Amazing, extraordinary people, we have been here, many of us for almost two and a half years talking about the need for gender equality in the media and for an end to the sexism of ‘Page 3’!!
Before that, for forty two years, other women were here, some more prominent than others, but all of them important and all of their experiences valid. From Claire Short, to every single one of the women who wrote to her with their feelings and experiences, from Object and Turn your Back on Page 3 to every incidence of harassment shared on page3stories.org. Every voice of every one of over 241,000 individuals who have signed our petition has joined the voices of over sixty five organisations and charities and those of over one hundred and fifty nine MPs. You have been relentless and brave and very, very loud and we thank you all for your incredible commitment to this campaign.
What we have achieved together so far has been extraordinary. The movement has grown and grown and we have watched with awe as so many found their inner activist and learned to speak out on this and many other issues.
Some weeks ago, a big media hoo-ha kicked off:
Certain sections of the media seemed to be very much under the impression (thanks to unknown but apparently strong sources), that ‘Page 3’ in its traditional sense had been dropped by the Sun. We got lots and lots of phone calls and we got to talk on the tele and the radio about why we thought ‘Page 3’ needed to go and then… two days later ‘Page 3’ reappeared with a winky, cheeky dig at the Guardian. The petition gained an extra 25,000 signatures and we sold lots and lots of t-shirts.
That was 22nd January 2015 - since then there have been no further ‘Page 3s’ in the Sun.
Only time will really tell whether or not ‘Page 3’ has gone for good and we do not expect an official announcement. We would assume that they may put the feature back as they see fit and, given our previous experience, maybe it will appear within a day or two of us releasing this statement, either with or without their Head of PR tweeting pictures of the topless picture to senior politicians?!
Whatever the full circumstances, what we hope is that this is the first vital step towards gender equality in the media.
There is still a long way to go before we have a world where women and men feature in our news for the same reasons, for their achievements, their abilities and the things they do. Until that wonderful day arrives we still have work to do.
In NMP3HQ and in wider regional groups, letters groups and student groups, we have worked tirelessly, all of us with all of your help, for two and a half years, pushing for this initial, much needed change and the results have gone far beyond our original remit.
It is with this extraordinary energy and unswerving optimism that we are now planning to take a break before we come back to start on the next bit. We hope that all of you will stay with us for whatever that will be. In a few days we will close down the Facebook page temporarily and go quiet while we recharge our batteries, rest and reform.
We will be back!! See you soon with bells on!!!!!!!!
