Letters: How lads' mags spawned OnlyFans

Spectator

18-06-2025

Bad lads
Sir: The articles on Britain's relationship with porn were fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. Fascinating in that Louise Perry and Michael Simmons's contributions ('Devices and desires' and 'Dirty money', 14 June) provided a thought-provoking analysis of the extraordinary growth of the industry. Frustrating in the juxtaposition of these pieces with Sean Thomas's delusional thoughts about 'lads' mags' ('Age of innocence').
Mr Thomas seems to recall these publications with the same dewy-eyed fondness that folk of my generation reserve for Spangles and Bagpuss. He is unable to see the direct line that joins them to the worst excesses of OnlyFans. It's all there in both – the same objectification of women, the betrayal of sex, the sad loneliness and repressed shame of the consumer, the denial of the negative effect on society and the castigation of those who wince or demur as dinosaurs or prudes.
The only difference between FHM and OnlyFans, apart from the magazine's inability to grow its figures, is that the internet has enabled the production of and access to this sort of content on a much greater scale.
Michael Harrison
Belfast
Derby match
Sir: In her admirable exposé of the dirty deeds on OnlyFans, Louise Perry notes that two of its most depraved performers are 'oddly' both from Derbyshire. Perhaps it is more predictable than odd for some. Brought up in prim Peterborough in the 1950s, I was used to hearing that girls who turned to prostitution had 'gone to Derby' – which very often they had.
Christopher Gray
Oxford
Mass appeal
Sir: It is a pity that Damian Thompson ('Critical mass', 14 June) trivialises the issues vexing Pope Leo XIV as regards the treatment of the Tridentine form of the Mass. The current debate about the liturgy is not just about Latin. Indeed, the reformed liturgy (the Novus Ordo Mass) can be said anywhere, and in Latin, by any Catholic priest. And yet, as Damian rightly says, there is an increasingly vocal campaign, especially among Generation Z Catholics, for the tolerance and even the full legalisation of the Tridentine Mass. But this is not simply an argument about 'bells'n'smells' or even trying to preserve a beautiful and ancient liturgy. It is a war between the old pre-Vatican II Church and the post-conciliar movement which has been imposed on Catholics since 1965.
The Tridentine Mass expresses the traditional theology taught by the Church since the death of St John the Apostle and it cannot be allowed to coexist alongside the new theology (some would call it ideology) which the bishops are trying to enforce. Countless pronouncements by Pope Francis and Cardinal Roche have confirmed that we now have a theology which runs in direct opposition to that taught for almost 2,000 years until the Second Vatican Council. This is why there can be no tolerance of the Tridentine rite, which represents a flagship of opposition to the conciliar reforms. Latin Mass lovers are accused of opposing Vatican II and the New Mass, something they hotly deny. I would say that those who campaign for the Tridentine Mass and ignore the underlying doctrinal contradictions it represents are no more than romantics. It is for this reason that the Church authorities will sweep them aside.
Joseph Bevan
Dover, Kent
Pros and cons
Sir: Prue Leith makes many good points about prisons and charities ('Jail break', 14 June), but she doesn't make the key one: that two-thirds of prisoners shouldn't be in the sort of prisons they are. Of Britain's 90,000 inmates, about 30,000 are extremely dangerous and should be kept away from the public. About 30,000 are mentally inadequate and should probably be under lock and key – but don't need to be in Category A, B or C prisons where they are bullied and learn nothing, not least because most of them can't read. The remaining third are addicts, and should be in rehabilitation centres where they might be cured.
Instead of building more high-security prisons at vast expense, we should build lock-up centres and rehab centres, both of which would cost less. I visited about 20 prisons when I helped Action For Prisoners' Families, and they all told the same tale.
David Astor
Milton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire
Good hare day
Sir: Charles Moore's thoughts about hares (Notes, 14 June) reminds me of the day I went to the local post office to obtain a licence to sell game. I needed this as I was proposing to sell hares, which were then plentiful on the Kent marshes. The woman behind the counter said she needed to ask me three questions. 1) Was I an innkeeper? No, just a farmer. 2) Was I the driver of a stagecoach? Definitely not. 3) Was I a higgler? Stumped by this question, I asked what one was. She said 'someone who higgles for trade outside a cattle market': in other words, picks up return loads of livestock after an auction. Again, no. She then asked for a very small sum and gave me my licence.
These requirements are set out in the 1831 Game Act and as far as I know are still in force. The three professions mentioned would all be capable of handling game illegally killed by poachers.
Stephen Skelton
London SW6
Animal instinct
Sir: Anthony Whitehead's piece on lonely-hearts ads ('Notes on…', 14 June) reminds me of the glorious misprint I found in one posh Sunday paper: 'Looking for a significant otter.'
Larry Spence
Girvan, South Ayrshire
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