Agalmatophilia () is a

paraphilia A paraphilia is an experience of recurring or intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, places, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as a sexual interest in anything other than a legally consenting human ...

involving

sexual attraction Sexual attraction is attraction on the basis of sexual desire or the quality of arousing such interest. Sexual attractiveness or sex appeal is an individual's ability to attract other people sexually, and is a factor in sexual selection or m ...

to a

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or Casting (metalworking), cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to ...

doll A doll is a physical model, model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and ...

mannequin A mannequin (sometimes spelled as manikin and also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off dif ...

, or other similar figurative object. Agalmatophilia is a form of

object sexuality Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ai ...

. The attraction may include a desire for actual sexual contact with the object, a fantasy of having sexual (or non-sexual) encounters with an animate or inanimate instance of the preferred object, the act of watching encounters between such objects, or sexual pleasure gained from thoughts of being transformed or transforming another into the preferred object. Depending on the object of their desire, agalmatophiles can exhibit pygmalionism, the love for an object of one's own creation, named after the myth of Pygmalion, where a man falls in love with a statue he made of his ideal woman. English poet

Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; – 13 January 1599 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the House of Tudor, Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is re ...

wrote of sexual pygmalionism in some of his works.

History

Agalmatophilia was described in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century

legal medicine Medical jurisprudence or legal medicine is the branch of science and medicine involving the study and application of scientific and medical knowledge to legal problems, such as inquests, and in the field of law. As modern medicine is a legal ...

. In 1877, a gardener was recorded to have fallen in love with a statue of the ''

Venus de Milo The ''Venus de Milo'' or ''Aphrodite of Melos'' is an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek marble sculpture that was created during the Hellenistic art, Hellenistic period. Its exact dating is uncertain, but the modern consensus places it in the 2nd ...

,'' and was discovered attempting

coitus Sexual intercourse (also coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion of the Erection, erect male Human penis, penis inside the female vagina and followed by Pelvic thrust, thrusting motions for sexual pleasure ...

with it.Kick, 2005.

References

;Bibliography * Alexandre, Elisabeth (2005). ''Des poupées et des hommes. Enquête sur l'amour artificiel'' (''Dolls and Men - Investigation into Artificial Love''). La Musardine. . * Dorfman, Elena (2005). ''Still Lovers''. Channel Photographics. . * Ellis, Havelock (1927). ''Studies in the Psychology of Sex''. "Volume V: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy". . * Gross, Kenneth (1992). ''The Dream of the Moving Statue''. Cornell University Press. . * Kick, Russ (2005). ''Everything You Know about Sex Is Wrong''. The Disinformation Company. . pp.122-123 * Krafft-Ebing, Richard von (1906). ''Psychopathia Sexualis, with Special Reference to the Antipathic Sexual Instinct: A Medico-Forensic Study''. . * Plumb, Suzie (Editor) (2005). ''Guys and Dolls: Art, Science, Fashion and relationships''. Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery & Museums. . * Scobie A, Taylor J. (January 1975). ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences'': Vol 11, Issue 1: "Agalmatophilia, the statue syndrome." Wiley Periodicals, Inc. * Simmons, Laurence (2006). ''Freud's Italian Journey''. Rodopi. . * Wenk, Silke (1989). "Pygmalions Wahlverwandtschaften. Die Rekonstruktion des Schöpfermythos im nachfaschistischen Deutschland" IN: ''Konstruktionen von Männlichkeit und Weiblichkeit in Kunst und Kunstgeschichte''. Berlin. * White, M. J. (November 1978). ''Journal of Sex Research''; Vol. 14, Issue 4: "The Statue Syndrome: Perversion? Fantasy? Anecdote?".

External links

"Just Like a Woman"
- Salon.com article describing cultural phenomenon of RealDolls
"Real Dolls: Love in the Age of Silicone"
- original, more detailed version of the Salon article

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080418080332/http://www.la.com/movies/10291657.html Lars and the Real Girl at IMDB.A delusional young guy strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet. Paraphilias Sexual fetishism {{sex-stub

History

See also

References

External links