Object sexuality

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.{{cite journal|url=http://www.ejhs.org/volume13/ObjSexuals.htm|title=Love Among the Objectum Sexuals|journal=Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality |volume=13|date=2010-03-01|first=Amy|last=Marsh}} 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."N.B. There are only 20 responses, though the author claims 21 respondents. 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'".

The first empirical behavioural study was conducted in 2019 by neuropsychologist Julia Simner and her colleagues.{{Cite journal |last1=Simner |first1=Julia |last2=Hughes |first2=James E. A. |last3=Sagiv |first3=Noam |date=2019-12-27 |title=Objectum sexuality: A sexual orientation linked with autism and synaesthesia |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=19874 |doi=10.1038/s41598-019-56449-0 |issn=2045-2322 |pmc=6934473 |pmid=31882730|bibcode=2019NatSR...919874S }} Their data suggests that objectophilia is likely to arise when two separate neurodevelopmental traits co-occur: autism and synaesthesia. Rates of diagnosed autism were up to 30 times higher in their objectophile group, particularly linked to differences in social skills (finding human social situations unenjoyable). At the same time, the objectophile group were 14 times more likely to have synaesthesia. This included the variant known as personification synaesthesia, which makes inanimate objects feel imbued with personalities or genders (due to neurodevelopmental differences in regions of the brain involved in social processing). The researchers concluded that OS often encapsulates autism and synaesthesia within its phenomenology, and they also discussed society's marginalization of objectophiles.

Sociolinguistic researcher Heiko Motschenbacher has developed the concept of humanonormativity to describe the marginalization of objectum sexuality. Humanonormativity is "the belief that people normally and naturally engage in sexual practices and romantic relationships with other human beings."{{Cite book |last=Motschenbacher |first=Heiko |title=The Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018 |editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Kira |chapter=Language and Sexual Normativity |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.14 |isbn=978-0-19-021292-6 |editor-last2=Barrett |editor-first2=Rusty}} It arises as a discourse that pathologizes objectum sexuality. This concept has been referenced in relevant academic fields, including research on fictosexuality.{{Cite journal |last=Matsuura |first=Yuu |year=2023 |title=対人性愛中心主義批判の射程に関する検討――フェミニズム・クィアスタディーズにおける対物性愛研究を踏まえて |trans-title=Humanonormativity and Human Oriented Sexualism: A Discussion Based on Objectum Sexuality Studies from a Feminist and Queer Perspective |url=https://researchmap.jp/mtwrmtwr/published_papers/40398528?lang=en |journal=人間科学共生社会学 (Human Science Sociology and Anthropology) |volume=12 |language=ja |publisher=Faculty of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University |issue=13 |doi=10.15017/7151776}}

File:Erika Aya Eiffel Texas Shootout Archery.jpg

In 2009, Erika Eiffel appeared on Good Morning America and The Tyra Banks Show{{cite news |last1=Filip |first1=Kristyn |title=The woman who married the Eiffel Tower |url=https://thefulcrum.ca/features/the-woman-who-married-the-eiffel-tower/ |work=The Fulcrum |date=February 15, 2012}} 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, reasoning that if childhood trauma were a factor in being OS, there would be more OS individuals. Eiffel, who had adopted her surname after a 2007 "marriage" to the Eiffel Tower,{{cite web|first1=Kate|last1=Snow|first2=Janann|last2=Brady|date=2009-04-08|url=https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=7283494&page=1|title=Woman Proves Love for Eiffel Tower With Commitment Ceremony|website=ABC News }} founded OS Internationale, an educational website and online community for those identifying or researching attraction to objects.

Marsh sees OS-like behavior in classic literature. In Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame:

{{blockquote|[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.}}

Describing his passion for sculptures, Horace Walpole commented in 1791 that "Sir William Hamilton had actually married his Gallery of Statues".{{cite book | last1=Barker | first1=C. | last2=Trussler | first2=S. | title=New Theatre Quarterly 49: Volume 13, Part 1 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1997 | isbn=978-0-521-58902-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d9w-TWB-0_AC&pg=PA5 | access-date=2023-06-19 | page=5}}

Kate Folk’s 2025 experimental debut novel Sky Daddy follows Linda, a woman convinced she and her soulmate, a commercial jet plane, will marry one day, that is, be united in death via crash.{{Cite news |last=Burtner |first=Cate |date=April 24, 2025 |title='Sky Daddy' explores sex with airplanes, and what it means to be human |url=https://stanforddaily.com/2025/04/24/sky-daddy-explores-sex-with-airplanes-and-what-it-means-to-be-human/ |access-date=May 7, 2025 |work=The Stanford Daily}} With the aid of a domino-sized 737 fragment, she is aroused during takeoff and turbulence (the latter of which she interprets as a sign of a plane’s affection), as well as when watching simulations of aeronautic disasters.

