Humans are sexual beings. The procreation process is quite pleasurable and therefore the process is widespread and has many different variations tailored to people’s desires. Different people have different preferences. This paper focuses on a taboo that has been around for centuries and is still considered grotesque and detestable now as it was long ago. Necrophilia is a sexual attraction to corpses (Necrophilia). The prefix necro is Greek, meaning “death”, and philia is Greek for “love”.
I choose this topic because of the interesting debate in class about Faulkers short story, “ A Rose for Miss Emily”, that insinuated that she was a necrophilic. ?Necrophilia isn’t a new phenomenon. It has been going on since ancient times, with humans and even in the animal kingdom. Important Egyptian men kept their wives 7 days after death in attempt to prevent the embalmers from sexually defiling their corpses. Guards would guard tombs to protect corpses from grave robbers who would either rob the corpses or perform sexual acts with it. Robinson 778).
Legend has it that king Herod of Judea had sex with wife for 7 years after she died ( insert citiation). Many species of birds such as the mallard duck, jay bird and swallow who were observed engaging in necrophilia with the mallard duck having a homosexual necrophilic relations. ( insert citation) ? There are three different types of necrophilia. The pseudo, regular and homicidal necrophile, vary in degrees but all involve sexual arousal and gratification from a dead body.
The pseudo-necrophile only fantasizes about corpses. They can role-play with a live woman who is told to be completely still and even powdered up. These lesser scale versions of necrophiles also get gratified by just viewing a dead body(insert cition). ?Another type of necrophilia is called regular necrophilia where the only way gratification is received is through actual intercourse with a dead body. Since the way to sexual pleasure is through dead bodies, these people find jobs or careers that place them around the dead.
Necrophiles most common access to the dead is through their jobs. These occupations are ambulance driver, morticians, and cemetery employees. ( insert cite) ? The last type and more horrific type of necrophile are called a necro-sadistic offender which is a homicidal necrophile. These necrophiles are felons not because of their sexual acts, but because they obtain their corpses by actually killing people unlike the regular necrophiles who obtain them through their jobs.
Some of these necrophiles engage in mutilation the body. The mutilation also stimulates and satisfies the offender sexually. Experts claim this type of necrophilic activity is the rarest. ( cite source) One would think that for someone to actually kill someone, just to carry out a sexual fantasy, would mean that they are mentally deranged. ?Some necrophiles have been diagnosed with personality disorder but surprisingly a high percentage of them have above average intelligence and normal personalities.
According “Necrophiles have been identified as insensitive to others, possessing a deep hatred for women, and experience an overwhelming fear of rejection. In the latter instance, the perpetrator compensates for feelings of inadequacy inasmuch as the actual sexual activity with a corpse provides the necrophile with sense of having the victim in complete submission to his authority and will. Rejection does not happen, failure does not occur, and humiliation is impossible.
