TRIGGER WARNING: this blog contains images and words referring to the sexualisation of women and girls in the Sun newspaper, and refers to sexual offences. This content may be triggering for some people.
I was a mid-seventies baby. My formative years were in the 1980s, when I grew from a toddler into a teenager.
I remember Page 3 from that time very clearly.
In blogs this month, I’m looking through the Sun newspaper archives…
I’m taking a look at the late 80s. I was a school girl at the time, approaching my early teens. I liked English and playing netball in Games. I was going through puberty along with many of my friends. We were in the earliest stages of finding out about our sexuality…
…but, we were still children.
And in the late 80s, the Sun had a habit of sexualising school girls on Page 3 – using imagery and words to blur the boundaries between childhood and early adulthood
In the examples below of Page 3 at the time, the subtext is pretty clear for me. The Sun’s pictures and words say it’s ‘okay’ to leer at school girls and view them as sex objects. They say it’s ‘okay’ to get school girls out of their uniforms for sexual gratification. They say it’s ‘okay’ to take photos of school girls, half naked.
When was it ever ‘okay’ for a national newspaper to do that? Oh yeah, in the time when it was ‘okay’ for Jimmy Savile to molest and rape children (loads of people knew about that at the time too, but turned a blind eye).
So this is yet another appeal to you, Dominic Mohan
You weren’t directly responsible for the following images in the late 80s (Murdoch was though) – but you do know the history of Page 3. And in 2013, you still continue with a 43 year old feature in the Sun that harms young girls and boys.
You claim that Page 3 is an ‘innocuous British institution’ and that it celebrates ‘youth and freshness’ – but for me, the truth of Page 3 is absolutely clear:
Page 3 is, and always has been, about the sexualisation and commodification of young women’s bodies to make money for the Sun.
And yet the Sun said in response to Savile’s crimes: “We have to make it so that people mean more than money.”
How about applying your own suggestion to Page 3?
Please sort this out, Dominic
For the sake of school kids who are being harmed right now by Page 3. Girls are speaking out about having Page 3 held up in school corridors and their bodies rated against the pictures – without their consent.
Page 3 is not the only problem in our society – as you said at Leveson, Dominic, there are huge problems with internet pornography (which is why I also support positive causes which address that problem)…
…but Page 3 is still part of the overall problem.
Please end this, preferably without running a Page 3 ‘hall of fame’. There’s nothing to celebrate. There are just thousands of images of topless or completely naked young women – in a family newspaper.
Images like these…
The Sun’s Page 3 “Back to skool girls”
In the week commencing Monday 5th September 1988, the Sun chose to run their Page 3 ‘Back to skool girls’ feature. In the feature logo, they used childlike spelling of ‘skool’ and a child’s stick drawing of a young child on the blackboard.
Monday 5th September: The headline is ‘Cor! Karen passes her Ooh-level’. There is a topless image of Karen as a 19 year old, dressed in a school hat, holding a Collins French dictionary. There is also a picture of ‘cheeky’ Karen as a 15 year old at school, right beside the picture of her topless.
The words in the Sun article say: ‘SWOT a stunner! Curvy Karen Brennan has blossomed from a cheeky-faced fourth former into a classy 19 year old. As children return to their desks after the hols, Karen brushes up her French and thinks back to her own schooldays. The Bournemouth belle passed seven O-levels – and her Page Three Ooh-level exam.’
Tuesday 6th September: there is a photograph of model Diane as a young child (approximately 7 or 8 years old) next to a photograph of her wearing an open school shirt with a school tie that falls in between her breasts.
The words in the Sun article say: ‘Dashing Diane was an all rounder at school – good at netball, rounders and badminton…”
Wednesday 7th September: the Page 3 photo shows model Gayner in a school hat. Her school shirt is shown falling half way down her arms and back, open at the front so that her breasts show.
In the same eyeline as the image of the school shirt falling off and her breasts showing, there is a photograph of Gayner as a 13 year old school girl.
