Introduction - 39, mother or 2, Nurse, member of NMP3 team since Jan this year
How did that happen?
I have I think always been feminist in my approach but to a point. I didn't identify as a feminist until about 3 years or so ago. I thought I assumed equality was fundamental but actually on reflection I can see that many of the things I didn't question and that I actually reinforced with my own use of language and my own behaviour were absolutely not feminist. eg. I need a man to come and do this job in my house
Then I read Caitlyn Moran and said it out loud in the bath "I am a feminist"
I started to read some bits on twitter
Not very long after that I saw the NMP3 petition and signed immediately
My Page 3 background
Working class household, page 3 at home
Linda on the wall
How that affected me - still appreciating that
Started following NMP3 of twitter and Facebook
Engaged in debates
Wrote a song
Organised demo's
Asked to Join
Lucy's burnout and appeal
Since Jan it's been a whirlwind bonkers ride of amazing experiences, stress and amazing ups coupled with a feeling of banging ones head repetitively on a wall
Support
HQ - amazing people, strong combination of motivation, talent and support, has grown and grown and will continue to . Now trying to add more diversity as its been quite organics until now and we're aware that hasn't covered all the areas we should be covering.
Why
Sexism in media, objectification in mainstream media, out of context, child protection, body image issues etc
Criticism
Why just page 3
It is none feminist because we are taking a choice away form those who wish to be page 3 models
NMP3 not anti-glamour models as a whole, not anti-porn.
For myself though I will say one thing - ( I wrote this last week after a debate where once again I was questioned by a feminist supporting page 3 about how I as a feminist could reduce the choices of other women)
Feminism for me is essentially humanitarianism
Humanitarians do not suggest that all choices of all humans are right and valid and should be supported. Humans do some terrible things and make poor choices at least as much as they make good ones, they choose to hurt other humans in direct and indirect ways.
Feminism similarly doesn't suppose that all of the individual choices women make are right, valid or to be instantly upheld simply by virtue of the fact that they were made by a woman.
Feminism isn't about women fighting against men.
Feminism is the belief that women are human, just as human in fact as men.
Feminism is the belief that because of this it is a fundamental human right that women have equal rights, equal treatment and equal representation.
Feminism fights for those rights and representations and against unequal ones.
This fight often involves standing up to the actions of men but also at times standing up to those of other women who may be reinforcing the opposite message.
Objectification reduces the choices of all women by reinforcing a society which aims to keep women in their place, as décor, as sex objects and not as agents of their own lives for whom abilities, talents and hard work will be appreciated in the same way as it is for men. In a newspaper I would argue it drives that message home all the harder.
Monday, 4 November 2013
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
David's reply
From david.dinsmore@news.co.uk
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for your note.
Unfortunately, we don't have time for holidays here!
I'm glad you had a good weekend. I am a fan of the Guides - I was a Scout myself.
To save you any further effort, I won't be changing my stance on Page 3. It is a pillar of the paper, the readers (both male and female) like it and I do not for one moment believe it is the basis of all evil. There are, I believe, many much more worthy targets you could be turning your admirable attentions to. I will continue to enjoy the Twitter banter.
Regards
David
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for your note.
Unfortunately, we don't have time for holidays here!
I'm glad you had a good weekend. I am a fan of the Guides - I was a Scout myself.
To save you any further effort, I won't be changing my stance on Page 3. It is a pillar of the paper, the readers (both male and female) like it and I do not for one moment believe it is the basis of all evil. There are, I believe, many much more worthy targets you could be turning your admirable attentions to. I will continue to enjoy the Twitter banter.
Regards
David
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
A Woman's Worth (A message to my daughter)
I cycled home today, like I do every day or at least Monday to Friday. It's not something I enjoy if I'm honest but then it's not a nice route as its quite busy roads and lots of crappy junctions. In honesty I much prefer running and despite always describing myself as "not a natural runner" this year I ran my very first marathon and I ran it well. It took me a little over 4 1/2 hours and I didn't stop, I didn't flag, I trained hard and I got the engineering just right. My body, with hard work, did an amazing thing, it carried me 26 miles and it didn't break. I feel proud of that, just like I feel proud of the other signs of my physical fitness like my resting pulse of 50 which shows a healthy heart and yes to some degree my physique which looks really healthy.
During today's bike ride however I had a strange little moment which seems like nothing if I describe it, but it brought back a sad reminder of a bygone me I hoped to forget. I stopped at some lights in my tight leggings and a man in a white van pulled up beside me. He had clearly been looking at my arse as he pulled up and he leaned out of the window to give me a look see. I thought he was going to make some awful sexist, Neanderthal comment and I was ready for that. As an emerging feminist of about 2 years now I had a whole plethora of comebacks ready - To question his motivation, to tell him I didn't require his approval or if all else failed to "flip the birdy". What happened though was this - he pulled up, glanced from my arse to my face and pulled is head quickly back in. That is about the third time I've noticed that happen in the last 6 months and I am utterly ashamed to say it totally disarms me. It makes me sad to my core in a way I can't quite fix.
Partly it makes me sad because I realise that no matter how long and hard I have fought and to some degree succeeded in judging my merit on my health and wellbeing, my achievements and my loving and gentle character I am still cursed with the legacy of my youth - valuing myself on the positive gaze of others. I'm not talking about others recognising my nice nature here or my not too shabby singing voice but my physical appearance - them liking my face, hair, long legs and sex appeal. Those bits my Mum told me that as I "had" I should "flaunt".
