelligence don’t mix, right?

So Page 3 might not be harmless, or very funny, but at least the Page 3 excuseniks aren’t trying to prove its highbrow qualities. However, if you take a look at the comments at the end of any anti-Page 3 article, along with the standard vitriol aimed at feminists, you’ll find some pretty lame arguments in Page 3’s defence; “appreciation of the female form”, “empowering women”, “freedom of speech”.  If any of those arguments were sound, why are all the Page 3 models of a certain size, age, and ethnicity?  Where are the women over 25?  The women whose breasts aren’t pneumatic?   

If they really are celebrating the female body it seems very strange that in a world full of various female forms, Page 3 only has the one form on offer.  As for women’s empowerment, unfortunately the current Page 3 set up has me believing that a woman’s achievements are proportional to her bra size- perhaps dedicating half a page to a woman in her work clothes- a doctor, an engineer, a pilot- might be slightly more appropriate.  And I’m all for freedom of speech – so, Dear Page 3 supporters, how about a bit of gender equality, and lets have alternate days of male and female Page 3 like the tabloids in Austria.  No?  I didn’t think so.

I’m not a prude, I don’t want to hide nude women and men beneath fig leaves, but I do believe that it is time The Sun turned over a new leaf, one which breaks away from such blatant sexism. With the Irish Sun’s abandonment of Page 3 this August, the campaign is looking positive. Sabrina Mahfouz’s poignant poem No More Page 3 includes the cutting lines: “This society sees women as bodies that are commodities/ But only at their peak of conceivability/ After which please go away and don’t say anything/ Not that you ever had anything to say anyway”. The lines neatly sum up the sentiments of the campaigns opposition to Page 3, which can be found in more detail on the NMP3 petition website .