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]
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]
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.
^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.
^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.
ISBN978-1-4344-5723-3.
^Miller, Alan (1999). Environmental Problem Solving – Psychosocial Barriers to Adaptive Change, part of the Springer Series on Environmental Management. New York City:
Springer.
ISBN978-0-387-98499-5.