Welcome to the modern world, dude. Where modern technology has made any number of -- interesting -- sexual fetishes possible.

Sigh.

One fine overnight, I was at a guard post with Jerry Springer on television (the only thing on). That episode was about people who have interesting sexual habits (to understate).

There was the guy who needed whole fish for his fetish. Yeah, the cameras followed him into a fish market where he -- well, I understand why the proprietors tossed him out, okay?

Then there was the guy who had sex with stuffed toys.

And the one who had sex with ice sculptures.

The gal who liked to do it in mud was almost normal by comparison.

Guess what the guys' girlfriends thought of their fetishes. Although, if I recall, the ice guy didn't have anyone.

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

When I was a teenager, I preferred books to people (and there are days when I still do). I'm eternally smitten with Condor Joe, and currently in love with Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan (I don't care if he's only 4'9"!).

But, I think I can safely say that I'm still sufficiently grounded in reality that I will never demand the legal right to wed a fictional character!

might have to take a number there, Ebony!

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"When I'm old, I don't want them to say of me, "She's so charming." I want them to say, "Be careful, I think she's armed." -G. Stoddart

I'm of the opinion that asking the question "Does it hurt anyone?" sort of yields the answer.

The fish was already dead, the stuffed animals don't mind, the ice sculpture isn't going to object and the mud has no opinion. It pleases the one thinking creature who wants those things and it doesn't hurt anybody else around them.

Same with marriage to a two-dimensional person. That creation is no more alive than the fish was, but it brings happiness to the human who wants it and it really doesn't hurt anybody else. So I'm okay with it - lots of other sham marriages out there, with worse circumstances.

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Trample the weak. Hurdle the dead.

....someone innocent not related to the marriage could potentially be hurt.

i'm sorry Amethyst, i'm not what you meant. could you expand on the concept? if they're innocent and un-related to the marriage, what harm are you envisioning, exactly?

just to broaden the topic too, the new statistic is that 1 in 5 relationships now start online. putting "love" in brackets in misleading, at least in my opinion. people can and do fall in love with lines of text on their screen. technically it's written by another person on the other end of the keyboard, but what's to say it's not generated by an AI program or, in the case of the example, just a clever storyline written by a team of authors? if people say they're in love with a digital conversation, why can't they be in love with a digital avatar who comes with a wardrobe, a backstory and a crafted personality?

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Trample the weak. Hurdle the dead.

Perseption

It's interesting to see how the world is changing, the idear of marriage (seen as between male and female) is evolving to fit in with techology and choices, 'fetishes' that were once whispered about and thought of as 'different' are now in normal conversations, the word 'love' defined as great attchament to , affection, passion, desire and longing is now veiwed is a wider spectrum and Perception as by which an organism detects and interprets information from the external world by means of the sensory receptiors can be easily altered by the use of different substances (legal or illegal)
What I may thing as normal for me may be stange to someone else and I am not even going to try and bring in cultural differences,
I think the reasoning of "don't hurt anyone else"rings true for me, yet that brings up the questions of perceptin, is one person pleasure seen as pain to another?'
I think I will stick to " are they happy?" and say go for it, who am I to say its wrong or strange when I have not walked in their shoes.
The world is changing so fast, things are being redefines daily , soon I will be the one saying "in my days / when I was young" and not my mum

Thanks to the dictionary for help in defining facts on words and not what I thought they ment.

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May the bad things get lost on the way to you door!