View source for Mechanophilia

{{Short description|Sexual attraction to machines}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}
'''Mechanophilia''' (or '''mechaphilia'''<ref>Ceilán, Cynthia (2008).  ''Weirdly Beloved{{spaced ndash}}Tales of Strange Bedfellows, Odd Couplings, and Love Gone Bad''. Guilford, Connecticut:  [[Lyons Press]].  {{ISBN|978-1-59921-403-0}}.</ref>) is a [[paraphilia]] involving a [[sexual attraction]] to machines such as bicycles,<ref name="telegraph.co.uk">Alleyne, Richard (26 October 2007).  [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1567410/Man-who-had-sex-with-bike-in-court.html "Man Who Had Sex with Bike in Court"].  ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''.  Retrieved 18 February 2012.</ref> cars,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2008/05/23/2008-05-23_man_whos_had_sex_with_1000_cars_gives_ne.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206214849/http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2008/05/23/2008-05-23_man_whos_had_sex_with_1000_cars_gives_ne.html|archive-date=6 February 2010|title=Man who's had sex with 1000 cars gives new meaning to auto-erotic|author=Daily News Staff|date=23 May 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/05/12/guy-has-sex-with-car-mechanophilia_n_7264294.html|title=Man Has Sex With Porsche In Thailand, Gets Caught On CCTV Video|newspaper=The Huffington Post UK|author=Ryan Barrell|date=12 May 2015}}</ref> helicopters,<ref>Staff (21 May 2008).  [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2000899/Man-admits-having-sex-with-1000-cars.html "Man Admits Having Sex with 1,000 Cars{{spaced ndash}}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.</ref> and airplanes.<ref>[[Ray B. Browne|Browne, Ray Broadus]] (c. 1981).  ''Objects of Special Devotion{{spaced ndash}}Fetishism in Popular Culture''.  Bowling Green, Ohio:  [[Bowling Green State University Popular Press]].  {{ISBN|978-0-87972-191-6}}.</ref>

Mechanophilia is treated as a crime in some nations with perpetrators being placed on a [[Sex offender registry|sex-offenders' register]] after prosecution.<ref>Hickey, Eric W. (2005).  ''Sex Crimes and Paraphilia''.  [[Prentice Hall]]. p. 91.  {{ISBN|0-13-170350-1}}.</ref> Motorcycles are often portrayed as sexualized fetish objects to those who desire them.<ref>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&ndash;115.</ref>

==Incidents==
In 2015 a man in [[Thailand]] was on caught on [[CCTV]] masturbating himself on the front end of a [[Porsche]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/05/12/guy-has-sex-with-car-mechanophilia_n_7264294.html|title=Man Has Sex With Porsche In Thailand, Gets Caught On CCTV Video|newspaper=The Huffington Post UK|author=Ryan Barrell|date=12 May 2015}}</ref>

In 2008, an American named Edward Smith admitted to 'having sex' with 1000 cars, and the helicopter used in the television show [[Airwolf]].<ref name="carsex">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2000899/Man-admits-having-sex-with-1000-cars.html|title=Man admits having sex with 1,000 cars|date=21 May 2008|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=9 May 2012}}</ref>

==Art, culture and design==
[[File:Fuckzilla--arse elektronika 2007.jpg|thumb|“Fuckzilla”, a mechanophilic creation at [[Arse Elektronika]].]]
[[File:Fucking Machines device example Intruder MK II cropped to machine.jpg|thumb|Intruder MK II, a sex machine featured on [[Fucking Machines]].]]
Mechanophilia has been used to describe important works of the early [[modernist]]s, including in the ''[[Eccentric Manifesto]]'' (1922),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://koti.mbnet.fi/cgurney/reality/newbabylon/em/emcover.html |title=Eccentric Manifesto |publisher=Koti.mbnet.fi |access-date=2 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104040703/http://koti.mbnet.fi/cgurney/reality/newbabylon/em/emcover.html |archive-date=4 November 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> written by [[Leonid Trauberg]], [[Sergei Yutkevich]], [[Grigori Kozintsev]] and others<ref>Mishra, Michael (2008).  ''A Shostakovich Companion''.  Westport, Connecticut: [[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]]. p. 446. {{ISBN|978-0-313-30503-0}}.</ref><ref>Kolocotroni, Vassiliki; [[Jane Goldman|Goldman, Jane]]; Taxidou, Olga (1998).  ''Modernism{{spaced ndash}}An Anthology of Sources and Documents''.  Chicago, Illinois: [[University of Chicago Press]].  {{ISBN|978-0-226-45073-5}}.</ref>{{spaced ndash}}members of the [[Factory of the Eccentric Actor]], a modernist [[avant-garde]] movement that spanned Russian [[futurism]] and [[constructivism (art)|constructivism]].

