Matt McCormack Evans, an activist who will launch the Anti Porn Men Project [www.antipornmen.org" title="Anti Porn Men Project] on Monday, is concerned that the growing consumption of online porn among adolescents is fostering a new, more open attitude towards paying for sex. McCormack Evans is 22 and dismayed by the speed with which his generation has been presented with enormous, unprecedented access to cheap porn.
"A decade ago, pornography might be something borrowed from cousins, hidden under your mattress; it was difficult to get hold of. There was a feeling that it was something that needed to be kept secret. It is not like that now. There is a sense that you don't need to pretend that you don't consume this," he says.
There is a school of thought that argues that pornography use has no greater correlation with paying for sex than the link between smoking cannabis progressing to injecting heroin, but McCormack Evans worries that the growing scale of porn consumption could have unexpected effects. "Pornography encourages certain attitudes towards sex, a vision of women as objects that are acted upon. There is reason to fear that this will translate into more men seeking sex from prostitutes and that there will be a desire to match the aesthetics of pornography in everyday life."
In Windmills, Owide is nostalgic for the Soho he knew 50 years ago. "When I first came here women used to walk the streets. It was lovely," he says. "The atmosphere ?"
Now his club gives clients the chance to look at girls "far prettier than they would ever be able to marry, in front of them with their legs wide open," he says. "It's amazing."
A bleaker snapshot of the modern face of Soho's sex industry comes from David Miles, 45, a former drugs project worker, now unemployed, who says he has been buying sex for the past 10 years.
Prices here have stayed down over the decade and the going rate remains between ?20 to ?100. "You can have quick sex with a beautiful woman for ?20, with ?2 for the maid. That's very quick ? it's called a walk-up; ?100 is for half an hour.
"I sometimes feel guilty about it. You are having sex with a young woman for that. Some of these girls are not making much money. That's the sad thing. The arrival of girls from eastern Europe meant that the prices have stayed down."
Additional reporting by Leo Benedictus and Patrick Kingsley
"A decade ago, pornography might be something borrowed from cousins, hidden under your mattress; it was difficult to get hold of. There was a feeling that it was something that needed to be kept secret. It is not like that now. There is a sense that you don't need to pretend that you don't consume this," he says.
There is a school of thought that argues that pornography use has no greater correlation with paying for sex than the link between smoking cannabis progressing to injecting heroin, but McCormack Evans worries that the growing scale of porn consumption could have unexpected effects. "Pornography encourages certain attitudes towards sex, a vision of women as objects that are acted upon. There is reason to fear that this will translate into more men seeking sex from prostitutes and that there will be a desire to match the aesthetics of pornography in everyday life."
In Windmills, Owide is nostalgic for the Soho he knew 50 years ago. "When I first came here women used to walk the streets. It was lovely," he says. "The atmosphere ?"
Now his club gives clients the chance to look at girls "far prettier than they would ever be able to marry, in front of them with their legs wide open," he says. "It's amazing."
A bleaker snapshot of the modern face of Soho's sex industry comes from David Miles, 45, a former drugs project worker, now unemployed, who says he has been buying sex for the past 10 years.
Prices here have stayed down over the decade and the going rate remains between ?20 to ?100. "You can have quick sex with a beautiful woman for ?20, with ?2 for the maid. That's very quick ? it's called a walk-up; ?100 is for half an hour.
"I sometimes feel guilty about it. You are having sex with a young woman for that. Some of these girls are not making much money. That's the sad thing. The arrival of girls from eastern Europe meant that the prices have stayed down."
Additional reporting by Leo Benedictus and Patrick Kingsley
