Til [my] death do us part: object love

(Peter Kirillov)

International researchers have been studying anthropomorphism, the attribution of human characteristics to non-human objects, and on March 9, an objectophile, a human who loves and desires particular inanimate objects, married his love - an anime pillow.

On February 1, Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the US-based Association for Psychological Science (APS) published a study from Harvard University looking at the psychology of anthropomorphism and attributed it to loneliness and a coping mechanism for unpredictability.

On March 3, Adam Waytz, PhD and the Harvard study's lead researcher, told LiveScience, "we have this need to belong and to affiliate," and "when people are deprived of connections with other humans, they'll form connections with nonhumans through anthropomorphism."

Waytz continued, "there may be nothing like the real thing, but that's a question that we want to test in the future." Objectum-sexuality (OS) or objectophilia, is likely linked to the depravity of sexual and romantic connections with other humans.

According to Associated Content, a content site, "with objectophilia, feelings of love, attraction, arousal, and commitment are focused on a particular object, and the mere thought of a relationship with an actual human being seems ludicrous. The politically correct term for the individual in love with an object is Objectum-Sexual."

Volkmar Sisusch, a sexologist, said to Associated Content, "the objectophiles aren't hurting anyone. They're not abusing or traumatizing anyone."

On March 9, Lee Jin-gyu, a 28-year old Korean man, married his body pillow (the bride donned a wedding dress) during a special ceremony with a local priest. Jin-gyu is not alone in forming bonds with inanimate objects and ‘marrying' them.

In 2009, a 26-year old Nigerian man, Okeke Ikechukwu, also wed his pillow, and explained, "since I am a stutterer, ladies have always laughed at me whenever I try to talk to them. I have needs, and so I have taken to sleeping with my pillow in my arms ever since I was 16. I have grown to fall in love with it, and I intend to spend the rest of my life with it. I think it will make the ideal mate for me."

Other notorious objectophiles have married or are committed to a range of objects from fences and trains to the Berlin Wall and Eiffel Tower. The women who ‘married' the Berlin Wall and Eiffel Tower legally changed their names to reflect their unions: Eija-Ritta Eklof Berliner-Mauer and Erika Eiffel.

So why can't same-sex humans marry everywhere?

On March 1, researcher Amy Marsh, DHS, ACS, CHT, a Sexologist & Hypnotherapist, published her research findings in an article "Love among the objectum sexuals" in the Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality.

Marsh conducted a survey with a group of objectophiles gaining insight into preferred objects, subcategories, demographics, self-identification, intimacy, communication, duration of relationship, monogamy, even links to other autism spectrum disorders. Below are portions of Marsh's findings.

Gender preferences
Heterosexual (23.8%)
Homosexual/Lesbian (14.3%)
Bi-sexual (23.8%)
Pan-sexual (9.5%)
Asexual (23.8%)
Prefer Monogamy (23.8%)
Prefer Polyamory or non-monogamy (19.0%)

Object Categories
Structural/Small: furniture, fences, stairs, ladders, or similar (19.0%)
Structural/Large: buildings, bridges, towers, walls, rail tracks, constructions or similar (33.3%)
Mechanical: machines, appliances or similar (42.9%)
Transport: automobiles, trains, aircraft, bikes, boats or similar (47.6%)
Devices: instruments, sporting equipment, work tools or similar (19.0%)
Technological: radios, TVs, computers, or similar (19.0%)

Marsh concludes, "The apparent link of OS to autism spectrum conditions and object personification synesthesia should be investigated and researched. Such research would be an important addition to the study of human sexual behavior and would benefit the autism/Asperger's community as well as the OS community."

Love-shy.com, a site to help and identify love-shy men, has a SHI indicator, 20 questions to determine if you are Love-Shy: http://love-shy.com/20questions.htm 

And, this international support network site for OS, objectùm-sexuality.org, offers "education for friends and family about objectùm-sexuality (Objektophil), and insight into our way of accepting, living, and adapting as individuals who are in love with objects".

Sources:
Study, "Love among the objectum sexuals": http://www.ejhs.org/volume13/ObjSexuals.htm
Article, "A Look into the Lives of Objectum-Sexuals": http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/306372/a_look_into_the_lives_of_objectumsexuals.html?cat=7
Full study, "Social Cognition Unbound: Insights into Anthropomorphism and Dehumanization ": http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/cd/19_1_inpress/Waytz_final.pdf