Women and children staged a 1970s inspired flash mob outside The Sun headquarters in an attempt to get the tabloid to remove images of topless women from its Page 3.
The protesters danced and sang in front of the Wapping office block to the 1970s tune Y.M.C.A — using their own lyrics and choreography.
They sang: “Page 3 puts porn on the bottom shelf. It’s not 1970 anymore, there’s no place for this sexism today. We’re here to say we want No More Page 3!”
Saturday’s demonstration was organised by the No More Page 3 campaign, which was kicked off by writer and actress Lucy Holmes during last summer’s London Olympics.
Ms Holmes, 36, started the petition after noticing that the largest image of a woman in the top selling tabloid was that of the topless Page 3 model —even though athlete Jessica Ennis had just won Olympic gold.
She said: “What’s this saying about a woman’s place in society? It was such a big symbol to me that it’s a man’s world, a man’s paper, a man’s domain and I thought ‘hang about! Is it?’ Surely we’re beyond this?”
In less than a year the online petition has gathered more than 102,000 signatures, a social media following of over 20,000 and gained the support of politicians, celebrities, universities, and even the Girl Guides.
The campaign has also grown into a full-time operation staffed by a team of 12 volunteers. Campaign supporter and editor of localmumsonline.com, Kathy McGuiness, said: “We’re not talking about censorship or anything like that, we’re just saying the context is wrong.”
She added: “We are the first generation to have grown up with Page 3 and seen this sort of sexism become part of main stream media and we want to change that for our children.”
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, The Sun’s owner, has hinted he might end the feature which has been running since 1970.
But a spokeswoman for The Sun said: “More than 7 million people read The Sun every day and almost half of those readers are women. It is the UK’s biggest selling newspaper, which proves its formula - of brilliant journalism, entertainment, outstanding sports writing and Page 3 - works well.”
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