No More Page 3


No More Page 3 was a campaign to convince the owners and editors of The Sun to voluntarily cease its Page 3 feature, which it had published since 1970. Started by Lucy-Anne Holmes in August 2012, the campaign claimed that publishing images of topless glamour models in nationally circulated newspapers was an outdated, sexist, and inappropriate tradition that editors should discontinue. The campaign collected over 240,000 signatures on an online petition and gained support from over 140 MPs, a number of trade unions, over 30 universities, and many charities and other groups.
The Sun eventually ceased publishing regular topless Page 3 images in its Irish edition in August 2013 and in its UK edition in January 2015, but continued posting topless pictures in a dedicated Page 3 section of its website until 2017, and published annual Page 3 calendars until 2018. Page 3 models still occasionally appear, non-topless, in light-hearted items in the paper. In April 2019, The Daily Star also announced it would stop publishing images of topless glamour models. However, these decisions were not necessarily a direct result of the campaign alone, or indeed at all. The Daily Star continues to run Page 3 pictures of scantily-clad but not fully topless models.

History

The campaign began in August 2012 when Lucy-Anne Holmes observed that despite the achievements of Britain's female athletes in the London Olympics, the most prominent image of a woman in The Sun was its Page 3 model. She then launched an online petition asking the tabloid's then editor Dominic Mohan to remove images of topless women from Page 3. The petition accrued 84,000 signatures by March 2013 and by January 2015 the petition had reached 215,000 signatories. In February 2013, the campaign ran a Tweet Murdoch Day, asking supporters to flood The Suns proprietor Rupert Murdoch with messages. The campaign also tried to persuade Lego to stop running promotions in The Sun. Lego confirmed in March 2013 that their tie-in would end but denied that the move was due to the campaign.
In August 2013, the editor of the Irish edition of the paper, Paul Clarkson, replaced the photograph of a topless model on Page 3 with a picture of a woman in swimwear. His decision was welcomed by Holmes. Dinsmore said in August 2013 that the Page 3 girl feature would remain in the UK despite campaigners calling for the Irish change to be copied there.
Following a 2013 Huffington Post article, discussing readers' potential attitudes towards models and Page 3's association with rape culture, which revealed comments made on the Daily Stars Page 3 website, the Daily Star removed all comments within a few days and permanently disabled the feature to comment on the page 3 section.
A joint campaign between No More Page 3 and Child Eyes called for the redesigning of supermarket newspaper displays to avoid children being exposed to sexual content on newspaper front pages. Such action had also been a proposal of the Government's Bailey Review in 2011. In November 2014, UK supermarkets Tesco and Waitrose announced that they would be implementing such a redesign. By January 2015, 30 universities had opted to boycott The Sun newspaper until the Page 3 topless feature was dropped.
The Sun was reported in mid-January 2015 to have dropped the feature from the printed edition of the paper but it returned after less than a week on 22 January. Lucy-Anne Holmes was reported as having tweeted: "So it seems the fight might be back on." However, the revival turned out to be a one-off and, with the exception of that one day, Page 3 in its previous form has continued to be absent from The Sun.

Supporters

The campaign received support from Green MP Caroline Lucas along with cross party support from over 140 other MPs. It also had the support of many groups and organizations including the National Assembly for Wales, Girlguiding UK, National Union of Teachers, National Association of Head Teachers, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, UNISON, the British Youth Council, The Girls' Brigade, Rape Crisis, Women's Aid, End Violence Against Women Coalition, The Everyday Sexism Project, White Ribbon Campaign, Zero Tolerance, Aurora New Dawn, Shape Your Culture, The Women's Room, The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, UK Feminista, Local Mums Online, Turn your back on Page 3, Object, Child Eyes, Certain Curtain Theatre Company & Arts Against Abuse, BODY Charity, Say No To Child Abuse, Great Men Value Women, Respect UK, The Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, Victim No More, Population Matters, the Women's Sports Trust, AVA and LIFT.

Criticism

The feminist columnist Rowan Pelling said in April 2013 she was less concerned with the depiction of women on Page 3 than she was with that in lads mags and on the Internet. The then official photographer for Page 3, Alison Webster, also criticised the campaign, saying "people should be able to make their own choices" and "If you have a problem with your body, if as a child you grew up with certain body issues, then I can see how Page Three could affect you. But if you are comfortable with yourself then it will have no effect on you at all".
When asked whether he would be supporting the campaign, Prime Minister David Cameron replied, "I think on this one I think it is probably better to leave it to the consumer."