By Linda Vijeh

It says something about our modern day society when the fact that a tabloid newspaper decides, under pressure from feminist campaign groups, to end a 44 year reign as the original home of the Page 3 topless girl.

I can just imagine the men crying in their beers at the absence of such titivating displays of the female anatomy.

For it, or against it, these provocative daily delights had become something of an institution, and one that will be missed by many. The list of young nubile women queuing up for their day in the limelight includes both Jodie Marsh and Melinda Messenger along with others that have become household names.

Without the dubious honour of gaining our attention by appearing on Page 3 they may well have ended up like any wannabe, struggling to make ends meet, dreams unfulfilled, while they live a life of suburban domesticity.

I don’t mean to knock what the rest of us consider to be a ‘normal’ life, out of the public gaze; in my case it would be rather hypocritical, but I am of the opinion that as long as those who choose to bear all in public do so of their own free will, on their own terms, whilst being of an age to make those choices, and without causing harm to anyone else, then it should be of no concern to me.

All day long we have heard the arguments in relation to women being treated merely as objects of desire. Personally, I am now of an age at which I am unlikely to ever be in that position, except in the odd moment of wishful thinking.

Besides, I did in fact bare all myself some 10 years ago, although in mitigation it was to highlight my dismal cancer care at the hands of the NHS, rather than for any aim to induce unbridled desire in the opposite sex.

During the many discussions and debates that have taken place one particularly fervent woman, reiterated the need for us all to be equal.

This is a persistent chant by a strident few that I find especially tiresome as we must all accept that we are not equal either in terms of gender, age or any multitude of characteristics, and never will be.

The page 3 photographs were all, well, on page 3, so not likely to be seen by a casual passerby, and what the images displayed was no worse than that which can be seen on beaches around the world every day of the week. Those who found them offensive did not have to view them or participate.

I see also that there has been a significant backlash on social media, ironically mainly led by women, who feel that this submission to the demands of a few further undermines our freedom of will.

Much has been said recently about our fight for freedom of speech and expression in the face of terrorist action by religious fundamentalists.

I fear that if the politically correct brigade keep up their this level of haranguing we will all become too afraid to say or do anything. In my case I am much more concerned about the horrific abuses inflicted daily on the vulnerable in our society, behind closed doors, and not in the public gaze.