What were the roots of this? Well I suppose in some ways I was lucky, don't get me wrong Cindy Crawford I was not but I have since about 14 years of age always been able to "turn a few heads" and "scrub up well". My Mum was over the moon for me. I love my Mum, she has been a constant friend and support to me all my life and I never doubted her wisdom. She was clearly proud to have a pretty daughter and all through my slightly goofy, difficult phase from 12-15 she never stopped telling me I was beautiful and that I was going to "break boys hearts".
The change started at about 14 and it was really quite unnerving at first, realising you can walk into a room and influence the behaviour of some people, realising that even though I was only a child some men were already "chatting me up" - I had no idea how to respond. If I was going to fit into this "desirable" box though, I was, as everything else in my life, going to do it bloody properly. So I started going to the gym, running and keeping in shape. I thankfully didn't start spending ridiculous amounts of money on cosmetics, waxes or spray tans (this was before the rather unnerving infiltration of porn glamour into the lives and aspirations of teenage girls) but as a keen actress I did start playing the parts I'd seen the good looking women play in films. And did I blooming play it! When I started having relationships and going out I knew how to swish my hair in a sexy way, walk across a room to show my legs off just so, roll on top of a guy in bed in a dramatic and sexy fashion so he couldn't resist. I knew about sex too, oh yes....what noises to make oohing and ahhing and making it sound good, making sure I was at the right angle or in the right underwear. Did it feel good? .....Honestly I have no idea.... I wasn't focused on that at all, all that mattered was whether or not I looked good and whether it felt good to them. That was my role after all....to look sexy and be sexy. I don't think I learned from anywhere that I was supposed to be seeking out my own pleasure, working out who I was for me, what I wanted. I can't remember anybody telling me I was supposed to want anything for myself other than to look good. The woman on my Mum and Dad's bedroom wall and in the paper every day looking sexy and available was the one the men wanted and I could be the one they wanted too. Lucky me! I never heard these women speak, I never saw women in films ask for anything during sex, they didn't need to, they all had obvious, instantaneous and vocal orgasms form vaginal sex alone.
At 16 I met the man I married at 21 and had my first child at 23. Don't get me wrong there was other stuff going on here, I'm not one dimensional. I did well in school, I passed 2 A levels, trained in nursing and had a progressive and successful career. I was professionally ambitious and I loved motherhood and breastfeeding and had some great friends. But behind it all, at all times I was not matching up if I wasn't still sexy and desirable, if I didn't still get a few shouts or horn blasts when I dressed up to go out. If I didn't get some looks when I entered a room. Within my relationship too it took me 20 years to realise I could and should want something or myself other than to be the model wife and mother and only now at 39 after a divorce, a profound aligning of my self-awareness and a new found passion for meditation and mindfulness have I really felt I know my true worth. I have finally found me, I have found feminism and a passion for campaigning that has brought me into a group of people that are beautiful to their core and alive and colourful and inspiring in a multitude of ways. My life has depth and it has colour and it has the love of a selfless and warm man who sees the whole of me completely.
I now finally understand real sense of worth and worth that I wish to instil in my own daughter.
So for you my amazing girl I will not say - "If you've got it flaunt it", "you will break some hearts", "they will all come running". For you I want more than superficial worth based on a beauty that will not stand the test of time, of grief, or even of a bad night up with a sick toddler. I want you to want more for yourself and be more yourself than I even knew to want for.
So to my daughter I will say this...
You're worth is in the beauty you have inside and out, in the warmth and generosity and time you show others. In the talents that you were born with and have nurtured and have learnt and worked hard at. In your healthy strong body that is capable of amazing things. In the people you choose to surround yourself with and the fact they have chosen you too. It is in the very moment in which you are right now, in all the ones I remember of you in my heart and all the amazing ones you have yet to come. Please amazing girl, don't ever hang it all, or even part of it, on the fickle glances of strangers who have learned, just like I did, to value the wrong things. Who will reduce your value to a horn blow or a body part or an uninvited hand on your person. If I can somehow be sure you won't ever do that and then I can be sure that you will not feel sad, in in some much younger and buried part of yourself, that you can't quite reach to fix at 39, because a man you don't even know looked and then looked away. You are worth so much more than that Aeron and so am I x
During today's bike ride however I had a strange little moment which seems like nothing if I describe it, but it brought back a sad reminder of a bygone me I hoped to forget. I stopped at some lights in my tight leggings and a man in a white van pulled up beside me. He had clearly been looking at my arse as he pulled up and he leaned out of the window to give me a look see. I thought he was going to make some awful sexist, Neanderthal comment and I was ready for that. As an emerging feminist of about 2 years now I had a whole plethora of comebacks ready - To question his motivation, to tell him I didn't require his approval or if all else failed to "flip the birdy". What happened though was this - he pulled up, glanced from my arse to my face and pulled is head quickly back in. That is about the third time I've noticed that happen in the last 6 months and I am utterly ashamed to say it totally disarms me. It makes me sad to my core in a way I can't quite fix.
Partly it makes me sad because I realise that no matter how long and hard I have fought and to some degree succeeded in judging my merit on my health and wellbeing, my achievements and my loving and gentle character I am still cursed with the legacy of my youth - valuing myself on the positive gaze of others. I'm not talking about others recognising my nice nature here or my not too shabby singing voice but my physical appearance - them liking my face, hair, long legs and sex appeal. Those bits my Mum told me that as I "had" I should "flaunt".
