Page Three girl

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A Page Three girl is a topless female model whose photographs are published on the third page of The Sun 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. Although the women are sometimes nude, full frontal nudity is never featured. Similar features exist in other newspapers around the world.

The Page Three girl was introduced in 1969 when Rupert Murdoch relaunched The Sun. The Page Three girl was topless for the first time on November 17, 1970, when editor Larry Lamb unveiled the change while Murdoch was out of the country. The first topless model was Stephanie Rahn. The change was credited for a subsequent increase in sales, which rose 40% to 2.1 million copies within a year.

Beverley Goodway was for many years the Page Three photographer. Some consider Page Three to be sexist, demeaning and exploitative. Clare Short, MP for Birmingham Ladywood, led a failed campaign against Page Three girls in 1986. Others, including many Page Three girls, dismiss it as harmless.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, as a response to such criticism, The Sun unveiled a regular 'Page Seven Fellas' feature, featuring scantily clad hunky men. This feature was short lived however.

The writing that accompanies the Page Three girl picture usually explains the model's name, age, where she comes from, and some necessarily brief details of her personality. The models are usually shorter than fashion models, typically under 1.67m (5 ft 6 in) tall and are also usually aged around 18-24.

The Sun eventually instituted a policy where models who obtain breast implants, such as Jordan, are "retired" from Page Three.

Recently, articles accompanying the photos (headed "News in Briefs" by The Sun) attempt to tie in with the news, perhaps for humorous effect, with the models notionally being given a chance to give a comment (which falls into place with the paper's editorial line) on topical items.

Contents

[edit] Models in other newspapers

[edit] Other European newspapers

[edit] United Kingdom

In the 1970s The Daily Mirror also had topless models, but these were dropped as sexist in the 1980s. The Daily Star has its own topless models, known as Starbirds. Topless models in tabloids were taken to their logical conclusion by the Sunday Sport, which later added a daily edition and strayed into pornography, owned as it is by a company which publishes top-shelf pornography titles.

[edit] Germany

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

[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), hence it has no specific name. In the new daily free newspaper Heute there often also appears a Page-Three-Girl.

[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 girls are occasionly fully nude on page nine.

[edit] Croatia

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

[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 a tabloid, 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] Finland

In Finland, the daily Iltalehti features models known as "Iltatytöt" ("Evening Girls").[1] "Tähtityttö" ("Star Girl") is also published in the weekly 7 päivää.[2]

[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 has 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 full-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] Australia

The Australian niche sports and racing newspaper Sports Truth also runs a Page Three girl, but is often lifted from other publications, and the model given a new name and biography.

The Australian men's magazine Ralph features a bikini-clad "Page 23 Girl".

Australian tabloid newspapers such as The Sun & The Daily Mirror used to run these, but they stopped in the late 1980s for reasons of political correctness.

[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 THE SUN, as well as in appreciation for women of all types, sizes and ages.

[edit] Mexico

The Mexican newspaper "Ovaciones" features every day at page 3 a topless voluptuous girl photo

Other newspapers as "La Prensa", "El Metro", "El Universal Grafico" also include photos of girls , sometimes topless sometimes not.

[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] South Africa

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

[edit] Well-known Page Three girls

See also: Category:Page Three girls

[edit] References

  1. ^ Iltatyttö: Liina | Iltatyttö | Iltalehti.fi
  2. ^ Tähtityttö - 7 päivää
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s http://www.sunecards.co.uk/top100girls/page5.html
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s http://www.sunecards.co.uk/top100girls/page2.html
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s http://www.sunecards.co.uk/top100girls/page3.html
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t http://www.sunecards.co.uk/top100girls/page1.html
  7. ^ http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/showthread.php?t=17882
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t http://www.sunecards.co.uk/top100girls/page4.html
  9. ^ http://www.page3.com/girl/jak_jacks/index.shtml
  10. ^ http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/showthread.php?t=15145
  11. ^ http://www.page3.com/girl/charlotte_marshall/index.shtml
  12. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article806998.ece
  13. ^ http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/showthread.php?t=17766
  14. ^ http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2000/1/25/195453.html

[edit] External links