As the recently appointed editor of a student tabloid paper, one of the questions I have been frequently asked is “will you create a page three?” Jokes aside, it’s not a stupid question considering dirty photos sell. And I’m not just claiming this on the assumption that the editor of a national paper like The Sun will only include popular features. Even in Vision every sexually suggestive headline we have gets more web views than anything else, whatever the content may actually be.
Women have the vote, we are equally protected by the law and we have (technically) equal access to jobs. Despite feminists no longer just being seen as angry bra-burning women and in fact being seen as anyone, male or female, that believes in equality of the sexes- there are many areas in which attitudes towards the role of men and women in society seem not to have moved on much in the last fifty years.
Obviously we are not going to get topless models in Vision… and not just because we probably would be breaching many student welfare issues by stripping off. I am not remotely suggesting glamour modelling is wrong or immoral and yet putting naked images of women, and not men, in papers undermines the achievements our society has made in recognising gender equality. It aims a newspaper directly at men, a notion which belongs to an age where women were not expected to have knowledge or interest in current affairs and would most definitely not hold any position of authority in a national newspaper like The Sun.
The No More Page 3 campaign group aims to persuade The Sun’s Editor, Dominic Mohan, to ‘take the bare boobs out’. Along with the Everyday Sexism Project, they ran a comedy night on Sunday, Stand up to Sexism, raising money for vulnerable women and awareness of how sexism is still an issue to be addressed. Comedians at this event including Lucy Porter, Tiffany Stevenson and Joel Dommet, joined an ever increasing trend of women taking on men when it comes to their wit.
Having recently given in to the lures of Twitter, I am now following Caitlin Moran who describes herself as “a woman, yes, but still funny.” This pithy remark sums up how women so often have to fight past the barrier of their sex before they can be seen as ‘funny’, a characteristic traditionally reserved for men who plan on using it to get laid and make their way up the career ladder simultaneously. Which makes it the perfect tool; if women can use the same assets as men, but in their own way, to enjoy both sex and a career then we will be closer than ever before to gaining true social equality.
The non-confrontational nature of comedy also makes it one of the most subtle and effective weapons men and women alike can use to be respected, it can be as provoking as anything else and yet by showing wit rather than anger people will listen. Everyone, regardless of age, sex or profession can relate to humour on some level, and it can therefore level the playing field without creating the opposition and disharmony that has for most of history characterised the relationships between men and women.
But then this poses a problem. If being funny really is the new way for women to gain their place in a traditionally male-dominated society, then I’m going to have to start my whole education again in the hope that someone can convert my shocking banter into something that will actually make people laugh with me rather than at me. Or I could just forget about everything else and just take the “traditional” approach to my career, making sure I have a push-up bra, heels and a tight skirt for every job interview I have in the next few years…
” I am not remotely suggesting glamour modelling is wrong or immoral and yet putting naked images of women, and not men, in papers undermines the achievements our society has made in recognising gender equality.It aims a newspaper directly at men, a notion which belongs to an age where women were not expected to have knowledge or interest in current affairs and would most definitely not hold any position of authority in a national newspaper like The Sun.”
Excellent summation of the issue. Too many people assume that people who oppose page 3 are moralistic and saying that topless modelling is immoral, rather than recognising what is tells us about that publication’s attitude to gender.