CAMPAIGNERS in Ealing are protesting the topless female models pictured on page three of The Sun newspaper, by turning copies of the tabloid in shops back-to-front.

“Every time I see a Sun in Ealing, I turn that rag back-to-front,” explained activist and mother of two, Carlene Bender, 41, who is uploading photographs of her efforts to Twitter.

Mrs Bender explained Ealing is home to many families with young children who need to be protected from over-sexualised images of women – images she says are harmful.

“How ridiculous is it that a married mother of two young boys (eight and five) should be so embarrassed and offended by a newspaper?

“But I've never been able to shake those feelings after 12 years in this country – I’m from Trinidad and Tobago - so I decided, finally, to take some action,” she explained. 

The initiative supports No More Page Three, a campaign which appeals to Sun editor Dominic Mohan to cancel the topless photo feature, which has been running for 42 years.

Writer and actor Lucy Anne Holmes said she started No More Page Three because she felt sad that the most prominent photograph of a woman in the widest circulating British newspaper is a topless one.

A campaign spokesperson said: “We keep asking ourselves, what do children think when they see page after page of men in clothes, doing things, and one huge picture of a woman just standing there, in her pants?”

Mrs Bender said she was happy when the No More Page Three campaign started and supported it from day one.

“But after hearing Leveson describe the "endemic sexism" in the press, I decided I'd finally had enough of The Sun and didn't want to see it anymore and would turn it over,” she added.

Ealing’s anti-page three activists have attracted support on Twitter and are encouraging campaigners to tweet an end-of-week tally to show how many copies of the Sun they turned over.

Mrs Bender said: “It's not going to change the world and probably won't affect The Sun in any way, but this way I am controlling The Sun, not the other way round.

“And if people see me turning the paper around, maybe it will make them think twice about the messages that this type of newspaper sends out. And maybe they will join in.”

Earlier this year Mr Mohan told the Leveson inquiry The Sun’s page three girl was a British institution that celebrated natural beauty and represented youth and freshness. He reinforced the paper’s commitment to it continuing. 

The No More Page 3 campaign is not calling for the topless photo to be banned.