Voicing the Boob

Voicing the Boob

As a woman, I have been turned off mainstream media for a very long time but three recent stories have engaged my attention.  The first is the No More Page 3 Campaign launched by Lucy Ann Holmes, which has received much support across the media and now has 44K signatures, the second is the photographing of Kate Middleton on holiday and the third is the Lady Gaga’s stand against media snickering about her weight gain.  At the centre of these stories is the female form, particularly the boob which has been objectified, airbrushed, mutilated, implanted, scrutunised and salivated over ad infinitum by the media - no change there - but what’s new is that the form is speaking out - the Boob has a voice!

Since cave dwellers started drawing on walls, people have always want to make images of their bodies.  The wonderful vehicles that carry us through life are indeed often fascinating, beautiful, juicy, delicious things to behold - and are as such absolutely deserving of artistry and admiration.  They are also universal - everyone, regardless of shape or size, has got one - which also makes them pretty ordinary, everyday and unexciting.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with celebrating the beauty of the human form in images, there’s also nothing new about it.

Yes, boobs are beautiful and powerful, but are they news? No, to be honest we’ve all been suckling on them since way back when.  And yet, in our infantile tabloids, catching sneaky peeks at boobs is the source of immense titillation.  Millions of women sunbathe topless, yet because she’s a royal, Kate Middleton’s knockers are in another realm of excitement according to the handful of wealthy men who run the media. Photos of Kate’s very ordinary activity sold for very extraordinary amounts of cash and was distributed for all to see.  

What is the difference between female and male nudity?  Prince Harry was just caught with his pants down, but generally we don’t see shots of David Beckham and the England Team running around without their shorts on.  It’s illegal to display an erect phallus.  There are two reasons for this within a hetero-normative patriarchy - homophobia and misogyny.   Mainstream media directs male attention towards the female as object and away from owning his naked reflection and his relationship with other men.  It conditions women to seek out and acquiesce to male attention in order to be perceived as beautiful, desirable, bedable and wedable.

The photographed nude female is silent - ‘our girls’ as the Sun calls them do not have a voice. They are all obliging smiles and frilly knickers. Kate Middleton will continue her silent smiling royal duties, her views expressed via the collective royal PR machine which announces that the couple are ‘saddened’ by the shots. I’d love to hear the real, uncensored version of her feelings about having her privacy continuously invaded by penis extension camera lenses. The desirable and desired woman is conditioned into silence in order to preserve her position within patriarchy.  She is placed in competition with other women for male attention under the roving eye of the camera lens  - who is wearing the best designer dress on the red carpet? who lost the most weight on her latest crash course diet? who has secret cellulite on her thighs? who has just been jilted by her high profile lover for a younger woman? and of course  - who has the best boobs? The woman who speaks out and expresses angry feelings or protests against this treatment is quickly diminished and belittled - Clare Short was portrayed as an ugly crone, jealous of the Page 3 Babes when she criticised the Sun.  

With the current prevalence of Breast Cancer, it feels urgent for women to ‘get off their chest’ that which social niceties forbids them to say.  It is urgent for women to reclaim the voice of the boob - the voice of their heart centre. It is urgent for women to release the codependent role of carers which patriarchy has doled out to them, whilst still remaining connected to the immense power of their love.  It is urgent that women are seen not as walking boobs - the sucklers of humanity, feeding male desire - but honoured for the complex, whole beings that they are.  It is urgent that women heal their conditioned insecurity about their bodies and start nourishing themselves more fully. It is urgent that women reclaim the power of menopause and embrace rather than botox the aging process. It is urgent that women reclaim themselves from conditioned responses to change, save, imitate or seek attention from men and follow their hearts.  And it is urgent that we follow the example of Lady Gaga and speak out for a more healthy, balanced portrayal of women and the female form in the media.

As any nutritionist will affirm, if you feed people junk they will become accustomed to it and grow to crave it, even if it makes them sick and will have withdrawal symptoms when it is taken away.  The media has been pumping junk sex at men for way too long.  I personally do not believe that Page 3 exists because ‘that’s what men want’. Some do, maybe, others not - the responses to the petition reveal that many men feel uncomfortable with Page 3. It cannot be healthy for heterosexual men to have their arousal chain yanked vicariously by the media in order to persuade them to buy a tacky newspaper full of tittle-tattle and numerous other useless commodities.  Offering a man a quick wank over a Page 3 girl is no substitute for real intimacy and relating. But its quick, convenient and the woman isn’t real. She’s plastic, compliant and always smiles and the sex is way less complex than real life.

It really is time to turn the camera lens round to focus on the people driving the tabloids for truly they are the ones with the pants down, publicly exposing their fetishes for crotch and boob shots while many of us wince at the tackiness of it all.  For too long the camera and the media have been given a ridiculous amount of power and have reflected back to us only the most dysfunctional aspects of social behaviour - yes misogyny still exists, but many of us have actually grown out of it.

Lucy Ann Holmes is giving a voice to silenced women and men.  For me the outcome of her campaign is not as important as the voices that are being raised, the questions that are being asked, the debate that has started.  That this voice is complex and non-uniform is to be welcomed.  Some women say they don’t care, some women say they do, some men say Page 3 is a homage to the boob, others say it’s out of date and gives the wrong message to their daughters.   What’s great is that instead of silently acquiescing in what is presented to them, people are questioning and debating.  The Boob has a Voice and She is Speaking Out.