Dakimakura

(This isn't for the blog assignment. Just sharing research spurred by curiosity.)

Dakimakura is an anime pillow.
Otaku is a general term for a fan that's more like a fanatic. An anime otaku would be equivalent of a Star Trek fan at the level of a Trekkie.
It's been hard to find pages in English, but from inital searches, the marriage between Otaku and Dakimakura trend is not really a trend. The body pillows are a huge market, but the instances of men escorting their "girlfriends" out in public are hardly commonplace.

A community has coined the phrase Objectum sexulaity (OS), created by a German woman who married the Berlin Wall in 1979.
I coul NOT find any results for this term in EBSCO searches. There is a "journal article" link on the OS website for an Electronic Journal. The citation yield no scholarly articles with the exception of one of a case study on a person who believes objects have personalities and opinions.
So, it seems, this is not only not recognized as a disorder, but not even worth writing about in any peer-reviewed journals.
Does it have the potential to be a "Grandma just don't understand" of future generations? Even with the internet community and support, it doesn't seem to be bringing silent suffers out of the closet like apotemnphilia.

OS support and info website: http://www.objectum-sexuality.org/


http://www.bodypillowcovers.org/tag/anime

http://m24digital.com/en/2010/03/09/a-man-marries-his-pillow/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+momento24-en+(Momento+24+English)

http://www.delta-optimist.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Complete+list+Sunday+Oscar+winners/2652819/Modern+love+generation/1877845/story.html?id=1877845