What were the roots of this? Well I suppose in some ways I was lucky, don't get me wrong Cindy Crawford I was not but I have since about 14 years of age always been able to "turn a few heads" and "scrub up well". My Mum was over the moon for me. I love my Mum, she has been a constant friend and support to me all my life and I never doubted her wisdom. She was clearly proud to have a pretty daughter and all through my slightly goofy, difficult phase from 12-15 she never stopped telling me I was beautiful and that I was going to "break boys hearts".
The change started at about 14 and it was really quite unnerving at first, realising you can walk into a room and influence the behaviour of some people, realising that even though I was only a child some men were already "chatting me up" - I had no idea how to respond. If I was going to fit into this "desirable" box though, I was, as everything else in my life, going to do it bloody properly. So I started going to the gym, running and keeping in shape. I thankfully didn't start spending ridiculous amounts of money on cosmetics, waxes or spray tans (this was before the rather unnerving infiltration of porn glamour into the lives and aspirations of teenage girls) but as a keen actress I did start playing the parts I'd seen the good looking women play in films. And did I blooming play it! When I started having relationships and going out I knew how to swish my hair in a sexy way, walk across a room to show my legs off just so, roll on top of a guy in bed in a dramatic and sexy fashion so he couldn't resist. I knew about sex too, oh yes....what noises to make oohing and ahhing and making it sound good, making sure I was at the right angle or in the right underwear. Did it feel good? .....Honestly I have no idea.... I wasn't focused on that at all, all that mattered was whether or not I looked good and whether it felt good to them. That was my role after all....to look sexy and be sexy. I don't think I learned from anywhere that I was supposed to be seeking out my own pleasure, working out who I was for me, what I wanted. I can't remember anybody telling me I was supposed to want anything for myself other than to look good. The woman on my Mum and Dad's bedroom wall and in the paper every day looking sexy and available was the one the men wanted and I could be the one they wanted too. Lucky me! I never heard these women speak, I never saw women in films ask for anything during sex, they didn't need to, they all had obvious, instantaneous and vocal orgasms form vaginal sex alone.
At 16 I met the man I married at 21 and had my first child at 23. Don't get me wrong there was other stuff going on here, I'm not one dimensional. I did well in school, I passed 2 A levels, trained in nursing and had a progressive and successful career. I was professionally ambitious and I loved motherhood and breastfeeding and had some great friends. But behind it all, at all times I was not matching up if I wasn't still sexy and desirable, if I didn't still get a few shouts or horn blasts when I dressed up to go out. If I didn't get some looks when I entered a room. Within my relationship too it took me 20 years to realise I could and should want something or myself other than to be the model wife and mother and only now at 39 after a divorce, a profound aligning of my self-awareness and a new found passion for meditation and mindfulness have I really felt I know my true worth. I have finally found me, I have found feminism and a passion for campaigning that has brought me into a group of people that are beautiful to their core and alive and colourful and inspiring in a multitude of ways. My life has depth and it has colour and it has the love of a selfless and warm man who sees the whole of me completely.
I now finally understand real sense of worth and worth that I wish to instil in my own daughter.
So for you my amazing girl I will not say - "If you've got it flaunt it", "you will break some hearts", "they will all come running". For you I want more than superficial worth based on a beauty that will not stand the test of time, of grief, or even of a bad night up with a sick toddler. I want you to want more for yourself and be more yourself than I even knew to want for.
So to my daughter I will say this...
You're worth is in the beauty you have inside and out, in the warmth and generosity and time you show others. In the talents that you were born with and have nurtured and have learnt and worked hard at. In your healthy strong body that is capable of amazing things. In the people you choose to surround yourself with and the fact they have chosen you too. It is in the very moment in which you are right now, in all the ones I remember of you in my heart and all the amazing ones you have yet to come. Please amazing girl, don't ever hang it all, or even part of it, on the fickle glances of strangers who have learned, just like I did, to value the wrong things. Who will reduce your value to a horn blow or a body part or an uninvited hand on your person. If I can somehow be sure you won't ever do that and then I can be sure that you will not feel sad, in in some much younger and buried part of yourself, that you can't quite reach to fix at 39, because a man you don't even know looked and then looked away. You are worth so much more than that Aeron and so am I x
Saturday, 22 June 2013
What have these bloody feminists ever done for us blokes?
A small group of blokes sitting in the pub having a chat....
...I'm sick to death of these bloody feminists. Its all you bloody hear about now. We don't like this, we don't like that. I'm up to here with it. Now they want rid of bloomin Page 3!! Page 3 I ask you?! What is the world coming to when a bloke can't even have a cheeky look at a nice pair of a morning in his paper. Well they're bleeding us dry these wimmin. They want to take everything we have, not just from us, from our fathers and from our fathers' fathers.
.....And from our fathers' fathers' fathers.
......Yes.
......And from our fathers' fathers' fathers' fathers.
......All right, lets not labour the point. but what have they ever given us in return?
...More time with the kids?
Wha....Oh yeah, yeah they gave us that. Yeah. That's true.
And the birth control.
Oh yes... birth control mate, remember what it used to be like used to be like. Always thinking she might get pregnant. All those kids.
All right, granted you got more time with the kids and the birth control are two things that the feminist movement have done...
And not being expected to go to war...
