No More Page 3!

No More Page 3!

The Sun is famous for all kinds of things, few of them good. It isn’t known for it’s high brow reporting, nor it’s dedication to providing the truth. Nope, The Sun is known for being owned by Rupert Murdoch, the man responsible for The News of the World (and we all know how off the reporting rails they went), having more pictures than a comic-book, salacious gossip and… Page 3 – topless models.

It doesn’t pretend to be in the leagues of the likes of The Guardian or The Independent, it’s tagline being “The Best for News, Sport, Showbiz, Celebrities” – not exactly a representative for international affairs, more the working man’s rag. But that’s ok. We need something for everyone. It keeps the press versatile and interesting. But there is “not exactly high brow” and then there’s “morally bankrupt”. The Sun comes under the latter.

There has been a huge debate in recent months regarding page 3 girls, mainly due to Lucy-Anne Holmes starting a petition on change.org last August. As of right now, it has amassed 94,396 signatures. She began the petition after tiring of the patronising way page 3 photos misrepresent women.

You know the ones; topless, naked except for skimpy knickers and, if they’re luck, a pair of cowboy boots or stilleto heels.

So… this is meant to be “tasteful”??

Now I personally don’t want to see this sight on the inside of my paper. When I open The Sun, I want – well, I say want, I mean expect – to read articles with fewer words than a receipt and bigger pictures than a billboard, telling a peculiar mixture of half truths and “public interest” stories. What I don’t want to see is an unnaturally large pair of tits. I have nothing against the female form; lets face it, if you’re female, you have the same equipment as these women; but the only good thing I can say about page 3 pictures is thank god they’re not man-boobs. Seriously, that’s the only small mercy I can afford such objectification.

Newspapers are failing, readerships plummeting since the rise of the internet and online magazines and forums. They are having to use different tactics to pull in as many readers as possible, from cheaper subscriptions to online versions of their paper equivalent. But selling newspapers using poorly disguised porn is a step too far. It’s cheap. It’s disgusting. It’s meant to be a family newspaper.

1950s Bullshit

Would you hand a 5 year old a copy of Playboy or Zoo? Of course not! Would you hand them a copy of The Sun? You should be able to, but if you do I’d say you were crazy. Conditioning readers to view women as sex objects is so 1950s. Have they not heard that women have the right to be seen as people, not just porta-boobs or talking uterus’s?

I realise that models make a living doing this kind of shoot, but if you have the figure to be accepted for a topless feature, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to find someone willing to take pictures of you with your clothes on. Neither am I oblivious to the fact that some women feel liberated by how comfortable they feel in their own skin – that’s great, I absolutely accept, even admire this quality – but please, feel liberated and sexy somewhere more appropriate than a newspaper that kids can see.

Call me a prude, but there are countless other places you can get your rocks off if that’s what you really want. As Avenue Q say, “The Internet is for Porn“. I wouldn’t advise using it for that exclusively, but the resources are there. Let us keep the dignity in reporting. Or at least, let’s try grasp some of it back. It’s clear to see that we’re losing some of  eminence and ethics in journalism, as it slides through our fingers as it vanishes into a web of fiber optics and trolls.

If we can bring back the dignity to one daily newspaper then it would be the first step towards earning back some of the respect reporters have lost in recent years.

NO MORE PAGE 3!!

 

SSDD

Movie Review: “50/50”

Comedy. Drama. Emotional. Quirky Indie. Dark. Humor. Drama Based on Real Life.

These are the tags Netflix delivered me with for its latest offering in “Top 10 for You”. All relating to one movie; “50/50”.

Really!?!? If that were not simultaneously ambiguous and oddly sinister enough for you, the cover shot appeared to be of Joseph Gordon-Levitt shaving his head with Seth Rogen watching in the background. Oooookay.

Well, I though, my cousin said it was good and it’s got to be better background noise for studying than Sorority Row, right?

And so, with uneasy trepidation, my finger plunged the left mouse clicker down on that big black triangle.

As it transpires, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made recently.

As much trouble as many people seem to have with Netflix and their often confusing and illogical categorisation of movies that seem to have absolutely no relation to one another, for one, it seemed they were not having an enthusiastic case of label-vomit; ’50/50′ encompassed every one of those claims.’50/50′ tells the story of an otherwise healthy young man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is diagnosed with a rare form of spine cancer – and is slapped with a 50% chance of survival. Witness how his perceptions of life change when he has no idea how long his will last.

As a general rule I will gladly watch anything and everything if I am to be gifted with the acting of JGL, but the addition of Seth Rogen was for me, an immediate warning flag – would an actor more cohesive with American slapstick comedy really be a fitting co-star for a man who has to only so much as look at something for it to become bittersweet or science fiction?

The definitive answer, I can now confirm is yes! As was inevitable when faced with those thick-lashed baby blues there is an emotional pull towards JGL’s character that means he portrays the change that overcomes him more through little actions and subtle changes in habit than from long winded, emphatic speeches. He is just a regular guy to whom a thing has happened and now he must learn to adapt to that.

We see this overly cautious, wouldn’t hurt a fly, tea-totaller through the break-down of a relationship, the build of a better one, how to rely on others when they need you rather than when you need them, and what you might really feel if your life was suddenly slapped with such imbalance and uncertainty.

Seth Rogen adds a level of entertainment as the extrovert contrast laddish best friend who shows us how learning to deal with a possibly dying friend is in itself a process of adaptation. He becomes fiercely protective of JGL and seems determined to ensure he lives every moment of his life to its fullest, possibly with underlying sentiments of “just in case”.

As well as exerting an inappropriate amount of effort towards getting laid using “he has cancer” as a pick-up line, he delivers some stunning one liners, my favourite of which has to be “I have night blindness“. This was an excuse for a prescription for medical marijuana. Excellent!

Prepare to have your heart strings tugged and to laugh and cry as they yank you every which way. It’s therapy, it’s mental break-down, it’s that fear you have of losing your mind – but it also helps you find it again.

This will change your mentality. Just as the characters complete their journey to “getting” why people change, you will too.

Highly recommend!!      9.5/10

SSDD