when i was a wee thing pretending to be an adult online, i had a friend who i spoke with daily. i'll call them MK. MK was many things. i have many stories to tell about this person but for now i will talk about one of many things they made me aware of: objectophilia.
you may have heard of it. that lady who married the eiffel tower for one. many people think, "wow, that's weird!" and then they go along their day. but as i spent a lot of time with MK, i learned a lot about them, and a lot about the paraphilia (as it manifested for them).
i don't have anything against people who are into that. i somewhat understand; i have a stronger connection to inanimate objects than most people, too. maybe this person rubbed off on me, or maybe i was just predisposed to it
some people are just naturally like that. it's not my place to judge. if you're into your fence, or an old airplane carrier you dream of meeting in real life, or your pillow of your car or whatever, who am i to judge?
but, here's some observations i've had.
it's strange that, if you make a wrong turn, it seems like many people on the internet these days are not only aware of objectophiles but supportive of them. it's not a bad thing per se, but it's very strange.
it's still a closed-off community for internet freaks, but it was even more so back then. these days if you're not careful you can easily run into these types on twitter or even tiktok
they call themselves "objectum". maybe they were too scared of the phile part in objectophile. maybe it made them think of pedophiles, necrophiles, zoophiles... those are the big 3 "scary paraphilias". but phile simply means -lover. there is such thing as podophilia, the word for for people with foot fetishes...
back when i hung around these places, thanks to MK, the term objectum wasn't a thing. if it was, i never really heard it, or at least not enough to remember. people proudly called themselves objectophiles, or if they wanted a slightly nicer label, it was all OSOR. that stands for object sexuality, object romance. (even then it was usually OS.)
you look upon these "objectum" spaces, and they are full of people only in love with their computers. this is not really a bad thing. MK was in love with their desktop computer. i am, in one way or another, in love with my laptops; not in a romantic sense, but i believe they each hold souls, and they each have names, and i think of them very dearly.
but MK was also into their old family car. they wrote fiction about a man in love with his guitar, too. it's curious that many of these objectum people don't seem to have interest in any other objects at all, and some of these computer-lovers believe the others to be weird...?
again, i understand having a type, but it's curious. very curious.
these observations aren't negative at all, despite my cynical tone. it's purely interesting to me. i wish all objectophiles lovely days and hope they find the things that bring them love and joy, because i am not a cruel person
besides, i believe a certain musician has to be OSOR in some way.