The words in the Sun article say: ‘Gayner’s a nice little learner! Pay attention boys! Today’s subject for study is gorgeous Gayner. Our 20 year old London lass loved English at school but hated games. Now Gayner is top of the form as a model…and passes her Page 3 examination with flying colours!’
Thursday 8th September: model Jenny is shown on Page 3 of the Sun in a school hat, with pigtails and ribbons. She has a school tie around her neck, falling between her breasts. She is holding a Collins dictionary. Immediately to the left of her breasts is a picture of Jenny as a 10 year old child.
The words in the Sun article refer to Jenny as ‘naughty but nice‘: ‘How’s this for old school thigh chaps! But jaunty Jenny admits she was hardly a model pupil…Naughty Jenny was given detention at her school.’
Friday 9th September: the Sun’s ‘Back to skool girl’ is Rachel. She is holding a school bag over her shoulder. She is topless and the picture suggests she is not wearing knickers.
The words of the Sun article say: ‘Curvy clever-clogs Rachel always came out tops in cookery and English at school. Now the luscious 19 year old from Northants comes out top-LESS on Page Three. Rachel’s cakes were in a class of their own, her teachers said. But she’s a tasty dish herself these days.’
Below these words, and in the direct eyeline of the topless image, the Sun print a picture of Rachel as an 11 year old child. Immediately beneath her photo, there’s a headline saying: ‘Get your tickets for our Page 3 party!’
On Saturday 10th September, to end the week of ‘Back to skool girls’, there is a Page 3 photo of Maria in a school hat, shirt collar and a school tie which falls between her breasts. The photograph is taken to suggest she is not wearing knickers.
The Sun also print a photo of Maria as a 13 year old girl.
The words in the Sun’s article say: ‘Marvellous Maria was a dab hand at art in her schooldays. But she had some of her greatest triumphs on the netball pitch. The 19 year old beauty was a high-school hotshot and finally netted the captain’s job. It was a good move. With Maria leading from the front, her side always got plenty of support – from the boys.’
You can say what you like, Dominic, about this all being just a bit of fun.
You can say that it’s harmless to dress young women as school girls and show them topless or completely naked, next to photos of them as children.
You can pretend that no-one would have viewed these Page 3 ‘back to skool’ pictures, then looked at an underage school girl as fair game for sexual harrassment or abuse.
You can carry on saying that Page 3 is all perfectly legal – like you said at Leveson.
But Page 3 definitely didn’t help me as a school girl.
And it’s not helping school children now either.
Here are a few of the reasons from the No More Page 3 petition why young people also want Page 3 to end…
“I’m 17 and I’m fed up of the snide comments, the little “lads” jokes that have inflitrated my college and made it acceptable for boys to objectify us women. I’m fed up of being told to “go to the kitchen” whenever I stick up for my sex, fed up of being told I’m not sexy because I don’t have enough “curves” by the media, and fed up of feeling I need to reach some kind of ideal look which is impossible to reach because the boys my age are spoon fed unrealistic images of digitally enhanced women every day.”
“Because it encourages the objectification of women & I’m 15 & don’t want to grow up in a world like that.”
“My 10 year old daughter asked me why some newspapers have pictures of women’s boobs in them. She wondered what it had to do with news.”
“I spent a portion of my childhood growing up in England and at 24, I can say that I haven’t experienced a culture anywhere in the western world that treats women more like sex objects as I did in London. I look back and am disgusted by how other boys my age and me were encouraged by the media to view girls.”
“Bloody fed up of men making comments about being ‘like the girls in The Sun’, just because I happen to have big boobs. Even worse, this started before I had reached the age of consent.”
Unfinished 
Reblogged this on feimineach.com.
thank you for reblogging – have a lovely day
Great post. How much longer can the editorial team claim Page 3 is innocent fun? A feature that evolved from “here’s a woman with her tits out, next to a pic of her as a child. Sexually arousing, yes?’
