This morning, I walked through Sheffield City Centre and was met by two poster boards each showing a woman in her swimming costume. It made me happy. They were billboards advertising the “This Girl Can” campaign and I’m looking forward to a chance to get back in the pool this weekend.
But it wasn’t until I saw Twitter that I felt the need to blog – the reports of the end of near naked women in The Sun newspaper were premature. Or rather, by the fact it was The Times (owned by the same corporation as The Sun) that announced the demise of the feature it was actually a malicious and misogynistic hoax. Printing a naked woman in The Sun today, to me, has just made it clear how much the editors, owners and decision makers at that paper must hate women, how threatened they felt by women celebrating the tiny victory that was the covering up of breasts on a feature that still aimed to objectify women.
One article in the New Statesman suggested that it was a mistake for the campaign to be asking so nicely for what it wants, but actually it’s about what kind of society we want to create. No More Page 3 is not about taking away one picture from one newspaper – that is the symbolism. It’s about creating a society where young women feel valued and respected, where they can live free from the fear of sexual assault, and where we have a media that is free to say what it wants but chooses not to contribute to creating the systemic inequalities that prevent us from achieving that society we want.
I have to admit that when I first read the news this morning I thought – how to we get the people behind The Sun to listen? Do we play to the economics? Do we boycott – though arguably those of us who have a problem with Page 3 already don’t buy it! Do we need direct action? But we don’t need more cultural violence and focusing on economics just supports the idea that money does equal power.
Then I was thinking that, actually, it’s pretty pointless for Girlguiding to support No More Page 3 (bear with me feminists). 88% of Senior Section members polled voted for the organisation to put its weight behind the campaign – but that’s a bunch of people who The Sun editors probably believe are predominantly white, middle class, 16-25 year old women (we can have the debate about the real demographic profile of Girlguiding sometime else – the media don’t work with facts, they work with assumptions). They’re not exactly, and I am returning partially to the economic argument, the prime Sun purchasing audience are they?
Yes I want to teach other young women that our opinions matter, that they are powerful and can affect change. They are, but maybe not in the way we think.
When you look at the list of organisations signed up to support the No More Page 3 campaign, they mostly focus on girls and women's issues, youth issues, related to education, and many perceived as middle class domains. Nearly 60% of The Sun readers are over 45 years old. 60% of them are men. Over 50% of the readership are men categorised as belonging to social classes ‘CDE’ – and they definitely weren’t in the 88% of 16-25 year old Girlguiding members.
The Sun is a corporation, it doesn’t have morals, it serves the needs of its shareholders to earn money. We can’t make a for-profit newspaper take any action other than that which serves its economic interests. But it is run by people, probably a lot of men, but there will be women in their lives too. We want to end of Page 3 to come about because women are valued and it will come to an end when those people who run and control The Sun do just that.
I say that it is pointless for Girlguiding to support the No More Page 3 campaign, because they currently do so surrounded by their peers – organisations that by their nature value young women already. Yes, we should continue to support and promote the petition. Yes, we should continue to promote the value of participation in peaceful protest and democratic mechanisms. But we need to wake up to the fact that the only way the Page 3 nudity will truly be gone for good is when everybody who prints, edits, buys and looks at it understands why it needs to go. Girlguiding supports girls and young women to develop their full potential, to become confident individuals who will change the lives of those around them – this more than petition signing will contribute to the end of Page 3 nudity.
My proposal. Back to those “This Girl Can” posters. We want societal change, we want positive images of young women that celebrate them, not objectify them, we need to make that change. Let’s put “The Alternative Page Three” everywhere; let’s get organisations and individuals who might even have supported Page 3 to realise how it benefits them to value young women; let’s encourage those dissatisfied with our current media portrayals to write, to take their own photographs, to take over and create their own media outlets; let’s work together to create a culture of respect, a culture of consent and a society that cares about all its members.
So yes, sign the petition, but don’t just do that. Value the women in your life and do everything in your power to make sure everyone else values them too. Because they are awesome and deserve respect.
Today the people behind The Sun disrespected them. What are you going to do about that?
