Don’t like it, don’t buy it. These are the words that have irritated 36 year old feminist campaigner, Lucy Anne-Holmes, ever since she started her appeal to drop the bare boobs from The Sun in 2012. As she picks up the phone, her voice sounds a little croaky. She tells me she’s been writing to David Dinsmore, the Glaswegian editor of the paper, about a little girl who “didn’t buy it”. Lucy was sent a story from Sam, a schoolgirl who was subject to sexual abuse from her grandfather throughout her teens. Sam describes how her abuse begun with her breasts, because they were “just as good as Page 3, and look, that girl isn’t making a fuss about showing them off”. As her grandfather explained, Sam was “a big girl now” and because she started developing early, this was what she was supposed to be like. Sam was 11 when her downward spiral of abuse began. Like many of the 1/5 who will experience sexual abuse throughout their lifetime, Sam didn’t buy The Sun.

There’s a world of difference between sexual assault and a topless photograph in a newspaper, but according to Lucy, images like Page 3 condition men to view women as sex objects early. Although Lucy is apprehensive when I ask her whether the two factors are inextricably linked, it’s clear she believes images of semi-naked women in a newspaper create an area where sexism is seen as right.

“For 43 years the nation’s bestselling newspaper has shown a passive woman in her underpants. Of course this affects how women are treated. I mean, how many times have we all heard ‘get your tits out’ whilst walking down the street? It’s hard to say whether publications like The Sun cause these statistics, but mainstream objectification certainly reinforces the idea that women are to be approached for male pleasure. Images can have a powerful effect on people. Why would advertisers spend millions of pounds sprawling their brands across these platforms if this wasn’t the case?”

No More Page 3 began as a petition in the summer of 2012, when Lucy picked up a copy of The Sun during The London Olympics. Lucy explains how was excited to read about Jessica Ennis’ victories and picked up the paper as an incentive from her brother, who told her The Sun was good for sport.

As she turned to Page 3, Lucy describes the excitement she felt upon seeing the absence of bare breasts with editorial in its place. “Wow”, she thought. “They’ve dropped the boobs while the Olympics are on!”

Upon reaching page 13, however, the largest female image in the issue served as a stark reminder to Lucy.

“This is a man’s world”, Lucy says. “Jessica Ennis had just won a gold medal, and there she was, overshadowed by a massive photo of a topless young woman. It made me feel incredibly sad.”

Lucy is not alone in her quest to drop the bare boobs from the paper. The campaign has 135,449 signatures (the figure is growing daily) and is backed by a string of high profile supporters including Karen Brady, Jonathan Ross, the politically influential Mumsnet and charities UK Youth and Ambition, who work with around 1 million people across the UK. And with some surprising faces including Russell Brand to be amongst the growing list announcing their support, Lucy’s petition is a far cry from a “middle class smear campaign against The Sun”, as some commentators have dubbed it.

With support comes criticism, and by boldly speaking out against the nation’s most widely read newspaper, Lucy has had her fair share. Alongside the popular “don’t like it, don’t buy it” argument sits criticism from The Sun’s editor himself, whose chief concern with the campaign lies with his audience.

“I make The Sun for its readers, not for the No More Page 3 people, or the Twitterati or Guardian readers”, claimed David in a BBC Radio 5 interview last November.

Whilst the question of who exactly accesses the paper lies at the heart of the controversy surrounding the campaign, Lucy tells me how campaign members are overwhelmingly from Sun reading families.

“I was affected by these images at 11, an age where I didn’t have a choice”, she says. “I grew up with The Sun, and for years I have been ashamed of my breasts. My brother and his mates used to ogle the breasts of the Page 3 girls as mine were developing. All I can remember thinking is, ‘why can’t mine look like that?’”

With a daily circulation of 2,281,301, it’s not only children who are accessing page 3 unwillingly. Page 3 is sprawled amongst buses, tubes and busy restaurants, so even if we’re not buying it, we’re seeing it. Just like 11 year old Sam, many of us aren’t even making this decision as readers and most poignantly, Sam’s demographic are the ones most likely to fall powerless to its effects.

In Dinsmore’s words, “it’s not set in stone that there must be a pair of breasts every day on page 3”. With enough pressure from influential anti-sexism campaigns like this one, it looks like our breasts aren’t going to be the only ones breaking free from a crumbling 1970s sculpture, either.