It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to ascertain that the ogling
of women in their knickers, over cornflakes and breakfast tea, is sexist.
But isn’t it fair to say that when it comes to feminism’s
fight against pornography, page 3 is an insignificant drop in the ocean? Harmless, even.
The fact is, we have bigger fish to fry.
Hearing the banning of page 3 being referred to as
‘progress’ just does not sit well with me. At all. The hard work of our
ancestors made it unacceptable for men to tell us women what to do, but now
we’re essentially telling each other…?
What ‘No More Page 3’ cohorts are branding ‘advancement’ is
actually a toxic, backwards notion of radical feminism, whereby said feminists aggressively
impose their views of what it means to be a woman, upon all womankind.
Surely this is preposterous – as individuals we have our own
ideas of womanhood - to me, it means being in charge of your own body and free
to do with it what you will. Boobs and
all.
Telling a nation what they can and cannot do, say or print,
fundamentally amounts to censorship, and underpins the values at the very heart
of our liberal British society. In the words of Paul and Linda McCartney (sort
of) – 'live and let live'.
In a free society, things are always going to exist which
ignite debate, controversy and disagreement. The way to deal with this is to
actively prevent others’ actions only when
they cause actual harm to people. Objecting to anything else I fear amounts to
self-righteous evangelism and tyranny of the majority.
Even more dangerous than this, is the perception of page 3
as a means to look down on and exploit women. To purport the idea that a pair
of exposed boobs encourages rape and sexual assault, is to sooth the conscious' of those who perpetrate these terrible crimes; this is not ok. Not at all.
The supporters of ‘No More Page 3’ arrogantly render their
values and life choices more important that that of the other types of women
out there; the fact remains that we are all individuals and in the same way
some women wish to surrender their femininity completely, others wish to
utilise theirs to exploit men and earn bucks – and good on them I say.
To the ‘no boobs over breakfast brigade’, why not pick up a
copy of this weeks Heat magazine and check out ‘Torso of the week’ rather than
attacking your fellow sex?
This is equality. This is feminism.
