Let The Sun go down

Anyone with an ounce of decency is rightfully disgusted by the latest ‘splash’ on the cover of The Sun, shamelessly presenting a victim of domestic homicide as a piece of meat to be ogled at by the paper’s unashamed readership. What kind of country do we live in where we devour the dramatized last moments of a woman’s life as though she were an actress on a soap and not a real life victim of a murder perpetrated by the person she was most intimate with? One Billion of us rose yesterday and she met her end, on Valentine’s Day where it seems many of us lost our sense of moral right and thought it ok to ‘joke’ about it being a bit of a bad surprise. What a sudden and vital moment to be reminded of why we were rising in the first place? Caitlin Moran (nnnngghh) also reminded of us of we have taken feminism to the next level. She was one of the ‘jokers’ and even her apology seemed to be a bit of a gag. She felt sympathy for the perpetrator and that’s why she malfunctioned. Where’s the sympathy for Reeva Steenkamp, Caitlin? And her family?

The tabloid press is truly vile. The Mirror refers to previous incidents between the couple as incidents of a ‘domestic nature’ which is 1970s speak for domestic violence. All the papers are saying the same. It seems he may be a prolific perpetrator of violence against women but rather than take a stand against this atrocity, they sensationalise it and degrade the actual course of events. Journalists might argue that they were not able to take down the exact nature of the incident and instead are relying on press releases from the police or courts; if this is the case then we have to put pressure on the these authorities too. But what if the police say some of what is printed in the papers is not true? The Mirror also writes South African Plod are very surprised by the burglar speculation, telling reporters “These allegations are not from us”. There is a very sinister picture emerging and not the Slasher movie The Sun are trying to peddle.

I signed the Page Three petition and I’m no longer afraid to admit it. I didn’t read the blurb, I reacted to a little piece of patriarchy and I put my name to it. I didn’t think too much about it. I’ve always hated page 3, for its representation of women yes but also because it is in The Sun and I hate all of the content and the people who read it. That’s why I signed the Page Three petition because I hoped that the boobs were, so to speak, holding up the readership. I don’t have an issue with boobs, I want more boobs everywhere. In babies mouths initially, we’ve still got a lot of work to do, but in the world and with about the same frequency that men take their shirts off.

If Murdoch is listening to you, you’re doing something wrong.

If we ‘re going to make our world safe, we’ve got to get rid of these papers. We’ve got to make a stand against this vile arm of patriarchy and cut it off dead the way we did with the News of the World. Milly Dowler was dead. They didn’t care. They just wanted to make money off the misery they pump out there into our communities. Reeva was also tragically and brutally murdered and they’re doing the same again. It can’t be one rule for the NOTW and another for this other parasite, The Sun. We have to target the advertisers, even if they once said The Sun was safe from a similar fate. Why is it safe? Because it is “a corporate matter”? What does that mean? Associating yourself with a toxic brand has consequences, you can’t separate the two.

The Sun is not a family paper. It is a racist, sexist piece of patriarchal trash and it harms people. It exists to breed hate and hostility between people, it is the fan that keeps the shit flying, the spoon that stirs the shit once the fan’s clogged. It is depraved. And dangerous. And the world would be infinitely better without it.

Here are some examples of tweets you could be sending (just copy/paste). Compose your own as RT’ing is not as effective.

Hi @sainsburys Pls withdraw support for The Sun unless you are happy with them sexually objectifying a murder victim #BoycottTheSun

Oh @O2 will you be standing by The Sun despite their horrendous objectification of #ReevaSteenkamp on today’s front cover? #BoycottTheSun 

Hey @MorrisonsOffers I don’t believe you could be happy advertising with TheSun in light of their front cover today. Are you? #BoycottTheSun 

Hi @asda Do you think it’s for Th Sun to objectify murder victim #ReevaSteenkamp? If you don’t, please withdraw advertising #BoycottTheSun 

Hi @UKTesco Pls reconsider ads with The Sun unless you are ok with sexual objectification of murdered women #BoycottTheSun

We did it once, we can do it again.