Many couples are putting off their weddings because of the coronavirus pandemic, but for a lot of couples in love, it’s merely a blip in the road to their marriage. Meanwhile, Amanda Liberty, from the British city of Leeds, has claimed that she is dating an inanimate object – a 92-year-old chandelier.
She made an appearance in UK newspaper The Sun, and complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation, claiming that The Sun was discriminating against her sexual orientation, which she has described as an attraction to inanimate objects. This has been described as ‘objectum sexual’ in an academic paper.
She lost her case against The Sun, but it hasn’t stopped her from her plans to marry her favorite chandlier, Lumiere. Sadly, Amanda and Lumiere aren’t able to officially get married, but she will instead be having a commitment ceremony, as she wants to prove that “I’m here for Lumiere and that my love is going to last.”
She first bought Lumiere on eBay from Germany for £400, and she proposed to the inanimate object on Valentine’s Day 2017.
Chandeliers
Amanda loves a number of chandeliers, taking Jewel to bed with her, but sporting a tattoo of Lumiere, who remains her favorite – so it seems unlikely that we’ll see a divorce in the future. Aside from chandeliers, she once loved a drum kit, and was also in love with the Statue of Liberty, even changing her surname by deed poll from Whittaker to display her love for the state she called ‘Libby’.
Perhaps surprisingly, other people with objectum sexuality have showcased their own love for inanimate objects. Take, for example, Eija-Riita Berliner-Mauer, who married the Berlin Wall in 1979, taking its surname in German. The native Swede first fell in love after seeing it on TV as a child, and kept various models of the wall in her room. Moreover, American woman Erika Eiffel married the Eiffel Tower thirteen years ago, and founded OS Internationale, a group for people whose orientation is objectum sexual.
If you’re looking for more weird weddings, check out nine of the most unusual ceremonies here on our site!