The Sun has been banned from Manchester University campus as many students are protesting against the topless models that remain on Page 3.
The ban, in place since Tuesday, means that as soon as union shops across the campus sell out of the paper they will not be re-stocking it.
The decision was made at the first student’s Union Assembly of the year, where the motion proposing the ban passed 90/10.
Tabz O’Brien Butcher, the women’s officer at Manchester University’s Student Union, tweeted the result and added, “No to sexual objectification!”
An online petition by No More Page 3 now has 119,554 signatures. It asks for the editor of The Sun, David Dinsmore, to discontinue the practice of featuring topless pictures of young women on the third page of the paper.
A separate letter from MPs has reached 142 signatures, which includes 51% of all female MPs and 21.8% of the total number.
John Leech, MP for Manchester Withington, is one of these MPs. He also signed an early day motion put forward by Caroline Lucas MP which asks for the House of Commons to cease stocking The Sun until Page 3 is removed.
Mr Leech said: “In 2013, it cannot be right that the largest female image in our most widely read newspaper is that of a semi-naked young women. That is why I support the “No More Page 3 campaign.”
“I am glad that Manchester University students have voted to stop the Sun on Campus. Page 3 is a throwback to the sexism of the 1970’s. The world has moved on, and so should the Sun.”
The Sun vote means that Manchester University joins 15 other universities across the UK, including four colleges at Oxford, which have banned the publication on sexist grounds.
Lisa Clarke, a member of the No More Page 3 national campaign team, said: “No More Page 3 are over the moon that Manchester University has voted to boycott the Sun newspaper.”
“These student voices also join the voices of the British Youth Council and GirlGuides making it clear that the young people of the UK will not tolerate media sexism and a feature which shamelessly presents women as voiceless sex objects for the titillation of men.”
“Congratulations to Manchester Uni and thank you so much for your hard work and for continuing this debate.”
Ms Clarke was part of a protest in April, where a number of feminist activists demonstrated outside a Co-Operative supermarket in Rochdale.
They urged the retailer to stop advertising in The Sun and asked them to stack the daily tabloid newspaper on a higher shelf so that children would not be able to reach it.
MM headed down to Manchester University to see what students thought about the ban.
“Honestly, we’re at university and I think we’re old enough to make our own decisions about what we read and don’t read,” said Daisy Murphy, 20.
“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like The Sun,” added the politics and french student, who was flyering outside the student union.
Aimee Harragan, 23, who’s studying for a PHD in Sociology, said: “As far as I know adult magazines have had to have modesty covers, so if Page 3’s the reason that The Sun’s been banned some sort of coverage page might have been more appropriate.”
Law student Tom Owen, 20, said: “I don’t see why they’d ban it. We’re all adults. I don’t see why there’s banning a newspaper publication just because it might offend a few people.”
A motion to rename Room 8 of the student’ union building The Christabel Pankhurst Room also passed. Christabel was the daughter of Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and studied Law at the University of Manchester in the late 1800s.
Naomi Bridges, 23, who lives in Bolton, said: “I think it’s great that Manchester university have taken this position. The message is becoming increasingly clear: students are no longer going to unquestioningly accept sexism in their daily papers.”
Ms Bridges is the ex-president of Dundee University Feminist Society. Last year the University of Dundee also voted to remove The Sun from their campus due to concerns surrounding Page 3, objectification of women and rape culture.
Picture courtesy of Phil Guest, with thanks.
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