Last Monday, we joined the ‘No More Page 3’ campaign in support of GirlGuiding UK. The explorers came to their decision after a debate during our weekly meeting where the topic was properly proposed, challenged and defended. The group voted overwhelming to get rid of Page 3 as it is inappropriate and outdated.
Jan was one of the explorers who spoke in favour of supporting the campaign
One of our Explorers, Jan, said “Page 3 of the Sun is a major contributor to misconceptions of women in our society. The fact that a major UK newspaper publishes an embarrassing and distracting image every day is proof that we need change urgently” Jan feels that the images in the paper give an unrealistic view of women.
Nick Conduit, one of the unit’s leaders, said “Scouting isn’t just about camping and knots, it’s about training young people to take a responsible place in society. We like to challenge the Scouts with current issues and when we saw GirlGuiding UK’s campaigning on Twitter we thought this would be a challenging topic for the Explorer Scouts to debate. It was fantastic to hear them debate a complex issue in such a mature way and I’m really proud that they came to the conclusion they did – it’s clear that things like Page 3 really affect how both girls and boys think about women.”
Stephen Way, spokesperson for Scouting in North London, said “Our aim is to help young people reach informed decisions about the issues they face in life – dealing with relationships and having respect for each other is an important part of this.”
Find out more by following the campaign on Twitter: @NoMorePage3