Object sexuality

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Not to be confused with Sexual objectification.
Pygmalion by Jean-Baptiste Regnault, 1786, Musée national du château et des Trianons

Object sexuality or objectophilia is a sexual fetish focused on particular inanimate objects. Those individuals with this expressed preference may feel strong feelings of attraction, love, and commitment to certain items or structures of their fixation. For some, sexual or even close emotional relationships with humans are incomprehensible. Some object-sexual individuals also often believe in animism, and sense reciprocation based on the belief that objects have souls, intelligence, and feelings, and are able to communicate.[1]

Research

In 2009 Amy Marsh, a clinical sexologist, surveyed the twenty-one English-speaking members of Erika Eiffel's 40-strong OS Internationale about their experiences.[2] About half reported autism spectrum disorders: six had been diagnosed, four were affected but not diagnosed, and three of the remaining nine reported having "some traits."[3] According to Marsh, "The emotions and experiences reported by OS people correspond to general definitions of sexual orientation," such as that in an APA article "on sexual orientation and homosexuality ... [which] refers to sexual orientation as involving 'feelings and self concept.'"

Awareness

In 2009 Erika Eiffel appeared on Good Morning America[4] and the Tyra Banks Show[citation needed] with Amy Marsh to discuss her marriage to the Eiffel Tower and how her object love helped her become a world champion archer. Marsh shared the results of her survey and her belief that OS could be a genuine sexual orientation, and reasoned that there would be more OS individuals if childhood trauma were a factor.

In March 2012 Amanda Liberty told the Daily Mail that the Statue of Liberty "is my long-distance lover and I am blown away by how stunning she is. Other people might be shocked to think I can have romantic feelings for an object, but I am not the same as them."[5] Three weeks later Reighner Deleighnie declared her love for a short marble statue of Adonis that she'd named "Hans".[6]

Erika Eiffel, who adopted her surname after a 2007 "marriage" to the Eiffel Tower,[4] founded OS Internationale, an educational website and international online community for those identifying or researching the condition to love objects.

Literature

Marsh sees OS-like behavior in classic literature.[2] In Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame,

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[Quasimodo] loved [the bells], caressed them, talked to them, understood them. From the carillon in the steeple of the transept to the great bell over the doorway, they all shared his love. Claude Frollo had made him the bell ringer of Notre-Dame, and to give the great bell in marriage to Quasimodo was to give Juliet to Romeo.

Popular culture

  • In 2011 National Geographic did a special in the TV series Taboo.
  • The character of Leigh Swift from the television comedy drama Boston Legal, is a self-proclaimed "objectophile".
  • In an episode of Nip/Tuck, Richard Burgi portrayed a plastic surgeon with an emotional attraction to furniture.
  • A March 2012 segment of TLC's My Strange Addiction featured Nathaniel, a man emotionally and sexually attracted to his car. Nathaniel told Anderson Cooper that he was also attracted to jet skis and airplanes.[7]
  • Big Boi's 2012 solo album, Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors, includes a song called Objectum Sexuality.[8]
  • Discovery Channel's Forbidden featured a Dutch man who professed his love for bicycles.[9]
  • Lavie Tidhar's short story, "The Woman Who Fell In Love With The Hungerford Bridge", published in Ambit Magazine, 2014, concerns a romance between a woman with objectum sexuality and London's Hungerford Bridge.
  • Keys N Krates made a video for the song Save Me ft. Katy B featuring this particular sexuality.[10]
  • The BBC TV continuing drama series Casualty included an episode in autumn 2015, titled 'Objectum Sexual.' The plot of the episode was built around a sexually inexperienced female who had fallen in love with a condemned building, soon to be destroyed. As the episode ended, the character, having been admitted with superficial injuries, declared her new love was for Holby City Hospital.
  • The character of Ted Mosby from the popular television series How I Met Your Mother is accused of being an "objectophiliac" in a flashback with Empy (the Empire State Building).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ N.B. There are only 20 responses, though the author claims 21 respondents.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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