Thank you for reading. And the horrid truth is that there are LOADS more examples like this in the Sun’s archives just from the year I looked at, 1988 – it’s a really grim picture.
The Sun newspaper is an utter disgrace, in fact I hesitate to call it a newspaper as long as Page Three continues. It’s a rag, nothing more, and should be thrown in the bin where it belongs. It’s a hundred years today since suffragette Emily Davison died throwing herself at the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby for women’s votes. Well we got the vote but we have a long way to go to end the shameful objectification of women still prevalent in this country. It’s great to see that women are finding a voice about this. In a few more decades, when Page Three is long confined to the dustbin of history, we will ask ourselves how we let it continue for so long. It’s a shameful anachronism lingering into the 21at century. Well, get this Murdoch, The Sun’s days are numbered, mark my words…
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Anachronism is the key word for me too. Page 3 is a limping reminder of an era riddled with not only sexism, but racism and homophobia too.
Only a matter of months before this dinosaur is dead, not before time
Well, apparently he’s taken up meditation – I hope he has a moment of clarity soon about Page 3!
Was 10 years old in 73, remember all these from the 80’s well, boys used to buy this filthy rag on the way to school and leer at it during breaks – cannot tell you how many girls had to put up with constant inuendo and outright comparison – this is how we had to grow up, and like to today if you dare even suggest that you think its wrong that these kind of images shouldnt be in the newspaper you are subjected to the most appalling abuse and horrible personal remarks – it was the first newspaper to publicly place images of naked breasts for no other reason than to elicit a sexual response in our faces – it gave the thumbs up to all the tacky images that we see now – that is why this terrible weapon of page 3 which has been used to beat humiliate and subjugate women for over 40 years needs to be brought to account asap and stopped – the problem is that the Sun and all those involved with it continually trot out the ‘if you dont like it dont buy it’ and ‘its the model’s choice’ continually without once EVER giving any thought to all of us who have had to suffer because of it.
Since I was 15 so for 35 years now I’ve stood against this horrid sexist page and taken so many personal put downs such as ‘jealous old hag’ told ‘to get an effing life’ and the list goes on and on……..
It doesn’t cut it, does it Tina? The ‘don’t like it, don’t buy it’ argument. It’s still out there, in society, whether you buy it or not – Page 3 still influences people and normalises beliefs that just aren’t helpful for women or men. And people who stand up and say they don’t like Page 3 are attacked for those views. Thank you for sharing your experiences here – it’s yet another example of how the Sun’s Page 3 does lead, directly, to sexual harrassment.
I too grew up with Page 3 leering over me and the men that used it. I worked alongside a girl that had posed for News of the World … aged 13. As with Saville, they weren’t too bothered about the age of the girls they were using, even first approached Sam Fox via her school, so I think they lie about their responsibility in promoting a culture that made sexual assault of children and women fashionable.
How the hell can a paper report child abuse, abduction, and murder and seem to be so horrified at these things then have pictures of naked women pretending to be school girls,its saying its okay little girls love it, I hate this bloody country and the men who run it and let these things happen , get your hands off your cock and look at what’s really happening in this dump. But how can men get through their day without there fix of T and A poor hard done things
The hypocrisy of the Sun’s ‘moral code’ is one of the most galling things!
Reblogged this on yourchildeyes and commented:
An unbelievable walk through 80s child sexualisation.
thank you Child Eyes – I am a big fan of what you’re doing. Have a lovely day.
In all fairness,i don’t believe images like these ,ahem,”naughty schoolgirls”would be published now.There would be national outrage and rightly so.One thing that would concern,and interest me though,is the fact that the models have consented to this.Surely they,as women,think it’s ok to do this?A bikini or lacey knickers is one thing but school uniform??I guess it takes all sorts but i think it is important to remember that there are a lot of women out there who are desperate to “model”for these publications.The Sun still run a yearly competition,page three idol,and they get a huge response to it.(FHM do something similar)so what does that tell you about our young women?Good luck with your campaign.:)
I agree with you Kate – the Sun wouldn’t dare do this type of feature now (although as one person pointed out to me in response to this piece, the Sun still sneak in references to Page 3 idol contestants dreaming of being on Page 3 when they’re children).
