MANY letters have offered various opinions on the opening of the new sex shop in Bootham.

I was amused at the observation that the customers will not just be "dirty old men in macs" but women too.

I suggest there will be as many, if not more, women as men buying the delights of sex shops.

Sex sells. It is the root cause of many crimes and causes as many problems as pleasure to both sexes.

Between people who love each other, it is wonderful and liberating, but attitudes have cheapened and degraded it.

The laws relating to sex crimes are overdue for radical reform.

For instance, now that modesty is old hat and girls face pregnancy, abortion and motherhood while schoolchildren the law forbidding sex with a girl of under 16 is hopelessly outdated.

Many girls of 13 today have more carnal knowledge than their grandmothers did at 30.

How are men to know the age of any female giving him come-hither looks?

Girls who dress suggestively, binge-drink, use foul language and behave abysmally should accept that if their body language is acted upon, the results may not always be to their liking.

Men have not changed - the girls have and it is about time the law was changed to reflect this.

While rape is a weapon of war and can include violence, terror and injury, allegations of so-called "date rape" should not even reach the courts but should be thrown out before they start costing taxpayers' money.

There are far more worthy causes than that of compensating girls for situations which are the results of their own bad behaviour. Nowadays the whole sexual picture has changed and it is the men who require protection from the girls.

Heather Causnett,

Escrick Park Gardens,

Escrick,

York.

Updated: 10:22 Tuesday, March 15, 2005