Everything about Page Three Girl totally explained
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.
Models in other newspapers
Other European newspapers
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's by a company which publishes
top-shelf pornography titles.
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).
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.
Denmark
In
1976 the
Danish newspaper
Ekstra Bladet introduced topless models on page nine, referred to as
Side 9 Pigen (the Page 9 Girl).
Croatia
There is a similar concept on the last page of
Croatian daily newspaper
24 sata.
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.
Finland
In
Finland, the daily
Iltalehti features models known as "Iltatytöt" ("Evening Girls"). "Tähtityttö" ("Star Girl") is also published in the weekly
7 päivää.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chile
The popular
Chilean newspaper "La Cuarta" features every Friday a section named "La Bomba 4", in which a voluptuous girl appears topless.
South Africa
The
Afrikaans edition of the tabloid
Die Son features page-three girls, but not the English-language edition.
Well-known Page Three girls
Further Information
Get more info on 'Page Three Girl'.
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