THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS IMAGES WHICH MAY BE SEEN AS OFFENSIVE
The SU have banned the sale of The Sun and The Daily Star until the Page 3 feature is removed. The SU passed the motion on Tuesday evening, winning a 15-3 vote at the SU Council.
The University of Nottingham is the 34th university to ban the publications in a nationwide campaign that has taken twitter and the internet by storm, No More Page 3. UoN Feminists joined the No More Page 3 campaign at Refreshers Fair at the end of January, asking students to sign their petition for the end of topless women gracing the pages of news publications on sale in our SU Shop.
No More Page 3 is one of the new waves of feminism that is successfully using social media to push a campaign twenty-first century style into the future. The campaign was set up by Lucy Ann Holmes who has campaigned relentlessly for the past 18 months. There are three main reasons for why they are against girls bearing their breasts on the red tops: it’s sexist, children see it and it is quite simply outdated.
Page 3 has been a feature in The Sun since 1970. Rupert Murdoch chose to feature images of topless glamour models to improve the sales of his flagging newspaper. No More Page 3 is campaigning to pressure David Dinsmore, the current editor of The Sun, to remove the images.
The stall at Refreshers Fair caused a stir on the internet. They used Page 3 images on their board which some supporters of the campaign didn’t agree with. However, the images were incredibly powerful in demonstrating the ridiculous objectification of women in a national newspaper.
For Jo Estrin and Francessca Garforth, the founders of UoN Feminists, the tradition of Page 3 promotes a culture which demeans women and represents them as voiceless, ‘We do not believe our Student’s Union should be promoting and endorsing this culture.’
Some students have raised the issue of censorship. Sam Dean, third year History student said: “Although I agree that breasts have no place in a newspaper, I don’t think students should be told what they can and can’t read. We are all old and smart enough to be able to make informed decisions about these things. If you don’t support Page 3, then don’t buy it. But I don’t believe it is fair to enforce these views on others and prevent them from buying it”
Jo and Frankie do not believe it is a freedom of speech issue, ‘A ban is a top-down unilateral action: this is a democratic process’. The online petition has 344 signatures and almost achieved a unanimous vote at the SU council. The national campaign smashed 173,000 signatures on Tuesday.
Zack Fox supports the campaign and was delighted to hear the news, “Page 3 is an archaic and harmful reference to an irrelevant past and our SU banning it is cause for celebration. The No More Page 3 campaign cannot be ignored. The change starts here.”
UoN Feminists took to twitter to celebrate their success at SU Council.
Jo and Frankie told Her Campus, “We are really glad that the SU has chosen to take a stand against influences that damage the student body and hope that this will act as a spring board for more positive change.”
Like UoN Feminists on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @UoNFeminists to find out more about campaigning.