Delightful brunch at Giraffe in Muswell Hill, with S, V and my American friend S, who is visiting at the moment. Giraffe is fab – their inclusion of mung bean and alfalfa sprouts on the menu gets a definite thumbs up from me – and was marred only by the presence of screaming brats running around playing with balloons.
Trawling through the Sunday papers, S encountered her first lesson in fundamental linguistic and cultural differences between Brits and Yanks. She came across a picture of Jordan (a cultural lesson in itself, really), and said, “Who’s Jordan?”
Me: “She’s a glamour model.”
S: "What's a glamour model?"
Me: "A topless model – she’s a Page 3 girl."
S: "What's a Page 3 girl?" Me: "A page 3 girl is a glamour model who poses topless on Page 3 of The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper."
S (wide-eyed and incredulous): "What - you mean they publish photographs of topless models? Every day? On page 3?"
Me: "Erm... yes."
S: "But WHY??"
Bloody good question. Here we are, committed feminists, and we just take for granted that a prominent feature of the British press is its daily dosage of “tits for all”. It is just blatant objectification. I don’t have a problem with showing nudity, and I for one always sunbathe topless in Europe, but to publish these images on Page 3 of the most widely read daily newspaper in this country is simultaneously bizarre, ridiculous and exploitative – of all women, actually. I wonder how many other daily examples there are of the objectification of women that we have overlooked, as they are so deeply engrained in British culture?
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