Well yes obviously its better that that its not assumed all men or not just men for that matter would have to defend their country at the drop of a hat... that goes without saying. But apart from more time with the kids, the contraception and not going to war...
Not being the main and only provider?...
...erm Job choices? You know...I'm a nurse, that wouldn't have been allowed.
...talking about our feelings,
What?!
Well...... you know, we can talk..... we can think about getting counselling or support...
Hmmmm...
....having sex without being expected to marry the woman!!
Oooooo Yes, all the sex is certainly one of the best bits... (general nodding)... let's face it, we're not the only ones after a bloomin good time.... know what I mean hahahhahaha
Ha ha ha yep that's true... I've had some great.....
Alright, alright I get it.
...being able to report abuse, assault or rape?
Yeah and no fault divorce - we don't have to have a reason to call it quits on an unhappy marriage now do we.
Yes that's true plus you know your girlfriend or wife is with you because she wants to be not because you own her or because she can't have her own income and property and stuff ya know...manage on her own and that.
All right... all right... but apart from birth control and time with the kids, not being the only provider, getting support and not going to war and talking about how we feel, reporting abuse, easier divorce, women being with us because they want to be and all the sex outside of marriage... what has feminism ever done for us blokes?
Erm....made it clear that women are valued?
What?
You know, your Mum, your wife, your sister - showing they are people too?!
Oh...you...you know what lets change the subject.
...I'm sick to death of these bloody feminists. Its all you bloody hear about now. We don't like this, we don't like that. I'm up to here with it. Now they want rid of bloomin Page 3!! Page 3 I ask you?! What is the world coming to when a bloke can't even have a cheeky look at a nice pair of a morning in his paper. Well they're bleeding us dry these wimmin. They want to take everything we have, not just from us, from our fathers and from our fathers' fathers.
...More time with the kids?
Wha....Oh yeah, yeah they gave us that. Yeah. That's true.
And the birth control.
Oh yes... birth control mate, remember what it used to be like used to be like. Always thinking she might get pregnant. All those kids.
All right, granted you got more time with the kids and the birth control are two things that the feminist movement have done...
And not being expected to go to war...
Well yes obviously its better that that its not assumed all men or not just men for that matter would have to defend their country at the drop of a hat... that goes without saying. But apart from more time with the kids, the contraception and not going to war...
Not being the main and only provider?...
...erm Job choices? You know...I'm a nurse, that wouldn't have been allowed.
...talking about our feelings,
What?!
Well...... you know, we can talk..... we can think about getting counselling or support...
Hmmmm...
....having sex without being expected to marry the woman!!
Oooooo Yes, all the sex is certainly one of the best bits... (general nodding)... let's face it, we're not the only ones after a bloomin good time.... know what I mean hahahhahaha
Ha ha ha yep that's true... I've had some great.....
Alright, alright I get it.
...being able to report abuse, assault or rape?
Yeah and no fault divorce - we don't have to have a reason to call it quits on an unhappy marriage now do we.
Yes that's true plus you know your girlfriend or wife is with you because she wants to be not because you own her or because she can't have her own income and property and stuff ya know...manage on her own and that.
All right... all right... but apart from birth control and time with the kids, not being the only provider, getting support and not going to war and talking about how we feel, reporting abuse, easier divorce, women being with us because they want to be and all the sex outside of marriage... what has feminism ever done for us blokes?
Erm....made it clear that women are valued?
You know, your Mum, your wife, your sister - showing they are people too?!
Oh...you...you know what lets change the subject.
Friday, 14 June 2013
- It seems it is somewhat of a shame that Paul Connew has never been given the honour of being editor of The Sun as if he had we would not be having to talk about page 3 in the present tense, or so he tells us in his guardian piece today http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/13/page-3-internet-porn-damages-young-minds. Paul would have got rid of the "Page 3 girls" because they are an "anachronism" long past their sell by date. He would not however have wasted precious time and energy campaigning against it as that would be "tedious" and "disproportionate" as "The problem with is not that they are a corrupting influence on young minds, or that they turn men into rapists; it is simply that they are past their sell-by date".
In short Mr Connew is of the opinion that if we all just kept quiet the really not very important problem of page 3 girls would just go away.
I'm always made to feel immediately uncomfortable when any issue around page 3 is discussed by referring to the "Page 3 girls". I think the term in itself is problematic. It may have been appropriate at one time when indeed some of them were in fact under 18 but given that they are all of age they are in fact all now "women" and professionally speaking they are "models".
There is a very good reason why the current campaign for an end to page 3 doesn't focus on the models and that is because it is not a campaign aimed at or against glamour models, glamour modelling or pornography. What No More Page 3 aims itself at is the bizarre editorial decision made in the 1970's, to make a feature of the breasts of very young women in a daily Newspaper. Paul no doubt has a problem accepting any socially sweeping consequences of this decision, not really surprising given his career choices and gender. Why would he be aware? In contrast as a 39 year old woman who grew up with a Sun newspaper in the house daily, as a mother of a teenage boy and girl and a now insider of the NMP3 campaign it wouldn't surprise you to hear that I do have quite a different slant. My experience of the effect on personal body image and understanding of my own sexuality has been reinforced numerous times in the words of supporters. The incidence I would struggle to remember or list (as they are so numerous) of sexual harassment and common sexual assault on the street, at work and in bars is not unusual either. Mine is of course anecdotal evidence and although I see it mirrored time and time again it could be easily dismissed as invalid were it not for the fact it is backed up by evidence presented in numerous studies and government commissioned reports. These reports obviously don't point specifically to page 3, but refer to all sexualised and pornographic images and the effects of exposure. Given the accessibility of The Sun's iconic page however it could very much be used to argue that page 3 is more than an out of date, harmless embarrassment. The effects on female mental health and young women's aspirations is well documented along with the evidence of a reinforcement for boys and men of a sexist and derogatory view of women which in tern makes harmful behaviour towards the opposite sex more likely. The reason no doubt that the campaign enjoys the support of so many charities and groups fighting domestic and sexual violence against women.
