Do you have a mannequin or statue fetish? Curious about this kink?
Agalmatophilia is from the Greek word for “statues” and of course, “philia” is “love of.”
Humans have a long history of intriguing relationships with statues and mannequins. We make them, we admire them, we honor famous people by replicating them, we dress them in store windows, and we even worship them.
Some people take it a step further and have a fetish for statues, dolls, or mannequins.
What Is Agalmatophilia?
Agalmatophilia, or the “love of statues” is a fetish where a person is profoundly attracted to statues or mannequins. They are sexually aroused by statues or sculptures and sometimes have romantic feelings or fall in love. People who experience agalmatophilia may have this erotic desire for a specific statue or for statues in general.
Agalmatophilia is part of a wider umbrella of fetishes called “object sexuality.” People frequently experience sexual attraction to and desire for a wide variety of inanimate objects. The objects range from ashtrays to tables to cars to works of art. They may feel the object has a kind of personality.
Read: All About Objectophilia
Admirers may feel attracted to a genre of objects in general—to bridges or coffee mugs, or statues. Or they may feel a unique attraction to one specific bridge or statue and form a kind of bond or relationship with that object.
Agalmatophilia differs from other focuses of object sexuality because the object in question is lifelike or humanlike. It is a replica of the living, whether realistic or not.
A Fetish for Statues, Mannequins, or Dolls
There are several erotic fetishes for life-like objects such as robots, plush animals, aliens, and various kinds of statues or dolls—sculptures, puppets, figurines, masks, Barbie dolls, sex dolls, mannequins, crash test dummies, and medical school dummies.
People with agalmatophilia may desire to talk with their statue or statues, spend time with it, touch it, get naked with it, or perform particular sex acts with it from kissing to intercourse. They may fantasize about these desires or act them out.
Fetishists may fantasize or act out two or more statues making love to each other. In some cases, the erotic buzz comes from the idea of transforming and becoming a statue, or imagining the statue coming to life.
Read: Doll Fetish and the Dollification Kink
What’s the Psychology Behind Agalmatophilia?
Love of statues is actually quite widespread. We form profound and intense relationships with statues all the time. How many times have you heard someone say about a work of art, “I just fell in love with it”?
You see children constantly attending to and nurturing stuffed animals, dolls, or toy figures, showing them love by feeding them, tucking them into bed, or wheeling them around. We often keep our most beloved dolls and teddies into adulthood and consider them special objects.
Whole communities revolve around statue love in many cases. Public art is often a prize possession of a park, town, or school. Sometimes the affection is so strong that climbing on the statue, hugging it, or posing with it for selfies is a major attraction and frequent ritual. The statue can be a landmark, communal legacy, and deeply loved object in a family or city or country. We flock to these landmarks as tourists.
Our love grows ever more profound in religious ritual. Statues the world over have been considered sacred, holy, and even gods, through time, in most cultures.
Statue Love
Agalmatophilia is a psychologically common, normal, manifestation for humans.
Of course, what we fall in love with is what the statue or doll represents. The statue is symbolic of a greater, unseen force. It is a manifestation of God, or of a deceased historical persona, or in the case of children, it represents friends or future offspring. We act out love for the object, but it is all about the idea the object represents.
The psychology of agalmatophilia may not be far off from our non-sexual affection and attraction to statues and mannequins. Statues represent something profound on a personal or cultural level, and they often seem as if they have living personalities. The agalmatophilia fetish simply takes this to another level by including sexual attraction.
Whether all cases of agalmatophilia or erotic love of statues have the same psychology or cause is up for debate.
The Many Faces of Statue Fetish
People who experience agalmatophilia don’t all feel the same way or have the same psychological profile.
Some people have a longstanding, widespread attraction to objects in general and not to people at all. Others “fall in love” with one statue, one time only, and have happy relationships with humans at other times. Some experience the attraction unexpectedly and in a fleeting way.
Attachment to inanimate objects that represent living beings seems obvious in some cases that the attraction is a substitute for real life. We look down on people who prefer “blow-up dolls” to “real women.” We assume they want perfect bodies that are not realistic and don’t age, and do not have human needs. But it may be that the person cannot fulfill those needs, whether because they are too selfish, or because they have a cognitive or emotional disability.
Read: Are Male Sex Robots Replacing You?
We may likewise assume that people who “can’t get a real date” end up with dolls or statues.
The statue or doll may be protective or non-threatening. Someone who has been traumatized by human beings or who is lonely may create a companion who isn’t really there. They may feel the need to control affection, rejection, and harm.
For some, statue love is all about the need to have sex without emotional complications. The ultimate no strings—no risk at all. But most agalmatophiliacs do feel emotional connection with the objects of their affection.
Read: The Pros & Cons of Sex Robots
Imprinting and Wiring
There are other possibilities. Many cases may be simple imprinting. We often carry our early experiences with us. If our sexual awakening involved pantyhose, a chubby girl, or a white bra, we may always be turned on by that trigger. It is possible many of us became sexual with our stuffed animals, or first noticed the erotic with a naked statue at a museum.
Some experts speculate that object sexuality is more common to people on the autism spectrum, who may have difficulty “reading” emotional signals from other humans.
Still others say it is common for the brain to make a mistake of interpretation, and not just for people with autism. The brain uses information to make patterns from its own experiences. This is why we see horses in clouds or emotions in abstract art. We feel hunger from pictures of cake!
And it isn’t just humans—there is an infamous moose who became amorous with a sculpture of a moose. He returned to visit the bronze moose and mount it regularly!
Actual Cases of Agalmatophilia
Stories about of people with mannequin and stature fetishes. Here are just a few..
1. Man Jailed for Mannequin Fetish
A Detroit man with agalmatophilia was jailed in 2007 for recurring shop break-ins and theft of scantily clad mannequins. Avoid his fate by paying for your mannequin and waiting until you are in the privacy of your own home to get busy.
2. Man Masturbates with Mannequin on Train
Another man with agalmatophilia was arrested earlier this year for masturbating with mannequins on a train, and in front of a shop window. He made love to his leading ladies in front of children.
Statue love is not a crime, but again, keep it behind closed doors.
3. The Statue of Liberty
Amanda Liberty took the last name of her beautiful wife, the beacon of freedom for all, after falling head over heels in love with the famous statue.
4. He’s an Adonis!
A 40-year-old woman fell in love with a marble statue of Adonis that she bought as art. She was in a long-term relationship with the three-foot statue, and loved talking to, touching, eating together, and watching telly with her beautiful naked man.
5. Pygmalion
One of the most famous cases of agalmatophilia is the ancient myth of Pygmalion. This is not an actual case, but rather mythology that attempts to describe the human experience. It is from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and is mentioned in many other myths and literary works, as well as in paintings.
The idea that agalmatophilia is about the inability to love a real person comes from this myth. The sculptor creates an ideal woman who is physically perfect and compliant, and he falls in love with her.
Read: The BIG List of Kinks: 120+ Fetishes Explained
Are you an agalmatophiliac? Tell us about your love of dolls, statues, or mannequins.
Tell us what you think