Naked in front of the Corpus Clock, naked in King's, naked outside the UL…

Cambridge students present a round-up of the news in the buff. The Tab brings you CUTV's latest offering.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCkb8x2WE08

To check out more visit www.cu-tv.co.uk

TAB TV brings you an exclusive interview with Brittany from the set of the latest Tab Totty shoot.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvwdupPjp5I

All photos are the property of The Tab Publications Ltd. Reproduction without express permission is strictly forbidden.

Oh what a difference the context makes eh?  I watched the debate surrounding ‘tab totty’ unfold with a bit of a giggle. Obviously there were serious issues of feminism and woman’s rights at issue there, but it coincided exactly with the photographs being taken for the calendar. In one weekend, myself and some photographers who were very generous with their time saw more willies than Jordan and more tits than a reader of the Daily Sport.

What does a naive girl like myself learn from such an experience? Well, sorry to go all Disney on you but we do all come in different shapes and sizes and it is true, everyone is attractive in their own way.

Confidence is attractive. The problem with all the television programmes aimed at portraying this very idea is that they tell us ‘Everyone looks great the way they are,’ but then to give the people confidence, they make them look like everyone else. Only that is exactly the point, there is no ‘everyone else.’ In reality there is no one, ideal body shape, dress and ‘look.’  Why do they need to lose a few pounds, have their teeth whitened and grey hairs dyed to feel good? Confidence needs to come from something within rather than be based on others opinions of our exterior,  or it will never last.

Our objection to pin up girls (and boys) in magazines and newspapers, when it moves on from their very existence, should be their portrayal as some sort of ideal, desirable body. A lot of these girls have unnatural bodies. Large, hard round breasts somewhere up near their chin with tiny stomachs and waists. The issue of men looking at images of women at all is one thing and I feel it’s a bit late for my opinions on that. However, if men are going to look, could they at least look at real women?

Looking at real women means variety. Maybe this was the wind that whipped up the ‘tab totty’ debate. Having real, everyday girls who had written articles and were attending University and looked human and relatable contrasted so starkly with images of robotic pin ups whose image as little more than blow up dolls is perpetuated by the pathetic, demeaning quotes written beside their boob jobs. If women saw men looking at real women, perhaps this would provide a confidence boost and move us away from this unrealistic ‘ideal’.

Alternatively girls and boys, if you are looking for a confidence boost, my advice would be – get naked. A recurring theme in the 13 photos taken was that people were apprehensive at the start, but as soon as everyone had their clothes off, people were suddenly very comfortable. Taking part, I found quite a liberating experience, watching others go through it was fascinating (meant in the least perverted way possible).

If you would like to see Heidi Hi along with two of The Tab‘s editors themselves starkers – plus a large number of Downing students – get to Downing Porters lodge, it’s for a good cause and it’s a good laugh.

The calendar, which costs just £5 from Downing porter’s lodge, will raise cash for Breast Cancer Research and the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation.

Highlights include The Tab’s very own Heidi, a beautifully choreographed football scene and the lovely Downing Lady Orchids, whose saucy April photo makes the £5 pricetag an absolute snip.

The calendar features various societies posing naked, as well as a special Christmas shot of the porters.

Two of The Tab’s editors can also be spotted in states of undress.

The collection of pics, which varies from the saucy to the hilarious, has to be seen to be believed!

Read calendar creator Sarah Hansen’s article on why YOU should buy a calendar and do your bit for charity here.

Don’t fret if you can’t get to Downing to buy a calendar, you can also get one through The Tab – just email us at editor@cambridgetab.co.uk telling us how many you want, and we’ll do the rest.

Since we’re so keen on celebrating what God gave us and doing our bit for charity, The Tab will donate £1 to Cancer Research for every calendar you buy.

Downing College rugby team pose for a naked scrum.

Although The Tab was started by three male undergraduates the editorial team is far from male-only. The features editor, TV editor, fashion editor, news sub-editor and senior news reporter are all female and are proud to work for The Tab. As a female who works on the Tab editorial team and a feminist, I’m delighted that so much debate has been generated over the Tab Totty section of this website. The main aim of The Tab was always to stimulate debate, and I feel we have truly succeeded when it comes to the issue of Page Three modelling.

