Yesterday we reported that UK tabloid The Sun had bowed to pressure to finally drop topless women from Page 3. The decision, reported by The Times, which like The Sun is a Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, captured the world’s attention but there was no consensus about its impact.
Some argued it was a significant victory for feminism whilst others disagreed, saying the images empowered women. Some described it as a disappointing win for prudes and some argued that switching from topless to bikini-clad women was hardly an improvement worth celebrating.
Today, it seems, that commentary may have been entirely in vain because The Sun has another topless woman on page 3 and confirmed they will continue to. “We would like to apologise on behalf of the print and broadcast journalists who have spent the last two days talking and writing about us.”
The group who have campaigned for the abandonment of page 3, No More Page 3, have recently tweeted confirmation that the fight is still on.
Was it a publicity stunt engineered by The Sun? Was the decision made and then reversed? Was the decision never made at all?
At this stage it’s difficult to say. If it was a stunt, it was certainly effective in drawing the world’s attention to the newspaper but will the attention favour The Sun or those campaigning against it?
A deliberate ploy to rile detractors seems awfully exploitative. Would The Sun really stoop that low?