Manchester’s ‘hidden’ unsung heroines will be unearthed and celebrated on a city centre trail organised by campaign group No More Page 3 (NMP3) next week.
The group campaigns for the removal of the topless women featured in The Sun and through this event hopes to reveal the extraordinary ways Manchester women can contribute to society.
Urban explorers will be equipped with maps at the start of the Manchester’s Hidden Women Trail in St Ann’s Square on July 12 at 12pm and directed through the Northern Quarter to learn about the city’s successful women.
NMP3 spokesperson Anne Louise Kershaw told MM that the aim of the weekend was to highlight the achievements of Manchester women.
She said: “We want to live in a society where the most popular and widely-read newspaper is one that respects women.
“We hope that our hidden women trail will help us to remember the remarkable women who lived and do live in this city.
“The media only ever talks about women when it regards their clothes or who they’re getting married to, we want to change that and show how women contribute to society socially and scientifically.”
The trail has the backing of various shops and venues including crafty haven Fred Aldous, vintage shop Thunder Egg, Blue Pig, North Tea Power, Nexus Art Cafe and Lush.
Thunder Egg owner Amanda Fisher explained that she backed the campaign wholeheartedly.
She said: “We had a Facebook page looking at inspirational women in Manchester and so when we saw this we thought ‘yes’!
“Also page 3 is rubbish and degrading to women.”
The trail will lead to the final stop – The Penthouse on Hilton Street. Here NMP3 team members will meet over drinks to chat about the women they learned about, invite walkers to share stories about their own unknown heroines and also take part in a collaborative hidden women art installation.
The free walk is a part of Hazard 2014 Micro-Festival of Interventions which aims to ‘blur the lines between art and activism’.
For more information about the festival click here.
Image courtesy of Charlie Free via YouTube, with thanks
