Object Sexuality

Object sexuality, also called objectum sexuality (OS) or objectophilia, is a pronounced romantic and sometimes sexual orientation toward specific inanimate objects or built structures: bridges, buildings, musical instruments, fairground rides, or everyday items. Those who identify with it usually describe genuine, reciprocal-feeling love for a particular object rather than a generic attraction to things, framing it as an orientation built on emotional intimacy and commitment. This article traces how the concept emerged, what its proponents and researchers claim, and why it is distinguished from ordinary fetishism.

History & origins

Self-identified pioneers

The phenomenon entered public awareness chiefly through self-identified individuals rather than through clinicians.

• 1979: The Swedish woman Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer described a lifelong love for the Berlin Wall, held a ceremonial "marriage" to it, and took its name; she became one of the earliest documented cases and helped seed an online community for object-sexual people.
• 2007: The American former military member Erika Eiffel held a ceremonial commitment to the Eiffel Tower and adopted its name, and founded OS Internationale, an educational website and online community.
• 2008–2009: Documentary and talk-show coverage (including Erika Eiffel's 2009 appearances on Good Morning America and The Tyra Banks Show) brought the term to a global audience and popularised the abbreviation "OS."

Clinical lineage and distinction from fetishism

Attraction directed at non-living things has a long pedigree in sexology, traceable to Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) and Alfred Binet's 1887 essay Le fétichisme dans l'amour, which named erotic fetishism. Object sexuality is generally distinguished from ordinary fetishism, however: advocates and some researchers describe it as a love-and-relationship orientation toward a specific object, often paired with animistic belief that the object has feelings and reciprocates, rather than the use of an object merely as an arousal aid. It appears in encyclopedic lists of paraphilias and overlaps conceptually with agalmatophilia (attraction to statues and figures) and mechanophilia, but it is not a defined disorder in the DSM-5-TR or ICD-11.

Toward an evidence base

• 2010: Clinical sexologist Amy Marsh published Love Among the Objectum Sexuals in the Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, reporting a March 2009 survey of 21 English-speaking members of OS Internationale; about half reported autism-spectrum conditions, and Marsh argued their experiences matched general definitions of a sexual orientation.
• 2019: Simner, Hughes & Sagiv published the first empirical behavioural study in Scientific Reports (34 OS individuals vs. 88 controls), finding diagnosed autism rates up to ~30 times higher and synaesthesia ~14 times more common in the OS group: particularly personification synaesthesia, in which objects feel imbued with personalities. The sociolinguist Heiko Motschenbacher has separately analysed the marginalisation of OS through the lens of "humanonormativity."

In practice

Expression is typically relationship-like. People describe falling in love with one object, naming it, attributing a personality and feelings to it, keeping mementos or scale models, marking anniversaries, and experiencing a sense of mutual affection and commitment. The sexual component varies widely and, for many, is secondary to the emotional and devotional bond.

Psychology

Proposed explanations include heightened animistic thinking (perceiving objects as conscious or sentient), personification synaesthesia (the cross-modal trait identified by Simner and colleagues), attachment patterns that favour predictable, non-rejecting partners, and associations with autistic traits. The evidence is suggestive but preliminary: even the strongest study to date rests on a small self-selected sample, so causal mechanisms remain uncertain and contested.

Prevalence & culture

Object sexuality is very rare and is known largely through documentary and news coverage of a handful of prominent individuals, which gives it cultural recognition out of proportion to its prevalence: no population survey has produced a reliable prevalence figure. Broader survey work on unusual sexual interests, such as Joyal, Cossette & Lapierre (2015), helps place object-directed attraction firmly among the statistically rare and atypical end of the spectrum, while online OS communities remain small and tightly knit.

Safety, consent & law

The interest is harmless: it involves inanimate objects and raises no consent concerns, since no other person or living being is involved. The main considerations are social understanding, stigma, and the general well-being of the individual rather than any legal or safety risk.