Page 3 we hope may soon be consigned to the same, "did we really once think that was ok" archive to which we consigned Golly Wogs. It may, with time join the other unhelpful symbols which were once supposed harmless until we realised they undermined and misrepresented an entire section of society. It does seem massively naive however to assume that any of these changes would have occurred because people quietly waited for something to go away. Change happens because people start to speak up and ask for it. Awareness is raised, blinkers removed. Generation on generation in its own way has chipped away at the status quo of female objectification in the media and on Page 3. More recently this shift in the moral zeitgeist has gained momentum but make no mistake Mr Connew we have reached where we are today not because people were quiet but because they spoke up, they found allies and the whispers grew to shouts. No More Page 3 has never asked for parliamentary time or legislation, it does not affiliate itself to a particular party, it enjoys the support to those with the common sense and insight to realise the time has come for change. We love Caroline Lucas for having the gall to stand up and speak out about media sexism, of course we do, but we love her no more or less than any of the other brilliant people who have added their voice to ours. It's getting quite difficult to ignore isn't it, but be warned - we will not be quiet any time soon.
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
So we are now over run with amazing people power, grass routes activism against media sexism.
We have No More Page 3, Everyday sexism's #fbrape campaign, Child Eyes and now Object and UK Feminista's Drop the lad mags project threatening retailers for the first time with legal action.
I believe this latest Lad mags campaign on top of all else will be the final straw and things will change but I believe it will take a focus from all of us, in small different ways to make it happen and to clearly say to our own local retailers that we are not happy with the status quo and never have been. These campaigns give us momentum and a voice and I think we should act now.
I am used to being affected locally (In stapleford) by pornography in mainstream papers here's a small sample
We have No More Page 3, Everyday sexism's #fbrape campaign, Child Eyes and now Object and UK Feminista's Drop the lad mags project threatening retailers for the first time with legal action.
I believe this latest Lad mags campaign on top of all else will be the final straw and things will change but I believe it will take a focus from all of us, in small different ways to make it happen and to clearly say to our own local retailers that we are not happy with the status quo and never have been. These campaigns give us momentum and a voice and I think we should act now.
I am used to being affected locally (In stapleford) by pornography in mainstream papers here's a small sample
To be honest I'm sick to death of being greeted by this every time I shop or nip in for electric with or without children and it is placed right next to or opposite children's mags. It is placed (usually) face down initially but is turned over by men in the shop after thumbing through it (vomit).
Anyway,on Saturday I took my daughter into town to celebrate finishing her Sats, she is 11. We went to Nando's near market square and then popped into the newsagents next door to buy treats to take home and have with a movie we had bought. We stood in the shop choosing (it takes a while as she has food allergies so we have to read everything) and she suddenly tapped me on the shoulder and looked horrified over at the magazine shelf taking up most of the wall to our left. I turned to see a sea of pornography like I can't remember seeing for some time, all quite openly displayed on middle shelves, in her face quite literally in this little shop. Lads mags but also Mayfair etc all middle shelf with no attempt to layer up,top shelf, cover or hide it. I felt so awful both for me and her. If it's intimating to me at 39 what is it like at 11?!
I'm livid and I think on the back of this current wave of activism we could do some really positive, directed and hopefully quite effective local action. It might start with just putting together a small flyer or set of flyer's, dropping into these little newsagents and the big ones and having our say. Obviously we may meet some abuse but we may, if we're really annoyingly reasonable and fair, get some positive responses too. If that doesn't work we then now which shops we could target if we wanted to, with a slightly noisier gathering outside where we can raise public awareness about these shops not being welcoming to women or children?
What do you think? We may be able to get some leaflets etc ready made from Object and we have some No More Page 3 stuff I can source. I also now know who the nice and on side journos are at the Nottingham post as I'm sure some of you do too, so we could get some local coverage??
If you fancy it let me know and I can set up a small group on facebook linked to NFAM where we can chat and plan etc.I don't envisage it being a big time commitment ( I have very, very little time) but we could put a half day aside at a weekend initially to case local shops perhaps just in the town centre initially and then take it from there? We can meet up before hand and take an area each, take leaflets, note responses etc?
Any other ideas very welcome or you can tell me to shut up and I will go away.
Thanks for listening.
Lisa (Nottingham Lass mostly hanging out at NMP3HQ)
Friday, 10 May 2013
A voice from inside the elite
Hello there minions! I have deemed it appropriate to engage with you all again from my ivory tower in order to tell you all what to think. Yes, that's it folks, here I sit with my manicure and my privilege and tell you what is right and what is wrong and detest the human form, loathe sex and want to deprive the average working class man who has rightfully earned his daily breasts. What a detestable bore I must be, what a killjoy?
Or.......
