The era of topless Page 3 models in UK newspapers is ending after the Daily Star announced that it will no longer feature pictures of naked breasts.
The Star was the last daily paper “maintaining the British tabloid tradition, after The Sun stopped doing so following political pressure in 2015”, reports The Guardian.
However, “the new policy will not see scantily clad women removed entirely from the paper, but will see them merely covered up”, adds the Daily Mail.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Announcing the decision, Star editor Jon Clark said that his publication was “always looking to try new things and improve”.
“In that spirit, we’ve listened to reader feedback and are currently trialling a covered-up version of Page 3,” he continued.
The last image of a topless model was published in the paper on 1 April, “ending the 50-year tradition in Fleet Street of publishing naked breasts”, the Mail reports.
The decision was welcomed by former Labour minister Clare Short, who was “pilloried by the tabloids in the 2000s when she repeatedly proposed banning the feature”, says The Guardian. Short told the paper that her campaign had been vindicated, adding: “Good news. It only took 30 years.”
The Star’s U-turn has surprised many commentators. The Guardian says that the tabloid has “always taken an idiosyncratic approach to the newspaper business”, noting that “when The Sun cancelled its Page 3 girls, the Daily Star responded by increasing on its own commitment to the feature”.
The new policy has also been applauded by Girlguiding UK’s Advocates panel, which said the organisation was “thrilled” that the “disrespectful and embarrassing” tabloid tradition was coming to an end.
But according to the Mail, the decision has “also sparked an angry backlash from glamour models, who branded anti-Page 3 campaigners ‘no bra-wearing, man-haters’ and said the move would put women out of work”.
Glamour model and bodybuilder Jodie Marsh defended the Star, claiming she had “never felt exploited - in fact, the opposite”.
-
Free app access for The Week’s subscribers during Royal Mail strikesSpeed Read If you have a subscription to The Week magazine you can read the digital edition on your tablet or phone
-
Comic Relief to end ‘white saviour’ celebrity trips to AfricaSpeed Read Charity’s appeal videos described by critics as ‘poverty porn’ and ‘devoid of dignity’
-
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to star in ‘fly-on-the-wall’ Netflix reality showSpeed Read Former minister accuses couple of ‘exploiting’ royal links with big-bucks deal
-
Royal officials to ‘scrutinise’ Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s $150m Netflix deal
Speed Read Duke and Duchess of Sussex have inked agreement to produce documentaries and films for the streaming service
-
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pitch mystery project idea to HollywoodSpeed Read The Sussex royals have been shopping their concept around tinseltown since June
-
Meghan Markle ‘furious’ over Palace’s failure to defend her ‘against true stories’Speed Read Legal documents say she felt unprotected by the royal ‘institution’ - but insiders claim press team were powerless
-
Ronan Farrow: is Harvey Weinstein’s arch-enemy ‘too good to be true’?Speed Read Pulitzer-winning #MeToo journalist rejects New York Times columnist’s allegations of ‘shakiness’ in his work
-
How coronavirus could shape the newsSpeed Read Trust in journalists is down as newspapers face funding crisis that could reshape media landscape forever
