For decades, women’s bare breasts had been part of the institution known as The Sun.
The newspaper, which holds none of the attributes of the star known as Sol (warmth, life-giving properties & enlightenment), had for a brief moment seemed like it was willing to listen to a voice outside of the status quo. It was willing to put it’s hands up and say “Okay, maybe we have been objectifying women, maybe we shouldn’t.”
It stopped Page 3.
News UK’s Times “understands that Friday’s edition…was the last that will carry an image of a glamour model…” pic.twitter.com/SHJiUgO4Sp
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) January 19, 2015
A sense of triumph
There was great celebration at this, albeit minor, victory. The taste of progress was in our mouths. We, on No More Page 3 side, felt like we were getting somewhere. We’d campaigned hard, we philosophised, we’d debated and we’d got our thinking straight on the matter. We’re not against nipples, we’re not against breasts, we’re not against women. We’re for the liberation of women, but that includes liberation from the continued representation of women as a pair of tits in a popular, arguably propagandist and severely anachronistic newspaper.
The Sun fucked us over. Like the friend who pulls his hand from a handshake at the last moment and says ‘haha too slow’. A vindictive move by The Sun, one that will more than likely get an extremely vocal reaction from women, feminists and those who identify with the struggle. The Sun is trying to break our will, lull us into a false sense of security, before carrying on as if nothing happened.
Morning! Looks like the party will have to wait a little longer. Who fancies coffee, pastries & a petition retweet? https://t.co/ufDebYvVuo
— NoMorePage3 (@NoMorePage3) January 22, 2015
Well played guys. For a moment you had us all thinking that you might give a fucking inch. But, no, twas all a ruse, a lark, a funny story Rupert can tell his friends at the next Chatham House soiree.
“Remember when I convinced women that I gave a shit what they have to say about anything, that was good wasn’t it?”
The value of the paper
I’m not even mad, I’m barely even surprised. I’d treated the whole thing with a pinch of salt, but still happy at even the smallest concession. But this concession was false, and it’s falseness is being thrown back in our faces. They want us to feel helpless. That even the paper that ‘gives the public what it wants’, actually works entirely by its own rules and you better shut the fuck up, because no amount of campaigning will change this paper.
They’re right. No amount of campaigning will change this paper. It’s a filthy rag full of lies. They probably realised that if their readers stopped wanking over the tits on page 3, they would actually engage their brains and see what a load of right wing horse-shite the paper is.
So, throw away No More Page 3, how about No More The Sun? The people of Liverpool shunned it after it’s coverage of the Hillsborough Disaster, as did much of the North of England. They mocked them, dehumanised them and supported aggression against working people. They’re doing the same thing to women. Women, boycott it too. We must tell others to boycott it.
Let’s not concentrate on one page, let’s address the wider issues. The Sun shits on everyone outside of the established elite from a grey, old tower. The immigrant, the benefit claimant, the women, the LGBT community, Muslims, the poor.
Let’s smash it to fucking pieces.
What do you think of the decision to reinstate Page 3? What is the future for The Sun? Have your say in the comments section below.
