Are Page 3 models really doing such a terrible thing?

Female solidarity is a nice idea, but there’s always going to be women who see no problem in getting their boobs out and there’s always going to be women who find it absolutely appalling and objectifying. And if you’ve heard Lily Allen’s ‘Hard Out Here’, it doesn’t take a intellect to figure out what category of women she falls into - and it probably wouldn’t be the same category you’d find Rihanna or Miley Cyrus in.

But after 40 years of the big boobs of The Sun’s third page, should these ‘No More Page 3’ campaign people just button it now? Will the world ever come to a united agreement that Page 3 is outdated and sexist and has to go? I doubt it.

The campaigners of No More Page 3 are absolutely right - boobs are not news! But it’s clear a picture of a naked young lady is not designed to create news or tell a story; it’s there to grab the attention of people who ordinarily wouldn’t bother spending money on a boring newspaper full of boring political stories. So is it not evident that The Sun is just - in a very obvious way - trying to make the newspaper have a bit of something for everyone? And it’s worked! The Sun is one of the most successful newspapers going, so it’s not surprisingly the editors of The Sun are not so keen on the idea of getting rid of Page 3.

We now live in a world where women can be lawyers, can vote, can drive, can do anything a bloke can do, so personally I don’t feel that Page 3 is the oracle of all evil and is objectifying women. People objectify people, and if a man sees a picture of a naked lady and takes from that that women are objects in the world then that’s a narrow minded personal problem of their own. The process of Page 3 modelling is one of complete control. All women who have been photographed for Page 3 know exactly what they signed up for and are not forced.

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However, what I do see in favour of the No More Page 3 campaign, is that Page 3 pictures could present - for some more vulnerable young readers - that this is how a woman should look, and is only celebrating one type of female body. As much as I have no problem with Page 3, I do think it is wrong that there is no variation in body types, be that size 6 or size 16, A cup or a DD cup - they should all be there celebrating their bodies. It is this particular aspect that may lower a female reader’s self-esteem, that can make us women hate the body we were given.

It’s women like Alicia Douvall who recently said on Celebrity Big Brother that she’d ‘rather be dead than not have tits’ that shows what this exaggerated image of a perfect body can do to a woman. It’s why women are getting boob job after boob job and getting their makeup tattooed on their face.

But is that the problem with Page 3? Is the only reason women go into this kind of modelling because they think just because they have large boobs and a skinny waist that’s all they’re good at? That may be truly how some women out there feel, and it’s unfortunate and sad that they feel that way. But for others, a career like that is fuelled by body confidence and just raw love to model. So why shouldn’t we let them do what they love?

If you want to get your clothes off for a living, do it! And if you don’t, then don’t. It is a free world, and the women that get their kit off for a living shouldn’t be made to feel they’re doing something wrong.

And anyway, if The Sun thought putting a stark naked guy on Page 3 would get more readers, I bet they’d certainly would have done that 40 years ago too.

Pictured: former Page 3 model Jodie Marsh

Are Page 3 models really doing such a terrible thing?

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