Critical Reading: The Politics of the Smile by Patricia Holland

Patricia Holland presents the history of females in the newspaper industry. She looks at the working for newspapers, their appearance in newspapers, how women's inclusion in newspapers were used for pleasure giving a more entertaining feel to the newspaper. She also writes about female consumption of newspapers and how the industry cateredf for their needs.
The increase of female journalists in Patricia Holland's view is partly due to new technologies of the late nineteenth century allowing newspapers to reach a wider audience. An audience tht did not want to open a newspaper to find metaphors and prose form nineteenth century literature. They wanted to be entertained without thinking to much about what they were reading. As Holland puts it they wanted to be 'Pampered and Tickled'. This new journalism caused newspapers to move away from writing in self importance to writing in a clearer way using language the average person understands.
This could be partly the reason for the introduction of women working for newspapers, Hollands lists one commentator as saying women think in pictures while men think in 'abstract concepts'. If this was the general consensus it was natural to get women involved in newspaper production as it was believed they would produce articles in a clearer more accessible style.
This reading is largely about the introduction of the Page 3 Girl by the Sun. This is part of the sexualisation of the Sun. The way the Sun will report on sex, and have celebrity news with pictures of them looking glamorous. The sexualisation of the Sun is for the readers pleasure giving the newspaper a lighter feel to it. The first editor to introduce the Page 3 Girl, Larry Lamb is on record saying that the girls do not have to be more models and that they are not pornographic images. Rather a picture of the average woman smiling at the reader, while exposing her breasts. Page three was introduced as an act of defiance agaisnt conformity. In a time when sex isses was rarely reported in the news a 'rape was among the four letter words banned from most newspapers' The Sun broke the mold which led to changes in all aspects of the media.
Newspapers realised that the main consumers were female. They would be the ones in the household going out and spending the money. This was when newspapers started advertising products aimed at women, this also led to the introduction of women's supplements and The Mirror a womens newspaper when originally launched.
This reading was very interesting, it gives a background into the history of the journalsim profession and the way women were treated in it. Holland does not really argues her opinions well, she uses quotes and facts to backup what she is saying so it is really quite hard to disagree with her. The views presented on Page 3girl however are hard to swallow. Their aim is not to show the average woman, because the girls on Page 3 look far from average. Former Page 3 girls Jordan had loads of cosmetic surgery to make her look like a glamour model, that is not the look of the average woman. Possibly girls were origianlly used to connect with the reader but now it is just for the it is purely for the pleasure of men. Finding the best looking women possible for men to ogle.