As the photographer of both Tab Totty shoots, I am completely confident that both models were not exploited. They are both intelligent Cambridge students, over the age of 21, and were in no way coerced into posing for The Tab. They chose to do the shoots, and knew that if they wanted the images to be removed at any time they could be. I agree with Kate Brown's article, that just because some women choose to pose provocatively, it does not mean that they are stupid, subjugated or only doing it to please men. These girls made an informed decision. Neither were paid or given any kind of incentive to pose. Surely the fact that they are educated and bright women, and still chose to partake in Tab Totty proves that ‘page three’ and ‘glamour girls’ are not just women who have no other choice but to turn to modelling. These girls have the freedom to do and say what they want, and they exercised that freedom by doing Tab Totty.

It is a shame that girls have to get their kit off to generate feminist debate. As Heidi argued in her comment piece, there are much more pressing issues that need to be addressed. Unfortunately, Rowenna Davis did not engage with Heidi’s comments that accompanied her photos. Perhaps this is because they did not fit with her narrow view of The Tab as solely exploitative and sexist.

The Tab is a powerful weapon. Now that it has a loyal following, what is published is widely read – and most importantly, commented upon. If this article contains biased or incorrect information, anyone is free to comment and to correct what has been written. That is the beauty of an interactive website. I know for a fact this article will get fewer hits because there are no tits on show, but that is just the reality of the society we live in.
 

Going against the grain, I’d like to see myself as someone with brainpower and boobs, a pairing which I feel Cambridge culture strives to deny. In the bubble, where academic achievement is a strong measure of self-worth, a woman’s capital lies in her stack of library books, rather than her cup-size. Or so we would like to believe. In my opinion, the suggestion that intelligence puts us above casual sexism is highly disingenuous. Just as the university’s women are clever, so too are they subject to the same social pressures and attitudes that exist in the ‘real world’. Pretending otherwise constitutes a large-scale cover-up operation, whereby gender issues in the university go unnoticed.

In recent debates within the university, the impression generated by the CUSU Women’s Council and others is that prior to a few girls getting their kit off, the university was a sexism-free zone. Whilst totally misleading, this nonetheless demonstrates precisely a pernicious concealment of sexist attitudes that are in evidence throughout the university. There is a 21% wage inequality between male and female academics; the first female head porter was appointed in the institution’s 800th year; women’s boxing and rugby do not earn the same full blue status granted to their male counterparts.

There is a culture of sexism in Cambridge that needs addressing. That it took photos of girls in underwear to make people think so is bizarre; that the photos have become a sole target for all that is degrading and objectifying to the university’s women is just ridiculous. CUSU’s recent focus is totally misdirected, and fails to deal with far more worrying, entrenched gender problems. To equate ‘smashing sexism’ merely with stigmatizing nudity completely skews any argument about latent gender inequality in Cambridge, once more reinforcing the idea that since there are boobs on a page there couldn’t possibly be any kind of calculated provocative intent behind it. Because that, surely, is the point: this is provocative – it has got people thinking and will continue to do so – but since I actually have some opinions on the F word, it is also self-aware.

Emmalina was out shopping when she was approached by a representative on the lookout for potential models who didn’t fit the stereotypical image of the competition.

Sporty Lina, who is 5ft 5in tall and boasts a 36D bra size, keeps in shape by training with the GB handball squad and captaining the Cambridge Eton fives team.

Despite being so sporty, though, the second year SPSer has come under attack for being bigger that the average size eight model.

At 10 stone Lina is far from overweight, and remains unfazed by comments in the media.

“I don’t mind if people say I’m not pretty,” she said, “that’s a subjective thing. But it’s not on to say I’m fat – because I’m just not!

“I do loads of exercise, eat healthily, and I’ve got a good lifestyle – and I’m not overweight.”

Even more shockingly, Lina told The Tab how Students in Cambridge have jumped on the bitching bandwagon – and not just by focussing on her weight.

“One girl commented on me on a forum, suggesting my intelligence was low, because she had been in supervision with me,” she said. “I don’t understand how people have the time!”

Far from generating universal criticism, however, Lina’s looks have made her an international celebrity.

She was shocked to find her facebook inbox packed with hundreds of friend requests – all from Turkish men.

After newspapers in Turkey ran her story, she gained an enormous new fan base overnight.

“They all think I’m a massive celebrity” she said. “I’m working through replying to all the requests, one by one. They’re all very complimentary”.

Lina competes in the final today – June 14th – and if  successful will reach the fiercely competitive Miss England pageant itself.