Mechanophilia

Mechanophilia (or mechaphilia^[1]) is a paraphilia involving a sexual attraction to machines such as bicycles,^[2] cars,^[3][4] helicopters,^[5] and airplanes.^[6]

Mechanophilia is treated as a crime in some nations with perpetrators being placed on a sex-offenders' register after prosecution.^[7] Motorcycles are often portrayed as sexualized fetish objects to those who desire them.^[8]

Incidents

In 2015 a man in Thailand was on caught on CCTV masturbating himself on the front end of a Porsche.^[9]

In 2008, an American named Edward Smith admitted to 'having sex' with 1000 cars, and the helicopter used in the television show Airwolf.^[10]

Art, culture and design

 

“Fuckzilla”, a mechanophilic creation at Arse Elektronika.

 

Intruder MK II, a sex machine featured on Fucking Machines.

Mechanophilia has been used to describe important works of the early modernists, including in the Eccentric Manifesto (1922),^[11] written by Leonid Trauberg, Sergei Yutkevich, Grigori Kozintsev and others^[12][13] – members of the Factory of the Eccentric Actor, a modernist avant-garde movement that spanned Russian futurism and constructivism.

The term has entered into the realms of science fiction and popular fiction.^[14]

Scientifically, in Biophilia – The Human Bond with Other Species by Edward O. Wilson, Wilson is quoted describing mechanophilia, the love of machines, as "a special case of biophilia",^[15] whereas psychologists such as Erich Fromm would see it as a form of necrophilia.^[16]

Designers such as Francis Picabia and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti have been said to have exploited the sexual attraction of automobiles.^[17]

Culturally, critics have described it as "all-pervading" within contemporary Western society and that it seems to overwhelm our society and all too often our better judgment.^[18] Although not all such uses are sexual in intent, the terms are also used for specifically erotogenic fixation on machinery^[19] and taken to its extreme in hardcore pornography as Fucking Machines.^[20] This mainly involves women being sexually penetrated by machines for male consumption,^[21] which are seen as being the limits of current sexual biopolitics.^[22]

Arse Elektronika, an annual conference organized by the Austrian arts-and-philosophy collective monochrom, has propagated a DIY/feminist approach to sex machines.^[23]

Authors have drawn a connection between mechanophilia and masculine militarisation, citing the works of animator Yasuo Ōtsuka and Studio Ghibli.^[24]

The 1973 French film La Grande Bouffe includes a scene of a man and a car copulating, to fatal effect.

David Cronenberg's 1996 film Crash concerns a cult of people fascinated by car crashes.

The 2021 French film and Palme d'Or winner Titane depicts scenes of a mechanophilic woman having sex with cars.

Documentaries

• My Car is My Lover (2008)^[25]

See also

•  Human sexuality portal

• Arse Elektronika
• Gynoid
• Object sexuality
• I'm in Love with My Car

References

1. Ceilán, Cynthia (2008). Weirdly Beloved – Tales of Strange Bedfellows, Odd Couplings, and Love Gone Bad. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press. ISBN 978-1-59921-403-0.
2. Alleyne, Richard (26 October 2007). "Man Who Had Sex with Bike in Court". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
3. Daily News Staff (23 May 2008). . Archived from the original on 6 February 2010.
4. Ryan Barrell (12 May 2015). "Man Has Sex With Porsche In Thailand, Gets Caught On CCTV Video". The Huffington Post UK.
5. Staff (21 May 2008). "Man Admits Having Sex with 1,000 Cars – A Man Who Claims To Have Had Sex with 1,000 Cars Has Defended His 'Romantic' Feelings Towards Vehicles". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
6. Browne, Ray Broadus (c. 1981). Objects of Special Devotion – Fetishism in Popular Culture. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. ISBN 978-0-87972-191-6.
7. Hickey, Eric W. (2005). Sex Crimes and Paraphilia. Prentice Hall. p. 91. ISBN 0-13-170350-1.
8. Thompson, Steven L. (January 2000). "The Arts of the Motorcycle: Biology, Culture, and Aesthetics in Technological Choice". Technology and Culture. Volume 41, Number 1. pp. 99–115.
9. Ryan Barrell (12 May 2015). "Man Has Sex With Porsche In Thailand, Gets Caught On CCTV Video". The Huffington Post UK.
10. "Man admits having sex with 1,000 cars". The Daily Telegraph. 21 May 2008. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
11. . Koti.mbnet.fi. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
12. Mishra, Michael (2008). A Shostakovich Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. p. 446. ISBN 978-0-313-30503-0.
13. Kolocotroni, Vassiliki; Goldman, Jane; Taxidou, Olga (1998). Modernism – An Anthology of Sources and Documents. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-45073-5.
14. Broderick, Damien (2009). Unleashing the Strange – Twenty-First Century Science Fiction Literature, part of the I. O. Evans Studies in the Philosophy & Criticism of Literature, Number 47. San Bernardino, California: Borgo Press. ISBN 978-1-4344-5723-3.
15. Castricano, Jodey (2008). Animal Subjects – An Ethical Reader in a Posthuman World, part of Cultural Studies, 8. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 978-0-88920-512-3.
16. Miller, Alan (1999). Environmental Problem Solving – Psychosocial Barriers to Adaptive Change, part of the Springer Series on Environmental Management. New York City: Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-98499-5.
17. McDonagh, Deana; et al. (2004). Design and Emotion – The Experience of Everyday Things. London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-30363-7.
18. Heller, Steven; Meggs, Philip B. (2001). Texts on Type – Critical Writings on Typography. Allworth Press. ISBN 978-1-58115-082-7.
19. Roberts, Mark S. (Autumn 1996). "Wired – Schreber as Machine, Technophobe, and Virtualist". TDR – The Drama Review. Vol. 40. No. 3. pp. 31–46. ISSN 1054-2043. OCLC 485115324.
20. Berger, Arthur Asa (1997). The Postmodern Presence – Readings on Postmodernism in American Culture and Society. Walnut Creek, California; London: AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0-7619-8980-6.
21. Bonik, M.; Schaale, A. (2005). The Naked Truth – Internet Eroticism. Institute of Network Culture. ISBN 978-90-78146-03-2^{[clarification needed]}
22. Loza, Susana (October 2001). "Sampling (Hetero)sexuality – Diva-ness and Discipline in Electronic Dance Music". Popular Music. Cambridge University Press. Volume 20. Number 3. pp. 349–357. ISSN 0261-1430. OCLC 486294262.
23. "Arse Elektronika". Monochrom.at. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
24. Lamarre, Thomas (2009). The Anime Machine – A Media Theory of Animation. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-5154-2.
25. [1] 13 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine

Further reading

• Aggrawal, Anil (2009). Forensic and Medico-Legal Aspects of Sexual Crimes and Unusual Sexual Practices. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. p. 376. ISBN 978-1-4200-4308-2.
• Wilson Edward O. (1984). Biophilia – The Human Bond with Other Species. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-674-07441-5.