Page 3 Girls

Something like this will never happen here in America. We are, after all, a free country...er...wait a minute...:

Britain's topless Page Three Girl turns 35

Tue Nov 15,12:25 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) - An indisputable star feature of Britain's biggest-selling newspaper The Sun, the topless phenomenon known as the "Page Three Girl," celebrates its 35th anniversary on Thursday.

The pun-laden Sun launched the idea 36 years ago on November 17, 1969, but the models appeared in wet T-shirts. Exactly a year later, the tops were peeled off and the tabloid has never looked back.

In a gamble taken by editor Larry Lamb while owner Rupert Murdoch was out of the country, Stephanie Rahn, a 20-year-old German, became the first to be pictured topless, sparking outrage from women's groups and conservatives.

But sales rocketed from 1.5 million to 2.1 million copies a day within one year, and Murdoch, the Australian-born media baron, forgot his initial fury.

Thirty-five years later, around 9,000 women have appeared topless on The Sun's page three. A group of 15 or so models appear on daily rotation, barring rare events like the deadly July 7 London bombings.

From July 8 until July 11, topless models did not appear. On July 12, a model reappeared with her hands hiding her breasts.

Today, few dare criticize a newspaper which sells some 3.25 million copies a day.

Among the critics is Labour Party MP Clare Short, a former member of Prime Minister
Tony Blair's government, who waged a parliamentary campaign in 1986 to get the page three girls to cover up.

At the time, The Sun was an ardent supporter of prime minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives and blitzed "killjoy" Short, launching a full-scale SOS "Save Our Sizzlers" campaign in response.

When The Sun -- always backing a winner -- switched its support to Blair ahead of his 1997 election victory, Short adopted a more conciliatory tone.

"They think it's normal and acceptable to carry daily pictures of half-naked women, which is still revolting, but I'm still glad they're supporting us," she said.

Sociology professor Peter Webb, from the University of Birmingham, said feminists are now fighting on a different front.

"Feminist movements prefer focusing now on questions like gender equality at work, or on pornography. This kind of nudity doesn't shock anymore," he told AFP.

A recent survey found that 67 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 thought that becoming a glamour model would be the ideal career.

Since January 2003, The Sun has been edited by a woman, Rebekah Wade, 37, who had battled against page three when a deputy editor, calling it bad for business.

However, her tune has also changed.

"Page three girls are intelligent, vibrant young women who appear in The Sun out of choice and because they enjoy the job. Unsurprisingly, millions of our readers -- men and women -- enjoy looking at them," she said.

Wade made headlines herself earlier this month for walloping her hardman actor husband after a night on the booze.

In a bid for sexual equality, The Sun launched the "Page Seven Fella", but readers never caught on to the idea and the greased-up pecs soon slid off the presses.

One of Wade's innovations is the News in Briefs speech bubble on page three, where the models give their analysis of the day's top story.

On February 3 2004, Zoe, 22, from London, as they are styled, professed: "You don't need to be an international diplomat to realize the world is better off without Saddam (Hussein). We should be proud of what has been achieved."

To celebrate the 35-year milestone, The Sun has launched a vote for the "breast ever" model featuring ten "stunnas" from down the ages.

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And, just in case you're actually interested in this "breast ever" vote, it can be found here. (The initial page doesn't have any nude content on it--that comes in a clickable slideshow.) Also available is the Page 3 website. :)