Following a campaign started by Lucy-Anne Holmes back in August 2012, the Sun Newspaper’s infamous topless feature has been discontinued from Page 3.
Now even the staunchest of misogynists would be hard pressed to deny that the ogling of women in their knickers, over Cornflakes and Earl Grey, is sexist.
But isn’t it fair to say that when it comes to feminism’s fight against pornography, page 3 is an insignificant drop in the ocean? Harmless, even.
The fact is, we have bigger fish to fry.
Hearing the banning of page 3 being referred to as ‘progress’ just does not sit well with me. At all. The hard work of our ancestors made it unacceptable for men to tell women what to do, but now we’re essentially telling each other…?
The very thing that ‘No More Page 3’ cohorts are branding ‘advancement’ is actually a toxic, backwards notion of radical feminism, whereby said feminists aggressively impose their views of what it means to be a woman, upon all womankind.
Surely this is preposterous – as individuals we have our own ideas of womanhood – to me, it means being in charge of your own body and free to do with it what you will. Boobs and all.
Telling a nation what they can and cannot do, say or print, fundamentally amounts to censorship, and underpins the values at the very heart of our liberal British society. In the words of Paul and Linda McCartney (sort of) – 'live and let live'.
In a free society, things are always going to exist which ignite debate, controversy and disagreement. The way to deal with this is to actively prevent others’ actions only when they cause actual harm to people. Objecting to anything else I fear amounts to self-righteous evangelism and tyranny of the majority.
Even more dangerous than this, is the perception of page 3 as a means to look down on and exploit women. To purport the idea that a pair of exposed boobs encourages rape and sexual assault, is to sooth the conscious' of those who perpetrate these terrible crimes.
The supporters of ‘No More Page 3’ arrogantly render their values and life choices more important than of the other types of women out there; the fact remains that we are all individuals and in the same way some women wish to surrender their femininity completely, others wish to utilise theirs to exploit men and earn bucks – and good on them I say.
To the ‘no boobs over breakfast brigade’, why not pick up a copy of this week’s Heat magazine and check out ‘Torso of the week’ rather than attacking your fellow sex?
Now that’s equality.
Feature image credit: Tatchai Mongkolthong/Shutterstock
