It makes speed dating look slow: a new craze to hit Britain is rapidly leveling the playing field between men and women intent on sex without commitment.
Craigslist.com, an American Internet marketplace that sells everything from unwanted futons to houses, has come to Britain, bringing with it the Casual Encounters section for people who want "one-off, no ties, no-nonsense sex."
"The site is frank about that," said founder Craig Newmark. "People who want a relationship, or even a conversation, should look elsewhere."
But while the Casual Encounters page is a minor part of the Craigslist site in America, on the British version (http://london. craigslist.org) it is one of the the most popular pages, and increasingly it is women who are logging on to advertise their appetite for uncomplicated sex.
"I'm surprised by the eagerness with which British women have greeted the Casual Encounters site," Newmark said.
"I don't know any British women first-hand but from what I hear about them, they're particularly game. Our experience seems to bear this out."
In the six months since Craigs-list was launched in London, the Casual Encounters page has had 280,000 hits, with around 42,000 of them from women -- an unusually high proportion.
Rachel Morris, a psychotherapist for Cosmopolitan magazine, said: "I've been worried about soulless sex imposed on women by the so-called `lad-ette' culture, but the fact that this site is so popular proves that hardcore, testosterone-driven sex is genuinely what some women really want."
"Women have long been labelled sluts where men with similar appetites are regarded as studs, but this site seems to indicate that perhaps society is finally ready to allow women to satisfy their sexual needs without guilt or shame," Morris said.
Polly O'Doherty, a 31-year-old IT specialist from north London, heard about the site from a female friend in San Francisco.
"I get the men to send me their pictures but don't give them mine, which means they won't recognize me when we meet, giving me the opportunity of changing my mind even at the last minute," she said.
"The first man I met was so handsome we didn't even finish our drinks before heading back to my flat. It was so exciting. I felt amazingly liberated because we were both clear and honest about what we wanted. The third and last man I met through the site was terribly sexy in a quirky way and I felt we really hit it off," she said.
"But when he didn't even want to stay the night and refused to reply to any of the e-mails I sent afterwards, I felt so upset I realized it's not just sex I want: it is a real relationship. I don't think I'll be using the site again; it just left me feeling sadder and lonelier than before," O'Doherty said.
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