3. PYGMALIONISTS

3.0: WHAT IS PYGMALIONISM?

     In the past, this has been called statue fetishism, or if you want to get into a REAL 20 dollar latin word, Agalmatophilia.  I like to call it Pygmalionism, as it's called by BDSM people that really don't know that much about it, after the greek myth of the sculptor that started to create a statue of Aphrodite, and in the end, sculpted her into his ideal woman and named her Galatea. And fell deeply in love with her. 

     In any case, to say that people into this sort of thing are aroused and excited by the immobile human form. The object of affection can be living or any material one might imagine. The object may be rigidly solid, or fluidly posable. So long as there is some statue-like immobility involved.

3.1  WAIT, WAIT, WAIT. YOU WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH A STATUE???

     As before, the answer is no and yes.  For my own part, the thrill here isn't a solid stone statue.  It's an immobile posable living breathing human being.  One that can be interacted with on more than just the level of visual appreciation. Like before, I'm no-where close to being indicative of the general mindset. It's different things for different people, just like with any area of adult interest.  My assumption is again that the underlying thing is a sort of bondage-related exchange of power.

3.2  SO WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR IN A GOOD PYGMALIONIST FANTASY?

     As mentioned before, there's all sorts of operative roles and roleplaying involved here.  With that of the controlled, or in this case, the transformed, there's the victim of an evil spell, curse, or Gorgon's stare. There's the Living Mannequin.  The person immobilized, polymerized, or plasticized by some potion or mad-science doodad.  The hypnotically frozen living statue.  The person turned to wax, gold, marble, plaster, alabaster, plastic, ice, crystal, fiberglass, etc... etc... Anything you can think up that might involve being a statue or immobile person is fair game.

     In some cases it's not even the state of immobility as the actual petrifaction, gilding, dipping, waxing, freezing, etc.  For some it’s the ACT of transformation from a mobile and seemingly living being to an immobile seeming object.  Some seem to relish and collect pictures in which the subject of transformation seems confused looking or perhaps caught off guard or abruptly terrified or in the middle of some mundane task.  All the better to overlay with the texture of the substance they find most arousing.

     Some are really into metals, the hard perfection of steel, bronze, copper, lead, chrome, silver or gold. Others are into the classic plaster, marble or alabaster look, denoting the look of a statue from myth, sculpted by some artist extraordinary, or petrified by a Gorgon.

     Still others are quite into seeing the ASFR-like start up and stopping part of the transformation itself, to see the features slowly or quickly change from the normal hues of life to that of their favourite substance.  Hearing the voice slow and quiet away to nothing, or cut off abruptly in the dry crackling of quick petrifaction.

     Still others have their world rocked by the doll-like pose-ability of the living mannequin or hypnotically frozen statue-person. Free to dress, undress, insert things into or impale one’s-self upon, all the while leaving the immobilized person completely aware of their situation and the helplessness in the face of an arousal they have no choice but to experience until their minds go quite away, leaving a frozen living breathing orgasmic monument to lust.

     And yes there are several types of roles for that of the immobiliser. There’s that of the Gorgon, the Visual Merchandiser, the Scientist/Inventor, the good or evil witch or wizard, Super-Villain. And that's just off the top of my head.

     And as with ASFR, any combination of the above can suit anyone at any given time. I myself would completely dig a completely reflective gold Milla Jovovich from the neck down, only as warm and yielding as flesh.  Completely mobile, freezable or posable to any degree I happened to want at the moment.  Others may be just fine watching a woman or man climb into some science fiction hypersleep tube and see them frost up as they drop into suspended animation. Still others wouldn't need a tube for that at all and are just fine with the idea of someone encased in ice, like icicles that cover pine needles in the snow. 

     Some don't need the ice at all.  There is a series of telephone wireless commercials that star Catherine Zeta Jones, in which she'll walk into a scene and say 'Freeze'.  And EVERYONE stops around her, time-frozen in their tracks. Which is another LARGE part of this side of the fetish.  Timestop.  As with the old movie, 'The Girl, The Gold Watch & Everything', where Robert Hays clicked the magical pocketwatch his relative created, and he remained mobile in a frozen world, free to manipulate things and people (and the yummy Pam Dawber) around him until he started time back up again.

     And for some folks, the immobility doesn't even need to be total. There is the idea in some bondage erotica that the person all tied up struggling against their bonds is quite exciting.  If the immobilized person could say look around using only their eyes, or move only their lips, they might be able to denote a full awareness of their situation all that much more, speaking through a clenched jaw, or following the immobilizer with their eyes.

     In some instances, this carries over to the immobilized person being able to move for the most part, but they've been frozen to one spot! Like they've trodden in a puddle of super glue and have suddenly become rooted to the floor. Or had their hand glued to their hip.  Or breast.  Or sex. Or whatever.  This falls in line with bondage themes to do with proscribed or limited movements.  Only this isn't cuffs, rope and chains. This is just good ol ACME glue like you remember from the cartoons.  Or perhaps it could just be a posthypnotic suggestion.

