“A Sioux Falls man is charged with indecent exposure after being found partially unclothed and lying on the floor with a female mannequin in the Washington Pavilion. Michael James Plentyhorse, 18, 708 N. Dakota Ave., was discovered by a Pavilion security officer at 4:35 p.m. Monday in the Washington High School Alumni Room, police said. The guard observed Plentyhorse with his pants and underclothing down and lying next to the half-naked female mannequin, a police report states. “There was inappropriate activity between him and the mannequin. That’s the only way I know how to put it,” Sioux Falls police officer Loren McManus said. Security staff at the Pavilion say they have noticed the same mannequin has previously been found undressed on several occasions, McManus said.” —Argus Leader (US)

This is not the least common fetish. It stems all the way back to the Greek myth in which Pygmalion falls in love with a statue that he has carved of a beautiful woman. What’s more, there are sexual perversions that effectively reduce living humans to mannequins or toy things. When you tie somebody up and put a gag on him, you’re pushing him a step in the direction of dollhood. And psychologists have long noted that necrophiliac urges can express themselves not just in a desire for cadavers but also in strange lusts for sleeping women or for mannequins.

That being said, odds are that this guy is no necrophile, and he’s probably not even much of a perv. Look at his age: eighteen. He could easily be some sexually frustrated teen who just happened to discover this mannequin at the Washington Pavilion. Combine that frustration with the poor judgement typical of teenagers and it’s easy to see how the guy might have thought he could get away with jerking off on a naked mannequin. In fact, he’d probably gotten away with it on previous occasions, given that security guards had found the mannequin undressed in the past.

Another article about the case states that Mr. Plentyhorse, if convicted, will have to register as a sex offender. A prosecutor implies that this offense could have been the beginning of a slippery slope toward more nefarious sex crimes. And who knows? It could have been. But somehow it seems like too much is being made of it. Is it really worthwhile to have him register as a sex offender? Will they arrest him if he happens to wander through the women’s clothing aisle at the local Wal-Mart? It’s not as though you can really commit a sex crime against a mannequin.

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