“Page 3 has no place on our campus”: Fundraising calendars are not sexist like tabloid page 3

Warwick Anti-Sexism Society is lobbying the university to remove The Sun from Costcutter until it stops printing images of topless women. The response of Peter Dunn, Warwick’s Director of Communications, was to point out that the university’s rowing club, of which I am president, sells naked calendars, which, according to him, is basically the same thing.

Mr Dunn’s reaction reveals the prejudices that many people still hold about the difference between men and women, and ownership of their bodies. It also exposes the continuing prevalence and accepted normality of inequality within society.

The no more page 3 campaign for the University of Warwick

The men of Warwick Rowing have indeed been producing a fundraising calendar for the past five years. It has attracted very little negative publicity and is now funding the foundation of a charity called Sport Allies to educate young people against homophobia, particularly in sport. Last year the women of the club decided to sell their own calendar, partly to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support.

The woman’s calender attracted plenty of criticism, most notably from Layla Haidrani who wrote in the Huffington Post that the calendar was ‘sexist’ and branded the women as ‘victims’ – perhaps forgetting that the women in the calendar all volunteered to be in it and produced it themselves, and that the men had been selling images of their bodies for years with no complaints.

Fundraising Calenders do not depict men and women any differently, and do not perpetuate sexist stereotypes in the way that Page 3 does.

This year the criticism continues. No, Peter, it’s not the same as The Sun printing pictures of topless women. It’s all about context.

The Sun‘s Page 3, and its equivalent in other tabloids, is surrounded by images of men doing important things like running the country, invariably while wearing clothes. This teaches people that women are to be valued only by their looks while men actually have the potential to achieve things. Breasts are just about my favourite thing in the world but newspapers are for news, not pictures of naked women.

No, Peter, it’s not the same as The Sun printing pictures of topless women. It’s all about context.

Unlike newspapers, student fundraising calendars – naked or otherwise – are not intended to form people’s opinions and have no political objective or allegiance. Tabloid newspapers exploit women’s bodies for the financial benefit of the newspapers’ owners, but fundraising calendars like ours are a light-hearted way for both men and women to benefit worthy causes. They do not depict men and women any differently, and do not perpetuate sexist stereotypes in the way that Page 3 does.

Men are able to take off their clothes and still be taken seriously.

While women are too often depicted in the media as sex objects, men are able to take their clothes off while continuing to be taken seriously, as Ben Cohen and our own male rowers demonstrate. Until women also have the ability to do both, Page 3 has no place on our campus. The above opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent the views of the members of the rowing club.

[divider]

Peter Dunn’s original response:

“Thank you for your email which has been passed to me to respond. It is clear that the signatories to your email share a particular view about the depiction of what you describe as “semi-naked” women which, in your view, “limits women’s potential to base their worth on how sexually attractive she is perceived to be by society”. However it is also clear to us that that view of such depictions is by no means one that is universally shared by Warwick students.

We would note in particular the considerable international publicity given to the naked calendars produced by both the female and male SU rowing teams in the last year, and also the less recent decision of a female SU student hockey team to pose for a two page spread in Nuts magazine.

You will of course be aware that the Students’ Union itself is promoting the female rowing team’s calendars on its web site -and that the SU are promoting the calendar on that page using language which seems very much at odds with the views expressed in your email eg:

“Our hot women’s squad have stripped off their onesies and are showcasing their naked selves in a calendar just for you.”

Student and staff opinion on these matters is clearly very divided. Rather than us taking a particular side, and unilaterally imposing a ban on such newspapers, the most effective and accurate expression of current and future student and staff opinion on these matters would be for those same staff and students to individually choose whether or not to buy such papers. You should be aware that currently our Costcutter store sells around 30 copies of The Sun each day and that it is the highest selling newspaper in the shop.

Peter”

[divider]

 Images courtesy of WarwickRowers and Facebook/ No More Page3 – University of Warwick