Guest blog: Should the Sun's Page 3 girls go? (From Hereford Times)

Guest blog: Should the Sun's Page 3 girls go?

1:42pm Thursday 4th October 2012 in Lydia Johnson On...? By Lydia Johnson

LAST month a petition was set up to get rid of the Sun’s page 3 girls - a brave move considering the last woman (politician Clare Short) to launch a petition against Page 3 was branded ‘fat’ and ‘jealous’ in the newspaper.

The Sun first started publishing topless page three girls in 1970, and one argument for keeping the page could be ‘well, it’s been around for ages, hasn’t it?’

But as history has taught us, just because something is tradition, or a solid feature in society, it doesn’t make it right.

And as the most read daily paper in the UK, should the ‘family’ paper not take more responsibility? Any young boy who sees Page 3 over a parents’ shoulder is likely to grow up thinking that is what a woman should look like, and learn to see women as purely sexual objects and not a lot else.

A young girl who grows up seeing Page 3, as well as the majority of images of women in music videos, on magazine covers and on adverts, will also grow up thinking that is the way a woman should look, and as they grow up will either strive to look like the girls on Page 3 through surgery or starvation, or will be unhappy with their looks when they don’t match up.

Still, some will maintain that Page 3 ‘is a harmless bit of fun’ and ‘no one is forcing the girls to pose’.

No, nobody is forcing them, apart from the constant everyday exposure to such images that say women have to look a certain way to be pleasing to men.

But what do you think?

The poll will run until next Thursday and we'll let you know the results on this blog

You can also comment below to share your views on whether the Sun’s Page 3 should go.

Also, follow this link if you wish to sign the petition http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/dominic-mohan-take-the-bare-boobs-out-of-the-sun-nomorepage3.