CoppaFeel!’s controversial partnership with Page 3

Last Tuesday tabloid newspaper The Sun launched ‘Check ’Em Tuesday’ – in partnership with CoppaFeel! – a unique and very successful breast cancer awareness charity. Over the next six months, The Sun will lend the charity £1.5 million of free coverage, by encouraging their six million readers to check their breasts every Tuesday in a bid for early detection.

CoppaFeel! was founded in 2009 by Kristin Hallenga, known as Kris, who tragically didn’t experience the benefit of early detection herself. At 23, she discovered a lump on her breast and went straight to the doctor, only to be told that at her age, it was highly likely to be hormonal and that she was free to go off travelling with her friends. Which she did. Unfortunately, on her return six months later the lump still remained, so her mother marched her straight back to the doctor again … only to discover after a further two months of frustrating consultations and tests that Kris not only had advanced breast cancer, but that it had spread to her spine. Five years later Kris has undergone countless treatments, but is still not and may never be cancer free, having received a secondary breast cancer diagnosis.

Being a spirited young woman, Kris teamed up with her twin sister and other likeminded friends, sufferers and survivors, and put her appalling experience to good use, by spreading the word to women in the 18-30s age group about the importance of early breast cancer detection. Not only has she raised many thousands of pounds through her CoppaFeel! website, but she has also raised awareness via a selection of ingenious stunts, such as creating a flashmob in St Christopher’s Place, London during breast cancer awareness month, highlighting the lesser known male breast cancer awareness cause and ‘Boob Hijacking’ everything from the Lorraine show to the Angel of the North. All this CoppaFeel! has achieved with a warm, cheeky and bold sense of humour – which is absolutely spot on for promoting their cause specifically towards a younger generation of women.

Enter The Sun. Not exactly known as the UK’s most progressive or feminist newspaper, The Sun is famous for featuring large pictures of topless women on Page 3 every day, which has somehow transformed into a soft porn standard suggesting it’s supposedly ‘acceptable’ to sexualise women for the specific titillation of men, and display images that children of any age can easily access, just by browsing the newspaper section at the local supermarket. The Sun has of late come under fire by the immensely successful No More Page 3 campaign, which has created a huge storm of negative publicity about the paper’s outdated sexism and blatant objectification of women.

It doesn’t take a psychology degree to determine that for The Sun to team up with a campaign that is working towards the better health of the nation can only be a step in the right direction in redeeming their floundering public image. Yet is it the right thing to do? Yes, it can certainly be argued that any publicity is good publicity, but this is undeniably sending out very mixed messages to young women, who really shouldn’t in this day and age still be subjected to the nudge-nudge wink-wink sexual objectification of the 1970s.

When asked on Lorraine how she felt about partnering with the tabloid, Pride of Britain winner Kris Hallenga quite understandably responded by asking why wouldn’t she seize the opportunity, citing The Sun’s 6 million readership and declaring that half of the paper’s readers are women. The publicity will undoubtedly save lives and, said Kris, the debate on whether Page 3 should continue to run is a question for another day. This is a perfectly fair – and laudable – reaction to have, but the debate runs considerably deeper than that.

Numerous medical studies have proven clear links between sexual objectification of women in the media with discrimination and violence from men, which in many cases can also result in lives being lost, just as they are lost from breast cancer. For example, a joint report published by Eaves, End Violence Against Women Coalition, Equality Now and Object evaluating eleven British newspapers over a two-week period in September 2012, contains the following summary: ‘Objectification and sexualisation impacts the ways boys and men are conditioned to view and treat women and girls … and that after being exposed to images that sexually objectify women, men are significantly more accepting of sexual harassment, interpersonal violence, rape myths, and sex role stereotypes.’ The report also cites the American Psychological Association (APA)’s findings that, ‘exposure to sexualised depictions of women may lead to global thoughts that women are seductive and frivolous sex objects … and foster an overall climate that does not value girls’ and women’s voices or contributions to society.’

Clearly the very existence of Page 3 and similar tabloids riles many with their degradation of women (No More Page 3 currently boasts a Twitter following of nearly 26,000), resulting in an abnormal perception of women’s bodies by both males and females, and can lead to much darker issues. Criticism has been levelled at the partnership of CoppaFeel! and The Sun by people incensed by the eroticisation of breast cancer – is it really socially acceptable to publicise a charity (no matter how worthy it is) by featuring a triple page spread of attractive, half-naked young women essentially fondling their boobs?

So what of No More Page 3’s reaction to another deserving campaign making such waves in partnership with their target? While congratulating the models and CoppaFeel! on their new association with the powerful platform, they stated, ‘We can’t help but feel that it’s a real shame The Sun has decided to use these sexualised images of young women to highlight breast cancer. They will say that they want to use the power of Page 3 as a force for good – we say that a society in which sexualised images of young women are seen as that powerful has to change.’

Approximately 90% of women with breast cancer will survive beyond five years if the cancer is detected early and treatment can begin without further delay. Undeniably any publicity towards early detection and breast cancer awareness can only be a good thing. But the lines are distinctly blurred when it comes to spreading that awareness using titillating photos of young women in their pants.

Let’s Talk Breasts would love to know how you feel about this unusual partnership – it’s an interesting debate on so many levels and we welcome all comments.