No, that headline wasn’t sarcastic. Rupert Murdoch, aka The One Who Owns Everything, took to Twitter today to ask what we all think he should do about the Page 3 situation.
It all kicked off when he tweeted some snark about Brit feminists who ‘bang on forever about page 3’, and received an avalanche of responses:
Considering *The Sun *remains one of the best-selling papers in the UK, he has a point, but surely many readers would buy the paper despite Page 3, rather than specifically for it. Google is a lot faster, and free, after all. *
Anyway, in response to the reaction his tweet got, props to Rupert for engaging and attempting to crowdsource the general consensus as to what should be done with the controversial feature. Even if his alternative suggestion sort of totally misses the point:
Objectifying women with clothes on is still objectifying women, Rupes. Just because you stick them in a T-shirt doesn’t change the fact that you’re publishing a page designed for men to drool over women.
Couldn’t it be totally changed and made to house stories that have nothing to do with women? The Metro always reserves its features on donkeys falling over/the oldest hamsters in the world for page three, so maybe taking the capitalisation out and sticking something innocuous but entertaining back in is the answer?
Here are some of the responses he got, which sort of sum up what we’re all feeling:
Unsurprisingly, Lucy Holmes from No More Page 3 campaign has something to say about Rupert Murdoch’s latest waivering. ‘What could The Sun put on Page 3? Um, well, news would be good!’ she told *The Debrief. ‘*Or perhaps, as they have represented glamour modelling as a career choice for young women for 44 years, they might to want to spend a year showcasing all the other things that women do – perhaps a female footballer one day, MP the next, a scientist, etc. Perhaps readers could even suggest some unsung heroes, women they know, to be profiled on that page also. To be honest, I think that rather than any fancy gimic to replace Page 3, I think most people would be happy with women simply being represented with respect in the media, like men are.’
Our sentiments exactly...
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.