A PETITION launched by a Wellington man opposed to the recent Erotica Lifestyles Expo got 506 signatures in support.

Sam Wadham, 29, put the E-petition on the Wellington City Council website appealing for the expo - which went ahead earlier this month - to be stopped.

Pictured at right outside a Dixon St strip club, he says he is encouraged by the response and will now present his case to the council.

While he did not expect the petition to stop the expo, he was happy with the feedback, and if the expo returns to Wellington he pledges to try again.

“If we accept these kinds of events it sends a message to the community about the value we place on women and men,” he says.

Despite the expo being an R18 event, he says it parallels other harmful behaviour.

“Look at smoking and domestic violence – we’ve decided to discourage them as a society,” he says.

Mr Wadham, a Christian, is concerned about the long-term ramifications exposure to the expo could generate.

“For men, their attitudes and perceptions of women will be devalued, which will harm their relationships,” he says.

“It’s about how much we think we’re worth, and do we have the dignity to treat each others in the way we should be treated?” he says.

However, the national co-ordinator of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, Catherine Healy, rejects Mr Wadham’s stance, and says those in the sex industry are regular people.

She says an aversion to erotic material often steams from an innate discomfort with sexuality, and a “sex-negative” society.

“Often you find that people who talk about how demeaned women are by presenting themselves in an erotic way, are very uncomfortable with sex in general,” she says.

Mr Wadham, a corporate policy advisor, says when the Auckland District Court gave Steve Crow’s Boobs on Bikes parade the go-ahead in Auckland, he felt compelled to launch the petition.

Mr Wadham is finalising a date with the council in which he will give a presentation on the issue.

Members of the public can launch an e-petition by visiting the council’s website.