The term has entered into the realms of [[science fiction]] and popular fiction.<ref>[[Damien Broderick|Broderick, Damien]] (2009).  ''Unleashing the Strange{{spaced ndash}}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}}.</ref>

Scientifically, in ''Biophilia{{spaced ndash}}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 hypothesis|biophilia]]",<ref>Castricano, Jodey (2008).  ''Animal Subjects{{spaced ndash}}An Ethical Reader in a Posthuman World'', part of ''Cultural Studies, 8''.  Waterloo, Ontario:  [[Wilfrid Laurier University Press]].  {{ISBN|978-0-88920-512-3}}.</ref> whereas psychologists such as [[Erich Fromm]] would see it as a form of [[necrophilia]].<ref>Miller, Alan (1999).  ''Environmental Problem Solving{{spaced ndash}}Psychosocial Barriers to Adaptive Change'', part of the ''Springer Series on Environmental Management''. New York City:  [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]].  {{ISBN|978-0-387-98499-5}}.</ref>

Designers such as [[Francis Picabia]] and [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]] have been said to have exploited the sexual attraction of automobiles.<ref>McDonagh, Deana; ''et al.'' (2004). ''Design and Emotion{{spaced ndash}} The Experience of Everyday Things''.  London: [[Taylor & Francis]].  {{ISBN|978-0-415-30363-7}}.</ref>

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.<ref>[[Steven Heller (graphic design)|Heller, Steven]]; [[Philip B. Meggs|Meggs, Philip B.]] (2001).  ''Texts on Type{{spaced ndash}}Critical Writings on Typography''.  [[Allworth Press]]. {{ISBN|978-1-58115-082-7}}.</ref> Although not all such uses are sexual in intent, the terms are also used for specifically erotogenic fixation on machinery<ref>[[Mark S. Roberts|Roberts, Mark S.]] (Autumn 1996).  "Wired{{spaced ndash}}Schreber as Machine, Technophobe, and Virtualist". ''[[TDR (journal)|TDR{{spaced ndash}}The Drama Review]]''. Vol. 40. No. 3. pp. 31–46. {{ISSN|1054-2043}}.  {{OCLC|485115324}}.</ref> and taken to its extreme in hardcore pornography as ''[[Fucking Machines]]''.<ref>[[Arthur Asa Berger|Berger, Arthur Asa]] (1997).  ''The Postmodern Presence{{spaced ndash}}Readings on Postmodernism in American Culture and Society''.  Walnut Creek, California; London:  [[AltaMira Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-7619-8980-6}}.</ref>  This mainly involves women being sexually penetrated by machines for male consumption,<ref>Bonik, M.; Schaale, A. (2005).  ''The Naked Truth{{spaced ndash}}Internet Eroticism''.  [[Institute of Network Culture]]. {{ISBN|978-90-78146-03-2}}{{clarify|date=February 2012|reason=isbn provided is to different title/author; unable to locate cited title/autors at worldcat; needs a bit more research}}</ref> which are seen as being the limits of current sexual biopolitics.<ref>Loza, Susana (October 2001).  "Sampling (Hetero)sexuality{{spaced ndash}}Diva-ness and Discipline in Electronic Dance Music".  ''[[Popular Music (magazine)|Popular Music]]''. [[Cambridge University Press]]. Volume 20. Number 3. pp. 349–357.  {{ISSN|0261-1430}}. {{OCLC|486294262}}.</ref>

[[Arse Elektronika]], an annual conference organized by the [[Austria]]n arts-and-philosophy collective [[monochrom]], has propagated a DIY/feminist approach to sex machines.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/ |title=Arse Elektronika |publisher=Monochrom.at |access-date=2 November 2013}}</ref>

Authors have drawn a connection between mechanophilia and masculine militarisation, citing the works of animator [[Yasuo Ōtsuka]] and [[Studio Ghibli]].<ref>[[Thomas Lamarre|Lamarre, Thomas]] (2009).  ''The Anime Machine{{spaced ndash}}A Media Theory of Animation''.  Minneapolis, Minnesota:  [[University of Minnesota Press]].  {{ISBN|978-0-8166-5154-2}}.</ref>

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 (1996 film)|Crash]]'' concerns a cult of people fascinated by car crashes.

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

==Documentaries==
*''My Car is My Lover'' (2008)<ref>[http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/292/my-car-is-my-lover.jsp] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091213005428/http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/292/my-car-is-my-lover.jsp |date=13 December 2009 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Human sexuality}}
* [[Arse Elektronika]]
* [[Gynoid]]
* [[Object sexuality]]
* [[I'm in Love with My Car]]
* [[Sex robot]]
{{clear}}

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
* [[Anil Aggrawal|Aggrawal, Anil]] (2009).  ''Forensic and Medico-Legal Aspects of Sexual Crimes and Unusual Sexual Practices''.  Boca Raton, Florida:  [[CRC Press]].  p.&nbsp;376.  {{ISBN|978-1-4200-4308-2}}.
* [[Edward O. Wilson|Wilson Edward O.]] (1984).  ''Biophilia{{spaced ndash}}The Human Bond with Other Species''. Cambridge, Massachusetts:  [[Harvard University Press]].  p.&nbsp;116.  {{ISBN|978-0-674-07441-5}}.

{{paraphilia}}

[[Category:Machines]]
[[Category:Paraphilias]]