As summer quickly approaches, it is common to hear people exclaim how much they “love” summer. At many other time and for many other reasons, people exclaim how much they “love” virtually anything, particularly inanimate objects. Do not take this lightly, however: this person may actually be an objectum sexual.
Objectum sexuals do not have a bizarre fetish; they actually feel a deeply personal love for and connection to an object or landmark, which may or may not be public or famous. The most notable OS people, not surprisingly, are devoted to very famous objects, such as Eija-Riitta Eklöf Berliner-Mauer, the last of which means “Berlin Wall” in German. Essentially the founder of the OS acceptance movement and the first OS person to go public, she even came up with the name “objectum sexual” with two friends in the 1970s before marrying her heart’s desire, the Berlin Wall, in 1979.
Another notable person with OS, Erika Eiffel, married the Eiffel tower in 2007. In addition to this romantic involvement, she too professes a love for the Berlin Wall (objectum-sexuality.org)
Not surprisingly, people with OS have struggled immensely to gain public acceptance. Most people are not even aware of OS, and once they are, consider it a psychological illness. Prior to 2009, it was considered a paraphilia. However, those with OS assert that it is merely a sexual orientation where one is attracted to and falls in love with objects instead of people. Although many people with OS are in love with insignificant objects, they compare the crisis of being “in love” with a national monument with being in a long-distance relationship, so many make small-scale models to cope with the separation (objectum-sexuality.org)
Objectum sexuals gained more notoriety after Erika Eiffel appeared on the Tyra show in 2009, and then recently on the National Geographic show Taboo. In the episode, Eiffel touches upon an unavoidable question that most people would have about people in relationships with objects… sex with the Berlin Wall/Eiffel Tower? Eiffel said, “It is very easy for people to get these images in their head: woman and wall, how does that work? It just does, and the details are between us” (channel.nationalgeographic.com). Even for those tolerant (or even believing) of those with OS, most would prefer the “details” to remain that way.