In terms of dodgy British traditions that have somehow stuck around, the top honour must indeed go to the topless ‘page 3 girls’ that have graced the pages of The Sun tabloid since 1970.
However the long and bewildering reign of the page 3 girl might finally be over with sources at the Murdoch owned tabloid saying that the long-held tradition has been quietly pulled.
According to The Guardian, the decision was made to cease with the toplessness in print, but that it will continue online. Unless of course sales of the newspaper plummet without its daily dose of Marilyn from Birmingham without her top on.
In Monday’s issue of the newspaper model Rosie Huntington-Whitely was depicted wearing knickers and a bra. Not a bared breast to be seen, which we suppose means progress.
The Sun didn’t respond to queries from The Guardian, but rather cryptically told The Times (also owned by Murdoch),
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“Page 3 of The Sun is where it’s always been, between pages 2 and 4, and you can find Lucy from Warwick at Page3.com.”
Campaigners against the page 3 girls, and oh believe us there are plenty – in fact, more than 215,000 people have signed a petition to end the tradition – have welcomed the decision.
A spokesman for an activist group called No More Page 3 told The Telegraph,
“This could be truly historic news and a great day for people power. We don’t know the details for sure and there’s still lots to be done. But this could be a huge step for challenging media sexism.”
Rupert Murdoch, the owner of The Sun newspaper, has hinted in the past that his paper’s Page 3 girl was a little unbecoming, describing it as “old fashioned” on Twitter.
In the same batch of tweets Murdoch also said that “Brit feminists [who] bang on forever about Page 3 … never buy paper”, which is a popular argument from and for the pro bared breasts with their morning coffee types.
Even still, there remains certain hope that blatant sexism just isn’t any fun anymore and that nobody really wants a dose of it with their Special K every day. There’s enough subtle sexism to go around anyway.
For example, perhaps now we can do something about the disproportionate lack of female bylines in newspapers, or …?