{{in popular culture|section|date=May 2019}}

• In 1979, a Swedish woman married the Berlin Wall.{{cite news | title=Hasselhoff marries Berlin Wall | newspaper=The Irish Times | date=April 1, 2013 | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/hasselhoff-marries-berlin-wall-1.1345340 | access-date=October 23, 2022}}
• In 2007, Erika Eiffel married the Eiffel Tower.{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/love-objects/article1259075/|title=Inanimate attachment: Love objects|publisher=The Globe and Mail|date=Aug 21, 2009|access-date=2010-05-04}}
• In 2010, Woman's Day magazine listed ten romances between people and things, including the Berlin Wall, a fairground ride, a dakimakura, a Volkswagen Beetle, the World Trade Center, a steam locomotive, an iBook, and a metal processing system.{{cite news|url= http://www.womansday.com/relationships/a1464/10-romances-between-people-andthings-105631/ |title=10 Romances Between People and…Things |date =12 April 2010 }}
• 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.{{cite web |title=A Man in a Relationship with His Car |date=February 10, 2012 |work=Anderson |url=http://www.andersoncooper.com/2012/02/10/a-man-in-a-relationship-with-his-car/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214161552/http://www.andersoncooper.com/2012/02/10/a-man-in-a-relationship-with-his-car/ |archive-date=2012-02-14 }}
• In 2013, an Australian woman, Jodi Rose, married the Le Pont du Diable Bridge in France.{{cite news|url=http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/jodi-rose-bridges-differences-to-marry-le-pont-du-diable-bridge-in-france/news-story/66222c2c79edffd947ef161f89b06b4d |title=Jodi Rose bridges differences to marry Le Pont du Diable Bridge in France |date = 6 July 2013 }}
• In 2016, an American man was refused permission to marry his computer.{{cite news |date=29 June 2016 |title=Man sues Utah County clerk for refusing to issue license to marry computer |url=https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-sues-utah-county-clerk-for-refusing-to-issue-license/article_4986f350-5263-5a18-bd92-18f90ade7929.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702031409/https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-sues-utah-county-clerk-for-refusing-to-issue-license/article_4986f350-5263-5a18-bd92-18f90ade7929.html |archive-date=2016-07-02}}

• Keys N Krates's video for the song "Save Me," featuring Katy B, focuses on this particular sexuality.{{cite web | url=http://www.youredm.com/2015/08/03/keys-n-krates-save-me-feat-katy-b-official-music-video/ | title=Keys N Krates - Save Me | publisher=YourEDM | date=3 August 2015 | access-date=5 September 2015 | author=Matthew Meadow}}

• Christine (1983) tells the story of a young man and his obsession with his sentient car.{{Cite news |last=Bradshaw |first=Peter |date=2023-10-19 |title=Christine review – Stephen King's evil car still has a one-track mind |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/oct/19/christine-review-stephen-king-john-carpenter |access-date=2024-04-22 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}
• Jumbo (2020) tells the story of a cleaner at an amusement park who falls in love with a fairground ride. Zoé Wittock, the director, took her inspiration from the experience of Erika Eiffel.{{cite news |last1=Armistead |first1=Claire |title='I know it's weird' – Jumbo: the film about a woman who falls in love with a funfair ride |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jul/09/weird-jumbo-film-woman-falls-in-love-funfair-ride |access-date=12 July 2021 |work=the Guardian |date=9 July 2021 |language=en}}
• Titane (2021) tells the story of a female serial killer who becomes pregnant after a sexual encounter with a car.{{Cite web|last=Barber|first=Nicholas|title=Titane: The most shocking film of 2021|url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210715-titane-the-most-shocking-film-of-2021|access-date=2021-07-26|website=www.bbc.com|date=15 July 2021 |language=en}}

• Australian Netflix series Lunatics (2019) features a character named Keith Dick (played by Chris Lilley), a fashion designer who falls for "Karen", a Sharp XE-A203 cash register, as well as an old fashioned vacuum cleaner.

• Agalmatophilia, sexual attraction towards dolls, statues, mannequins or other objects which mimic the appearance of humans
• Animism, the belief that all things, both animate and inanimate, possess a spiritual essence
• Doll fetish
• Fictosexuality
• List of paraphilias
• Mechanophilia, a paraphilia involving sexual attraction towards machines, particularly vehicles
• {{annotated link|Paraphilia}}
• {{annotated link|Plushophilia}}
• Sexual fetishism
• Shoe fetishism

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.objectum-sexuality.org/ The OS Internationale website]
• [http://www.ylioppilaslehti.fi/2010/10/15/seinahullu-ja-renessanssinero/ Interviews of Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer and Erika Eiffel]
• [http://www.berlinermauer.se/ Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauers website]

{{sex fetish}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Object Sexuality}}

Category:Paraphilias

Category:Sexual fetishism