Monday 18 August 2014

Can 200,000 signatures be ignored?

Well - crack out the champaign and raise a glass to No More Page Three. As of today, the campaign that I have been a supporter of for over a year, has reached 200,000 signatures. This is a huge achievement for NMP3 and for British feminism. Despite being nowhere near the Sun's estimated audience, this is a huge amount of people standing up against the paper's most well-known segment.

When I promoted the campaign earlier this week, a Twitter user who is campaigning against the illegalisation of pornography sent me a link to an article about how NMP3, although gaining support, is expanding very slowly and it isn't worth our time. I don't think this is true, after all, every little helps.

In an age where videos of cats get millions of views overnight, it is of course (in theory) very easy to get such a campaign up and moving quickly. But we forget that this is a feminist campaign against the biggest tabloid newspaper in the country. News Corp have been able to get away with brushing away allegations made against them for years. Look at the amount of time it took for the News Of The World scandal to unfold and look how it panned out. At this very moment, Rebekah Brooks is a free woman regardless of her dubious "innocence". Justice does not concern Murdoch or his media empire, they continue to be the biggest in Britain regardless of the Leveson Enquiry and they continue to carry on giving the public news via unethical and corrupt methods. Feminism isn't an easy issue to bring forward to such a corporation either. The media is dominated by male figures and we still live in an age where dominant female figures' efforts are still undermined by how they look. The unruly woman is a huge part of our media and culture. Look at female journalists and broadcasters. Mary Beard, although an accomplished historian and presenter receives huge amounts of hate because of the way she looks. Laurie Penny is demonised  for reclaiming words such as "queer" and "slut" as well as for supporting sex workers rights and standing up against patriarchy through left-wing methods. Charlotte Smith was axed from Countryfile for being "too old" despite being 45 at the time. No matter how loud feminists shout, these issues remain unaddressed and we are just told to deal with it.

Bearing this in mind, NMP3 has been a huge success. A large number of universities around the country that have now boycotted the Sun from their campus after they staged votes on the matter. Although, in some people's opinion, the NMP3 campaign lacks backing, former page 3 models as well as leading feminist figures have shown their support for it and it is now a large voice in the feminist movement. I think the campaign can't be ignored because it has been acknowledged by the Sun newspaper. There is no doubt that the Sun's "Check 'em Tuesday" segment has been influenced by the fall in support for page 3. 200,000 supporters is a huge amount and will continue to grow and become more and more influential. If you haven't yet signed the campaign, I urge you to as it is free and a very good cause.

Sign the petition here: http://chn.ge/1sQ5PjU
Follow me on Twitter: http://bit.ly/1ySxHlH

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