Page Three (or Page 3) is a feature found in British tabloid newspapers The Sun (and The Daily Star) consisting of a topless or even nude photograph of a female glamour model traditionally published on the newspaper's third page. Women who model regularly for the feature are known as Page Three girls. Although similar features are found in other British tabloids, and in other newspapers around the world, "Page Three" and "Page 3" are registered trademarks of News International Ltd, the parent company of The Sun. Daily Star Page 3 girls are known as Star Babes.

Contents 1 History of Page Three 2 Page Three controversies 3 Similar features internationally 3.1 European newspapers 3.1.1 Austria 3.1.2 Croatia 3.1.3 Denmark 3.1.4 Finland 3.1.5 Germany 3.1.6 Italy 3.1.7 Romania 3.2 Elsewhere 3.2.1 Australia 3.2.2 Canada 3.2.3 Chile 3.2.4 India 3.2.5 Mexico 3.2.6 New Zealand 3.2.7 South Africa 3.2.8 United States 4 Notable Page Three girls 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History of Page Three

When he relaunched the flagging Sun newspaper in tabloid format on November 17, 1969, Rupert Murdoch began publishing clothed glamour photographs on its third page. The first edition featured that month's Penthouse Pet, Ulla Lindstrom, wearing a suggestively unbuttoned shirt. Page Three photographs over the following year were often provocative, but did not feature nudity.

On November 17, 1970, editor Larry Lamb celebrated the tabloid's first anniversary by publishing a photograph of 20-year-old German model Stephanie Rahn in her "birthday suit."^[1] Profiled from the side, sitting nude in a field with one of her breasts fully visible, Rahn was photographed by Beverley Goodway, who would work as The Sun's main Page Three photographer until his retirement in 2003.

Gradually, Page Three girls would be featured in more overtly topless poses, with their nipples clearly visible. Although these photographs caused a great deal of controversy at the time, they are credited with the increase in sales that established The Sun as one of the most popular newspapers in the United Kingdom by the mid-1970s.^[2] In an effort to compete with The Sun, the competing Daily Mirror and Daily Star tabloids instituted their own Page Three–like features under different names.

Page Three photographs would often be connected to a topical sporting event. A model might pose in a short white skirt with a tennis racquet during the Wimbledon tennis championships, for example, or appear holding a football during the World Cup. From the 1970s until the mid-1990s, captions to Page Three photographs contained titillating puns and sexually suggestive double entendre about the models' lives or interests. Widely considered sexist, these captions were replaced in the late 1990s with a simple listing of models' first names, ages, and hometowns. The Sun greatly reduced its use of sports-related costumes and props at this time, and also instituted a policy of only featuring models with natural breasts. Models with augmented chests, such as Jordan and Melinda Messenger, were thereafter "banned" from appearing on Page Three.

In 1999, The Sun launched its Page Three website Page3.com. The site features the tabloid's daily Page Three girl in up to four poses, usually including the photograph published in the printed edition. It also hosts an online archive of previous Page Three photographs, a "Page 3 Gold" section featuring models from earlier eras, and various other features.

Since 2002, The Sun has run an annual contest called "Page 3 Idol." Women age 18 or older can submit their pictures, which are published on the Page Three website and voted on by the public. The winner of the contest receives a Page Three modeling contract. The 2004 winner, 18-year-old Keeley Hazell, went on to become one of the United Kingdom's top glamour models. The 2008 winner, 19-year-old university student Jenny Grant, committed suicide in the early hours of September 13, 2008.^[3] The 2009 winner is Kelly Hall.

In 2003, Julian Jones made a documentary about Page Three girls, The Curse of Page 3, which examined the negative aspects of some Page Three models' lives, including addiction to drugs and involvement in abusive relationships.^[4]

[edit] Page Three controversies

Page Three has often been controversial, particularly with conservatives and women's groups. Some critics consider it to be sexist, demeaning, and exploitative, while others regard it as softcore pornography that is inappropriate for publication in a national newspaper. In 1986, Clare Short, MP for Birmingham Ladywood, led an unsuccessful House of Commons campaign to have topless models banned from all newspapers. After her proposed bill failed, Short accused the House's predominantly conservative male MPs of not taking the issue seriously, remarking "If you mention breasts, fifty Tory MPs all giggle and fall over."^[5] Short renewed her campaign against Page Three almost two decades later, in 2004, but found herself on the receiving end of an ad hominem attack by The Sun, which superimposed her face on a Page Three model's body and accused her of being "fat and jealous."^[6]

Editors of The Sun have themselves periodically considered eliminating the feature from the newspaper. During her tenure as the newspaper's deputy editor, Rebekah Brooks (neè Wade) had argued (on economic, rather than feminist, grounds) that printing topless photographs on Page Three damaged the newspaper's circulation by offending female readers. When she became the tabloid's first woman editor on January 13, 2003, she was widely expected either to terminate Page Three or to modify it so that the models would no longer appear topless. However, she retained the feature unchanged.^[7] Wade later wrote an editorial defending the feature against its critics, calling Page Three models "intelligent, vibrant young women who appear in The Sun out of choice and because they enjoy the job."^[6]

