The Sun Has Put Its Red Top On

Lucas, NMP3 & Page 3

Ah feminist freedom. We have been freed from glimpses of perky nipples on a beaming young woman who is named (or credited as I like to think, for her nips) in The Sun paper. No more will you sit next to a person admiring such tits on public transport. No more will you be forced to explain breasts to your infant child. No more will you have to concern yourself over the agency of women in their late teens and early twenties. For, dear reader, Page 3 is kaphut. Well kind of. Look you are still going to have to look at women in undies or revealing outfits on Page 3, but you had to look at that on all the rest of the pages already. It's still totes a victory. I just don't know whose victory. Perhaps it's a step in the right direction, if what we hope to achieve for our children is prudery and repulsion over women's naked bodies. 

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Of course those who run the No More Page 3 campaign don't want everyone to be repulsed by the womanly form. Or I assume they don't. However it is problematic for various reasons. One is that it has been seen as classist, something that I am not going to touch on today. Another is that it is complicated when a feminist campaign focuses on stopping women from doing something they choose to do. 

Do we want freedom from having to know some women pose topless or do we want freedom to pose topless without judgement?  

It risks belittling women, it certainly reduces their choices when it comes to making money - on Twitter today a glamour model has stated that it was the first job she could fit around her disability. There's also the problem that it ends up also objectifying women because it is branding a certain type of bodily autonomy unacceptable. 

There's also the unhelpful notion that it makes those who don't pose topless for The Sun et al feel ashamed of their bodies. It's up there with saying fashion causes anorexia, insulting those who are coping with the illness for an incomprehensible range of reasons that go well beyond 'I want to look like that'. 

if there was more nudity it would be harder to announce that not one of these naked women knew what they were doing. 

As Sara Pascoe suggests in her stand up routine, and I have said before what we need is more nudity. More nudity means more diversity in nudity. Like great big pendulous breasts sir? Do not be ashamed, for it is great big pendulous breast Wednesday only in The Sun! Feel a bit weird that looking at baps belonging to someone young enough to be your daughter? Worry not for we have nude women of all ages! Believe that fat is fabulous - fantastic, look at these beauties! Not keen on white girls with long blonde hair? That's fine son! Look over there for a wide variety of nude women, all of whom are acceptable to all!

And of course if there was more nudity it would be harder to announce that not one of these naked women knew what they were doing. Or query their education. Or dismiss them as oppressed. There would not be enough Lib Dem MPs to speak for each naked woman to put the words they meant in their mouths. The Daily Mail would struggle to criticise unflattering fashion choices or circle shameful sweat patches if all celebrities hung out nude (sure LA has the climate). 

It is not that I admire Murdoch's enterprising ways with breast photography. It is not that I will yearn for the days of Page 3 (which may return if sales dip apparently). It is that I am pro women. All women. And when it comes to The Sun...one page down, more to go. 

Squeamish Kate