Here's a spanner in your particulars... I might just be from a working class background? Maybe I grew up with a workshop engineer Dad, who brought home The Sun, had Linda Lusardi on his wall and did a part time bar job as well to make ends meet. I might be a full time nurse with two kids (and very unmanicured, short nails, hey that's infection control folks), just about managing to keep the end terrace I bought thanks to having no pay rise for over 3 years. It could be that despite being ridiculously busy already, I feel passionately about trying to change the world for my two children. So that by the time my daughter reaches the age of my son's female Facebook friends she won't feel she has to pout, arch her back and show cleavage in every profile picture, or be lying in her underwear with her boyfriend's name scrawled across her thigh in marker pen like a brand. Just perhaps seeing a young woman in just her pants, in the newspaper everyday affected me as a child and still does and perhaps I want a better future?
I'd hate to misrepresent myself however, it's not all beans on toast and austerity, I do get out. This week for example, I met up with some of my colleagues from NMP3HQ and we visited Claire Short at the Commonwealth Club in London. It was quite posh. We were all a little nervous and in awe of this extraordinary woman who stood up in the 80's, unnoticed by me, a child at the time and opposed the Sun's page 3 http://www.clareshort.co.uk/node/12 . She was brave and was abused and bullied as a result and I wish I had known and understood then what she was trying to do for me and for society. I can truly say she was one of the most approachable and down to earth people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Our discussion with her lasted an hour, she bought us coffee, it was lighthearted, it was funny and we left with a long list of things to consider, some possible allies we might approach and some brave moves that may be required. For me however the biggest take home message from the entire meeting was this - that with this campaign we are already making an important difference. That the most important thing is not just the end point of an end to page 3, it is the journey. It's the voices of men http://wp.me/p2UPwb-4j , women http://nomorepage3.org/news/one-daughters-story/ and girls http://nomorepage3.org/news/youthful-voices-against-page-3/ who have joined ours and continue to join ours and be heard. It's the "ping" of recognition when somebody realises how this has affected them and how it continues to affect them, how it has informed and reinforced a certain attitude in society. It is the recognition that, even in a sea or pornographic imagery, removing page 3 would be significant. http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/bloggers/1744704-Guest-Blog-Time-to-listen-to-young-women-Page-3-is-not-innocuous?pg=1 .
While we were at the lovely commonwealth club Mr Murdoch it seems, from somewhere in one of his houses in one of his countries, sat at one of his PCs and did a tweet https://twitter.com/rupertmurdoch/status/330092925029597184 Interesting....I wonder how much thought he gave that? But hey, let's not poo poo it, he doesn't tweet often, lets take a moment and look at these words. "Is anybody complaining a reader" he asks. Well...the petition now has over 100 000 signatures and in all honesty we have no idea how many are Sun readers, we know some are. We all have experience of Sun readers anecdotally telling us they don't like it on the street etc. and a Yougov pole dated from October 2012 http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/6jyst3v95o/YG-Archive-Pol-Sun-results-021012-Page-3-girls.pdf (when this campaign was in its infancy) may have suggested 60% of readers wanted to keep it, but it also showed (even then) that 24% of the Sun's own readership wanted it gone and 16% didn't know. To be honest, in a time when newspaper readership can be hard to hold onto if 40% of your readership are either opposed to or indifferent to something I'd say that's not to be ignored. I can't help but wonder as well, what affect a little education and information on the matter might have had on that? Was this what us nurses call "an informed choice"? The Sun is very good at it's "Justice campaigns", perhaps if it raised awareness of some of the damaging affects of page 3 or maybe even showed just some of the news about this campaign which it has so far chosen to completely ignore, such the Girl Guides backing us http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9979877/Girl-guides-sign-No-More-Page-3-campaign.html. If they shared these things perhaps opinion may begin to change? Just a thought. Not that I'm suggesting for a moment that The Sun is being selective about what it chooses to report...surely not....that could be classed as censorship.
So anyway, sorry Mr Murdoch...you were saying... ah yes "complaining about page 3 pix".You mean these naked, post watershed, sexualised, airbrushed photographs of young women in the newspaper with no relation to a story of any sort? Those "pix"? Yes, we're not very happy about them (although the News in Briefs caption which appears to insult the model and the readers intelligence alike does seem to upset a lot of people too). Mr Mohan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6QW9JZZAf4 made them sound like so much more than just "pix" though? An "institution" he said, an "icon"? I remember it well because my experience of visitors to the country is that they are generally shocked and appalled at page 3 and considering we've just hosted one of the most successful Olympics there has ever been I personally prefer that legacy, maybe that's just me?...Oh no sorry...it's not just me....going back to that poll, it seemed 49% of all of those polled wanted page 3 gone and I'm just guessing here but if I was educating a foreign friend about Great Britain I'd be inclined to focus on the GREAT. The British institutions.. The NHS (while we have it........sore point) pasties, cream teas, Irony and humour, custard pie fights...The very last thing I would draw their attention to is the embarrassment that is the Tits in the paper. Just a thought....
Moving on ....Oooo yes.....and this is my favourite bit "Enough of this elitist nonsense"........Wow! I mean WOW!! To be called elitist by a billionaire owner of one of the biggest news industries in the world, one of the most powerful men in the world....."elite".....us?...really?
Oh dear, once again it seems we are having the tired old class argument *Yawn*. The same old rubbish Richard Caseby http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/stephanie-davies/how-the-sun-responds-to-w_b_3237884.html tried to suggest, that NMP3 is a bunch of middle class "wimin" having a silly moan...now just wait a minute...
