Working in the Media industry, I understand the idea that ‘sex sells’. However, there are times when it is inappropriate and it doesn’t take much to realise the sexist nature of Page 3 and displaying women as nothing more than objects of sexual desire, which is wrong. Many people may reply there are magazines, pictures and sexual content accessible everywhere. However, this is about context and the Sun is the biggest selling newspaper in the UK.
The Sun can be bought by anyone without warning or age restriction, which means school children can access soft porn for 40p and think this is news. The paper has one of the youngest readerships, meaning sexism is ultimately planted in the minds of readers early on.
This makes me think about the effects of this on young men’s opinion of women. Does it make men respect them less? This thought, is backed up by popular research that found ‘36% of people believe that a woman should be held wholly or partly responsible for being sexually assaulted or raped when drunk and 26% believed this if she was in public wearing sexy or revealing clothes’. The images we see undeniably make an impact on how we feel.
I think that Page 3 should be replaced. I believe that instead of ‘Page 3’ we should have ‘Third Page Profile’ – why don’t we celebrate incredible women in our country, not by speaking about or referring to their appearance or sexuality, but instead focusing on their achievements.
Young women like Fahma Mohamed, who is a young, teenage, award-winning campaigner. Actress Emma Watson who is only 24, but has been given over 30 awards for her Hollywood acting, the title of Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations for her charity work and even gained a degree from Oxford University. Rebecca Adlington would be another woman who is only in her 20s but has already broken world records that stood for two decades, and won gold medals as a sportswoman.
Let’s focus on the right things and give our sisters, mothers, aunties, daughters all the respect they deserve!
ALSO please help us share our collective support to ban PAGE 3.Tweet:
Let’s make 2015 the year we #page3takedown @nomorepage3 – Check out this film and join the movement:
By Aaron Roach Bridgeman of Youth Media Agency
DISCLAIMER: The articles on our website are not endorsed by, or the opinions of Shout Out UK (SOUK), but exclusively the views of the author.