For me, the history of Page 3 is all part of the overall picture of what Page 3 is really about – making lots of money for the Sun newspaper with a conveyer belt of topless / completely naked women, who get paid for the work, but let’s face it, they don’t make the lion’s share of the cash.
I don’t have any blame at all for the women who model – they have also been subject to the relentless media bombardment of these images and have no doubt absorbed very deeply the message that their naked body is what popular culture ‘values’ most about women. I can also remember thinking in my teens and 20s that I needed to have a body that other people admired (which is the typical age range of models on Page 3 – after that age, they tend to disappear).
Sex sells doesn’t it?(unfortuneatly).I think the way forward is better education for boys and girls in school that,for girls,develop better self esteem and encouragement that you don’t HAVE to “get ’em out for the lads”(i am cringing while i type that:))there are other career options available!!!Boys need to be taught that females are human the same as them and not a decorative ornament to be stared at and judged and “rated”.you have to wonder what some of these young ladies who go into this industry backgrounds are too.What has their mother taught them about respecting their bodies?All starts from birth!!!!!:)
Sadly there are some parents and grandparents who don’t see the problem, but you’re right Kate
I agree Kate – what an amazing vision that is, where education about self-esteem is provided in school: classes every week dedicated to self-belief and happiness! Wow. I want to live in that world.
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I was brought up in Britain and suffered the sexual remarks from men when a teenager, I hated that! All the time these men were being boob fed by the flaming Sun rag so they thought they had the right to do this! One man was suspended from work for 3 days for what the sexual
comment he made to me in passing! The men I worked for when in my 20’s examined the Sun each day, minutely. One of these girls was called Lesley Anne, she appeared in the sun around1975/7. Her father who used to run her to London for photo’ shoots, proudly showed her portfolio off to all his male colleagues and to me, I was in my early twenties and thoroughly embarrassed by it. Those men were mostly very leery and often a hand would come out to touch me up as I walked by. I moved to Germany in 1979. Since then I have lived and worked in Germany and France and have to say that it is not like that here. Those kind of pornographique pictures are not in the daily newspapers, if there are magazines available I never notice them which means they are hidden, not as in Britain where they are very obviously placed in shops, everybody can see them, kids too!
I am so glad I brought my kids up in Germany and France, the attitudes here are so different to those of Britain. Women are more respected, the drink culture is not the same, kids do not seem to go out with the deliberate intention of getting smashed and they don’t! My children who are in their twenties now and each living with a partner, don’t have a habit of getting drunk. If they go out for a couple of drinks they do not get drunk.
I have moved around so many times within Europe, I feel quite rootless and I would have liked to come back to the country of my birth, but I can’t! It is so sad, but there is too much that I hate about Britain. The sexual objectification of women, the drink culture, the awfully dangerous health ‘service’ to name but a few of the things that put me off returning. So I will stay here in France where I have many friends, never see drunks, don’t see porn in the shops and get very good and fast treatment from doctors and hospitals when I need it, (without waiting for months!)
I’m sorry to hear your experiences Angelina. Britain definitely has a long way to go in terms of gender equality and I’m not surprised that you don’t want to come back. I often feel like leaving myself!
It is so normalised here – to walk into a supermarket, petrol station or shop and see a wall of highly sexualised images of women.
Tens of thousands of people are speaking out about it now, which is great and hopefully change will come.
The Sun has a lot to answer for – they definitely led the way in the 1970s & 80s, in terms of normalising porn in the mainstream news media. This article by Stephanie Davies-Arai makes that point really clearly…
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/stephanie-davies/the-real-great-british-porn-experiment_b_3454331.html
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