There are over 100 000 signatures on the NMP3 petition (sorry, I do love saying that) from all walks of life. The social media gives us voices from middle and working class, males, young teens, middle aged and older people. Within the team at HQ there are 12 including one man, ranging in age from late teens to mid-fifties. Lots of us have grown up with pg 3 and similar, many of us in working class households http://vagendamag.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/no-more-page-3-and-class-war.html#!/2013/04/no-more-page-3-and-class-war.html . We, as thousands of other women and girls, while our bodies were taking womanly shape, had in our home, day on day images of posed, passive, apparently perfect women reaffirming to us the way we were supposed to turn out and telling us in no uncertain terms that our sexual availability was the most important thing about us. It wasn't just us that learnt that lesson, the boys learnt it too. Through our lives we've had boys at school, men on the street, in bars and workplaces reinforcing this view of women for us over and over and over again - with street harassment and sexist, derogatory comments, with repetitive casual sexual assaults that others laughed off and accepted or asked us to take as a compliment. Did Mr Murdoch's daughters grow up with these influences? Did they have page 3 in their living room? Will Mr Mohan's daughters see it every day? Or like Mr David Banks (another ex-deputy editor) revealed in a radio interview a couple of months ago, will their wives insist it isn't bought home as it isn't appropriate for the children? I wonder if any of the Murdoch family will travel to work with people overtly ogling naked teenagers quite openly in public and with total license, because they have not opened a top shelf magazine or clicked Porn Hub on their mobile but are simply "reading the paper"?
Sorry, forgive me Mr Murdoch, who is it that is being elitist here? If it's not good enough for your family homes then why is it ok for you to keep sending it into the homes of the Sun readers who are predominantly working class? Do their children., their daughters and wives not matter? Should they not be afforded some respect? Why did the Sun's deputy editor reply to a male member of parliament but Mr Mohan felt it ok to ignore a letter from the entire Girl guide movement? Why do some police stations not have the Sun on the premises? Why is it that access to the Page 3 website is now restricted by the military, who have a multitude of female staff and recently publicised problems with sexual harassment? When 11 universities decide it is no longer fitting in their equal learning environment to stock The Sun and when a petition and a social movement, that attracts people from every conceivable background, begins to point out, NO SHOUT OUT, that enough is enough, perhaps, just perhaps this is not elitist nonsense? Perhaps we all want something really simple, a media that sees and represents women for what they do and what they are - wives, daughters, mothers, police, nurses, politicians, musicians, footballers, athletes and sometimes glamour models, from all social classes. Because, Mr Murdoch, every single one of us, no matter what our background, deserves that respect..... just saying.
Or.......
Here's a spanner in your particulars... I might just be from a working class background? Maybe I grew up with a workshop engineer Dad, who brought home The Sun, had Linda Lusardi on his wall and did a part time bar job as well to make ends meet. I might be a full time nurse with two kids (and very unmanicured, short nails, hey that's infection control folks), just about managing to keep the end terrace I bought thanks to having no pay rise for over 3 years. It could be that despite being ridiculously busy already, I feel passionately about trying to change the world for my two children. So that by the time my daughter reaches the age of my son's female Facebook friends she won't feel she has to pout, arch her back and show cleavage in every profile picture, or be lying in her underwear with her boyfriend's name scrawled across her thigh in marker pen like a brand. Just perhaps seeing a young woman in just her pants, in the newspaper everyday affected me as a child and still does and perhaps I want a better future?
I'd hate to misrepresent myself however, it's not all beans on toast and austerity, I do get out. This week for example, I met up with some of my colleagues from NMP3HQ and we visited Claire Short at the Commonwealth Club in London. It was quite posh. We were all a little nervous and in awe of this extraordinary woman who stood up in the 80's, unnoticed by me, a child at the time and opposed the Sun's page 3 http://www.clareshort.co.uk/node/12 . She was brave and was abused and bullied as a result and I wish I had known and understood then what she was trying to do for me and for society. I can truly say she was one of the most approachable and down to earth people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Our discussion with her lasted an hour, she bought us coffee, it was lighthearted, it was funny and we left with a long list of things to consider, some possible allies we might approach and some brave moves that may be required. For me however the biggest take home message from the entire meeting was this - that with this campaign we are already making an important difference. That the most important thing is not just the end point of an end to page 3, it is the journey. It's the voices of men http://wp.me/p2UPwb-4j , women http://nomorepage3.org/news/one-daughters-story/ and girls http://nomorepage3.org/news/youthful-voices-against-page-3/ who have joined ours and continue to join ours and be heard. It's the "ping" of recognition when somebody realises how this has affected them and how it continues to affect them, how it has informed and reinforced a certain attitude in society. It is the recognition that, even in a sea or pornographic imagery, removing page 3 would be significant. http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/bloggers/1744704-Guest-Blog-Time-to-listen-to-young-women-Page-3-is-not-innocuous?pg=1 .