     Going back to the other extreme again, there's the fantasy of making someone a statue for an indefinite period. When the immobilized person is sealed inside their mannequin shell, vibrating whatsits against their hottest parts, driving them to distraction? Or when the bliss-like calm and arousal starts to build and build inside the petrified or gilded statue-person, one part of the tension for the immobilized might be, 'Oh god, how long am I going to be left like this??' An hour? Days?  Weeks? Again there's the possibility of turning the lucid and coherent mind into blissed out and unfocussed arousal.  It's just a matter of time, as they say.

3.3: ISN'T THIS A LITTLE ONE-SIDED?

     In Real Life fantasy play?  Not at all! Like I said, there's a big ol’ exchange of power happening here along with some ropeless bondage-like play, along with roleplay sometimes.  The object may be made to feel like the most beautiful and treasured piece of art in the world, only for the eyes of their sculptor. They may be able to relax into a sensual haze, letting their minds go as empty as a fiberglass mannequin's head.  They may be acting on fantasies in which they're helpless before a cruel or evil villain, frozen into immobility so said villain can have their wicked way with them.  There's quite a few stories of this sort involving the 'Damsel in Distress' archetype.

yourself.  And it involves a lot of creative play. But if you're the type that likes everything just so, or to be in such control that you're in COMPLETE control of the other's body, I can see how this might appeal

     There's also the opportunity here for a lot of safe voyeurism in a world where most people are conditioned to scrutinize and ogle the opposite sex in the media, but not REAL people. Staring is considered rude.  Or sexist.  For someone that doesn't want to be considered a complete sleaze in modern society, what better way could there be to take your time in admiring the form of the gender of your attraction?  The indulged fantasy of immobility, whether happening online looking at a photomanipulation or movie, or happening with a willing partner, the immobiliser has been given permission to take as long and safe a look as they like. Or do more than just look. They have all the time to explore and satisfy their curiosity or fascination with the form of the 'object' of their attraction.

     In the areas of time stop or prolonged immobilizations in fiction or media where the body ceases to age, there may be some similarities to the fantasy of never growing old. A common theme or motive among the more sinister archetypes, and sometimes not at all sinister types of immobiliser is the idea that they're preserving the beauty of the immobilized person against the ravages of time. In the more consensual fantasies, this theme works into a mutually beneficial thing; as with the immobilized person working as a preserved mannequin for some store. Who effectively doesn't age for weeks on end, provides their body for scrutiny by those that may find them beautiful, is paid for it, and lives for a span of years FAR beyond what they might be normally alotted.

     And of course there are themes of reversal in this fantasy as well. For people that like to switch off on roles or see the 'villain' get their come-uppance at last. The immobilized person may finally get their lucky break and turn the tables on their captor. Or the captor may accidentally turn the tables on themselves through scientific, sorcerous, or just plain unlucky misadventure.  This scenario doesn't even have to include the immobilized person being unfrozen. 

     A rather well known episode of the old television show, Get Smart, ‘Our Man in Leotards’, has our secret agent parody, Maxwell Smart, endowed with an 'immobilo' injector ring.  In the ring is a tiny needle that injects people with, you guessed it, an immobilizing chemical.  Near the end of the episode, Max inadvertently freezes The Chief and some foreign dignitaries by just shaking hands with them and wearing the ring.  And then freezes his lovely partner, Agent 99! (Barbara Feldon) A lot of shows today may have just stopped there.  (Well, Agent Mulder may have thought of it too.)  But does Max? Hell no! He knows an opportunity when he sees it.  He takes a kiss!  And deciding to go one better still, he tilts 99's head, puckers her lips.  Kisses her. And injects HIMSELF in the act of kissing her! Would you believe Pygmalionism in the 1960's, ladies and gents?

3.5: SUPER! SO WHERE CAN I FIND PYGMALIONIST EROTICA?

Ooookay. I suppose you were going to ask me that eventually.  In the past, a LONG while back, we had The Mannequin Lover's Homepage and The Hall of Statuary.  Those have gone the way of all things, and most of the older and original pages to do with these fetishes. To Data Heaven.

Today? We have pages that have risen to fill the void left by these venerable older pages by folks like Mannequin Lover and ArgoForg. Here's a sampling of a few...

The Living Mannequin Circle
http://www.freezemodeling.com/
 

Stuckfast Productions
http://www.geocities.com/stuckfastprod/
or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StuckfastsCapturedMoments
 

The Medusa Realm
http://www.many-realms.net/Medusa/index.html
 

Indirect Image Photography
www.indirectimage.com
or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indirectimagephotography
 

Mannequeen
www.mannequeen.com
 

These are GREAT places to start. 'The Medusa Realm' is an especially good place to start as a jumping off point to all sorts of pages by artists and authors and producers of Pygmalionist Erotica.

     That’s the end of the Pygmalionist section of this great honking FAQ.  If you have any questions I didn’t answer, or would like to submit some facts of your own, E-Mail me at jt_winterrose@graffiti.net If you’d like to know about some of the other facets of sexuality in this group of fetishes I’ve written about, please do follow the links below.