The Red Fence - Röda Staketet
The decision to use the Red Swedish Fence or Röda Staketet as our emblem of Objectùm-Sexuality:
The Pioneer
Eija-Riitta Eklöf (1954-2015) lived out her life in North Sweden, the village of Liden where she was born and raised. At 54 years old, she has braved every censor of her orientation. However, in the early days, Eija-Riitta did not face retribution for her connection and relationship with objects. Her family and village did not pass judgment. Why should they? She was a well adjusted and talented model-builder who was not offending anyone and most importantly, she was happy.
Eija-Riitta had hundreds of pen-pals all over the world and was very open about her sexuality with little to no reprisal. She wanted to educate people and to include a typed flyer explaining her sexuality. So, in the early 1970’s, Eija-Riitta with two close friends, Lars and Frank, decided on a term for the orientation to love objects, a name she could tell people that summed up her sexuality. They chose "Objectùm-Sexuality" and it is this Latin terminology that we still use today and often the acronym OS.
June 17, 1979, Eija-Riitta Eklöf followed her heart and married the object of her true desire, the Berlin Wall, unofficially adding Berliner-Mauer to her surname.
In 1996, Eija-Riitta started the first website dedicated to OS in 4 languages. More or less a personal account of her own life and sexuality but also an informative site directed at the nature of OS. It was from these early hand-coded pages that objectùm-sexuality became known in the trenches of the internet.
In 1999, Eija-Riitta launched the first internet group with an extended invitation to anyone interested in discussing objectùm-sexual issues. People poured in but it was unclear if they were actually OS or simply curious and discussions never developed. While this first attempt failed to bring about an open dialog, Eija-Riitta decided to close and reopen another in 2002 with focus directed at providing a more private environment for discussion. Membership required approval and from this selective process came the first active and sincere members of the Objectùm-Sexuality Community.
The Breakthrough
From the founding OS members, Oliver Arndt, a talented artist from Essen started the largest network in Germany for Objektophilie in 2002. These objektophiles have been actively educating the public and courageously addressing the media for many years.
Another founding member was Erika Eiffel, a world class archer and martial artist. She travelled extensively to meet with Oliver and having a kinship love for the Berlin Wall also met with her close friend and sister, Eija-Riitta, in 2006. Later Erika set out to meet all the OS membership in an effort to gather data and learn more about the enigma of objectùm-sexuality. Together, Oliver and Erika successfully adapted their German OS group for English speaking objectum-sexuals in 2004.
In September 2006, Erika came out about her long-time affection for the Berlin Wall and also iron Bridge structures, including the matriarch of Bridges, the Eiffel Tower, which she had a committment ceremony on April 8, 2007. Erika later founded Objectùm-Sexuality Internationale and started a new international forum in February 2008 inviting the assistance of Oliver and Eija-Riitta to help to share the hope started so long ago... to know we are not alone.
The Symbolism...
The Red Fence was cherished by Eija-Riitta as an object she held dear to her heart. As a tribute to her courage and devotion, Röda Staketet is to the objectùm-sexual community... our symbol.
The Meaning...
Fences exist throughout society. We put them up to protect ourselves but not to shut people out. One can look over a Fence and see what’s on the other side. If the grass is indeed greener or not… this we decide for ourselves.