The Sun and other British tabloids have also provoked controversy by featuring girls as young as 16 as topless models. Samantha Fox, Maria Whittaker, Debee Ashby, and many others began their topless modelling careers in The Sun at that age, while the Daily Sport was even known to count down the days until it could feature a teenage girl topless on her 16th birthday, as it did with Linsey Dawn McKenzie in 1994, among others. Although such photographs were legally permissible in the United Kingdom under the Protection of Children Act 1978, critics noted the irony of Murdoch's Sun and News of the World newspapers calling for stricter laws on the sexual abuse of minors, including the public identification of released pedophiles, while publishing topless photographs of girls whom many other jurisdictions would legally classify as underage minors.^[8] Controversy over these young models ended when the Sexual Offences Act 2003 raised the minimum age for topless modelling to 18.

[edit] Similar features internationally

[edit] European newspapers

[edit] Austria

Especially in the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung, the counterpart is mostly found on the upper part of page six or seven (sometimes even on page ten), but the feature has no specific name. In the new daily free newspaper Heute there also appears a Page-Three-Girl, on wednesday there appears a picture of a half-naked man.

[edit] Croatia

There is a similar concept on the last page of Croatian daily newspaper 24 sata.

[edit] Denmark

In 1976 the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet introduced topless models on page nine, referred to as Side 9 Pigen (the Page 9 Girl). The models are occasionally fully nude.

[edit] Finland

In Finland, the daily Iltalehti features models known as "Iltatyttö" ("Evening Girls").^[9] "Tähtityttö" ("Star Girl") is also published in the weekly 7 päivää.^[10]

[edit] Germany

In some German newspapers, such as Bild-Zeitung, the equivalent is found on the lower part of page one (below the fold), and is thus called Seite-eins-Mädchen (Page One girl).

[edit] Italy

One of the main Italian weekly newsmagazines, Panorama (Italian magazine), runs female nude models on its cover. However this tendency, strong in the Nineties, is now declining.

[edit] Romania

In Romania, the daily Libertatea features topless models at page 5, calling them 'Fata de la pagina 5'. When Averea was rebranded as tabloid Click, the owner hired many people from Libertatea; this new concurrent got a very similar look to the original, including the topless girls, who are featured on page 3.

[edit] Elsewhere

[edit] Australia

In Australia Page 3 Australia features Topless, Bikini and Lingerie models, and has an association with Photography News A Page Three Model is a topless female model whose photographs are published on the third page of a newspaper. In newspaper layout, the third page is directly behind the cover, with page two being on the left-hand side of an open spread. There are informal rules about how much a "Page 3 model" can show. The girls are sometimes totally nude, displaying their breasts or bottoms. But full frontal nudity is never featured. Similar features exist in other newspapers around the world.

[edit] Canada

Canadian tabloid newspapers in the Sun Media chain such as the Toronto Sun, Winnipeg Sun, Ottawa Sun, Calgary Sun, and Edmonton Sun feature a daily "Sunshine Girl", usually on page three (in fact, the Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton Suns have permanently moved the Sunshine Girl to the sports section; while the Sunshine Girl is a daily feature, the Sunshine Boy feature only appears sporadically). The half-page, full-colour photo is of a woman in tight, revealing clothing, lingerie, or a swimsuit. In 2000, the Toronto Sun moved the photo off page three and into the last pages of the issue, or into the sports section.

[edit] Chile

The popular Chilean newspaper "La Cuarta" features every Friday a section named "La Bomba 4", in which a voluptuous girl appears topless.

[edit] India

The Indian newspaper "Mid-Day" features pictures of models (mostly in bikinis), known as Mid-Day Mates. Also in India, lifestyle supplements of leading newspapers like Times of India and Hindustan Times cover socialite parties and fashion show parties and feature them on Page 3, so they are commonly known as Page 3 photos in India. These photos are available on social network, Desimartini in their Page 3^[11] section.

[edit] Mexico

The Mexican newspaper "Ovaciones" features a topless model on Page 3. Other newspapers as "La Prensa", "El Metro", "El Universal Grafico" also include photographs of female glamour models, sometimes topless.

[edit] New Zealand

Tabloid newspaper New Zealand Truth regularly features topless or occasionally nude women on page three of their weekly publication.

[edit] South Africa

The Afrikaans edition of the tabloid Die Son features page-three girls, although not in the English-language edition.

[edit] United States

The American supermarket tabloid Weekly World News regularly featured a bikini-clad "Page 5" girl. Yes! Weekly, a local on-line and print publication in Greensboro, North Carolina, features Page 3 talent sometimes featuring men as well as women. FOCUS weekly entertainment paper in Hickory, NC, began featuring a Page 3 girl decades ago. Founder John Tucker did this as an homage to the British tabloid, as well as in appreciation for women of all types, sizes and ages.

[edit] Notable Page Three girls

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Sun's Page Three website
• The Sun's Page Three Photo Website
• Page Three girls - the naked truth from the BBC website
• Page 3 - Model Propaganda - Details the editorial content in "News in Briefs"

• Page 3 Australia's Page 3 Australia Website