While we were at the lovely commonwealth club Mr Murdoch it seems, from somewhere in one of his houses in one of his countries, sat at one of his PCs and did a tweet https://twitter.com/rupertmurdoch/status/330092925029597184 Interesting....I wonder how much thought he gave that? But hey, let's not poo poo it, he doesn't tweet often, lets take a moment and look at these words. "Is anybody complaining a reader" he asks. Well...the petition now has over 100 000 signatures and in all honesty we have no idea how many are Sun readers, we know some are. We all have experience of Sun readers anecdotally telling us they don't like it on the street etc. and a Yougov pole dated from October 2012 http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/6jyst3v95o/YG-Archive-Pol-Sun-results-021012-Page-3-girls.pdf (when this campaign was in its infancy) may have suggested 60% of readers wanted to keep it, but it also showed (even then) that 24% of the Sun's own readership wanted it gone and 16% didn't know. To be honest, in a time when newspaper readership can be hard to hold onto if 40% of your readership are either opposed to or indifferent to something I'd say that's not to be ignored. I can't help but wonder as well, what affect a little education and information on the matter might have had on that? Was this what us nurses call "an informed choice"? The Sun is very good at it's "Justice campaigns", perhaps if it raised awareness of some of the damaging affects of page 3 or maybe even showed just some of the news about this campaign which it has so far chosen to completely ignore, such the Girl Guides backing us http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9979877/Girl-guides-sign-No-More-Page-3-campaign.html. If they shared these things perhaps opinion may begin to change? Just a thought. Not that I'm suggesting for a moment that The Sun is being selective about what it chooses to report...surely not....that could be classed as censorship.
So anyway, sorry Mr Murdoch...you were saying... ah yes "complaining about page 3 pix".You mean these naked, post watershed, sexualised, airbrushed photographs of young women in the newspaper with no relation to a story of any sort? Those "pix"? Yes, we're not very happy about them (although the News in Briefs caption which appears to insult the model and the readers intelligence alike does seem to upset a lot of people too). Mr Mohan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6QW9JZZAf4 made them sound like so much more than just "pix" though? An "institution" he said, an "icon"? I remember it well because my experience of visitors to the country is that they are generally shocked and appalled at page 3 and considering we've just hosted one of the most successful Olympics there has ever been I personally prefer that legacy, maybe that's just me?...Oh no sorry...it's not just me....going back to that poll, it seemed 49% of all of those polled wanted page 3 gone and I'm just guessing here but if I was educating a foreign friend about Great Britain I'd be inclined to focus on the GREAT. The British institutions.. The NHS (while we have it........sore point) pasties, cream teas, Irony and humour, custard pie fights...The very last thing I would draw their attention to is the embarrassment that is the Tits in the paper. Just a thought....
Moving on ....Oooo yes.....and this is my favourite bit "Enough of this elitist nonsense"........Wow! I mean WOW!! To be called elitist by a billionaire owner of one of the biggest news industries in the world, one of the most powerful men in the world....."elite".....us?...really?
Oh dear, once again it seems we are having the tired old class argument *Yawn*. The same old rubbish Richard Caseby http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/stephanie-davies/how-the-sun-responds-to-w_b_3237884.html tried to suggest, that NMP3 is a bunch of middle class "wimin" having a silly moan...now just wait a minute...
There are over 100 000 signatures on the NMP3 petition (sorry, I do love saying that) from all walks of life. The social media gives us voices from middle and working class, males, young teens, middle aged and older people. Within the team at HQ there are 12 including one man, ranging in age from late teens to mid-fifties. Lots of us have grown up with pg 3 and similar, many of us in working class households http://vagendamag.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/no-more-page-3-and-class-war.html#!/2013/04/no-more-page-3-and-class-war.html . We, as thousands of other women and girls, while our bodies were taking womanly shape, had in our home, day on day images of posed, passive, apparently perfect women reaffirming to us the way we were supposed to turn out and telling us in no uncertain terms that our sexual availability was the most important thing about us. It wasn't just us that learnt that lesson, the boys learnt it too. Through our lives we've had boys at school, men on the street, in bars and workplaces reinforcing this view of women for us over and over and over again - with street harassment and sexist, derogatory comments, with repetitive casual sexual assaults that others laughed off and accepted or asked us to take as a compliment. Did Mr Murdoch's daughters grow up with these influences? Did they have page 3 in their living room? Will Mr Mohan's daughters see it every day? Or like Mr David Banks (another ex-deputy editor) revealed in a radio interview a couple of months ago, will their wives insist it isn't bought home as it isn't appropriate for the children? I wonder if any of the Murdoch family will travel to work with people overtly ogling naked teenagers quite openly in public and with total license, because they have not opened a top shelf magazine or clicked Porn Hub on their mobile but are simply "reading the paper"?
Sorry, forgive me Mr Murdoch, who is it that is being elitist here? If it's not good enough for your family homes then why is it ok for you to keep sending it into the homes of the Sun readers who are predominantly working class? Do their children., their daughters and wives not matter? Should they not be afforded some respect? Why did the Sun's deputy editor reply to a male member of parliament but Mr Mohan felt it ok to ignore a letter from the entire Girl guide movement? Why do some police stations not have the Sun on the premises? Why is it that access to the Page 3 website is now restricted by the military, who have a multitude of female staff and recently publicised problems with sexual harassment? When 11 universities decide it is no longer fitting in their equal learning environment to stock The Sun and when a petition and a social movement, that attracts people from every conceivable background, begins to point out, NO SHOUT OUT, that enough is enough, perhaps, just perhaps this is not elitist nonsense? Perhaps we all want something really simple, a media that sees and represents women for what they do and what they are - wives, daughters, mothers, police, nurses, politicians, musicians, footballers, athletes and sometimes glamour models, from all social classes. Because, Mr Murdoch, every single one of us, no matter what our background, deserves that respect..... just saying.
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