Ghost-like but not Goth-like, Back’s A/W09 is the epitome of necrophilia rechanneled into fashion. Dream catchers, voodoos, zombies, and corpse brides are the motifs. Back’s clothes balance raw sensuality with deathly sophistication and are recently featured in Lady Gaga’s eye-catching, controversial shoot with skeleton.

Necrophilia isn’t naturally perceived as a taboo by all cultures. In Ancient Peru, for instance, sex with corpses is the means to communicate with the dead; in some Southeast Asian tribal cultures, if a bride dies before marriage, consummation with her dead body is encouraged to appease her soul.

The object of necrophilic desire! But, we must refrain from telling you how to acquire one.

Not really. It is now generally accepted as a fetish, but because necrophilia is a moral taboo, doctors are still looking for the “cures.”  This comes in form of cognitive therapy, hypnosis, medication to reduce sexual urges, etc.

This very distracting term has nothing to do with necrophilia. Invented by the Surrealists, “exquisite corpse” or cadavre exquis, as the French have it, is a method by which images and words are gathered to create collages without a prior arrangement as to how the work should turn out to be.

There, the influences of the death are the most tangible. Designers seem relentless to draw our attention to the appeal of the dead—be it in fashion shoots, Gothic trends, black and red colours, zombie looks and outrageous couture. Dressing up a living body is a deviation of necrophilic taboo onto something sensually daring. Fashion permits us to fantasise with the dead and excuses us from perversion. It readdresses our obsession with life and death.

This Japan’s fashion subculture conflates the cutesy Lolita look with Gothic edge, Victorian costume. Imagine a little girl in a pale face, with dark eyeliners and red ruby lips clutching a Crucifix and a coffin-shaped bag? Definitely she is inspired by death and the allure of danger, corpse-like appearance to make her sensual.

As with all the rest about sexual perversions, the Greek sage had something to say about it. According to Herodotus’s The Histories, beautiful female corpses were left to decay a bit before being given to the embalmers. Why? Some embalmers find corpses deadly irresistible.

Do you need an intercourse with a corpse to be classified as a necrophile? Not always, necrophilia verges between the fantasy and the real. Check out the ten-tiered classification by Anil Aggrawal: (1) Role Players (2) Romantic Necrophiles (3) Necrophilic  Fantasizers (4) Tactile Necrophiles (5) Fetishistic Necrophiles (6) Necro-Mutilo-Maniacs (7) Opportunistic Necrophiles (8) Regular Necrophiles (9) Homocidal Necrophiles (10) Exclusive Necrophiles. For more detail, check out here .

Perhaps the most infamous criminalised necrophile active in the 40s and the 50s, Christie murdered at least six women, including his wife and daughter, by strangulation in his house in Notting Hill. He kept the bodies and allegedly repeatedly had intercourse with them. The police was shocked having found some of his victims in lingerie tucked away in the closet. He was executed by hanging, while his crime is later adapted into films.

There are loads of kinks that simulate necrophilic experience, one of which is called ‘pseudo necrophilia’ and involves a sexual partner lying still—pretending to be dead. Weird? Don’t think so. If you have a talkative partner, this might be an ideal way to shut him up.

In the UK, necrophilia is criminalised under the Sexual Offences Act 2003—along with bestiality and paedophilia—and under the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 viewing and/or possession of necrophilic materials—hopefully this doesn’t include our article here!—is also illegal.

In her High Fashion Crime Scenes series, Pullen captures the sensuality of female models posing as corpses. SUPERSWEET says it’s blasphemously beautiful.

This is the nasty bit—the extreme of sadomasochism—when a sadistic encounter leads to death of a partner and subsequent intercourse with the corpse. We do not condone this!

You must have noticed. When we talk necrophilia, we are mainly talking women as being objectified as a corpse. Not that our culture often view women as passive, but when it comes to penetration, it seems more plausible that a corpse is meant to be penetrated than to penetrate. Also, see S for Studies.

When it comes to necrophilic poems, the Victorians are the best. Look for Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover” and A C Swinburne’s “The Leper.” They both capture the perverse acts vividly.

Just as we prefer beef to mature before we eat it, this has got us thinking, though we don’t have an answer for you. If a necrophile is to couple with a corpse, is there a requirement of how “fresh” the corpse has to be? Give it three days, or a week? And, have it raw?

Is erection after death possible? Oh, yes! Especially if you are being hung—no pun intended—this is proven by forensic evidence. Swift and violent damage to the brain or the spine is believed to cause the willy to grow, though be warned, if your boyfriend experiences an erectile dysfunction, Viagra will be a much safer option than having his upper head banged.

Studies reveal that a necrophile develops low self-esteem. S/he is either afraid of rejection, or afraid of death and transforms his/her fear into a fantasy. Even more bizarre, sometimes, one kindles necrophilic fantasy by a lengthy exposure with a corpse.

An alternative term to describe sexual infatuation with the dead and dead bodies.

If you have a necrophilic urge, either resist it and get help or get a visa and fly into the lands where sex with the dead is not frowned upon.

A friend of mine would love this—actually not just one but hundreds. We are not talking about the gorgeously pale Robert Pattinson but vampirism in general. Necrophilia is here romanticised and symbolised. A killer bite on the bare, smooth neck implies penetration and bleeding. One is turned into a living corpse to fulfil another’s semi-sexual appetite—not to mention the lingering, ecstatic moment between life, death and rebirth. But, on a tacky Hollywood level, Mr Pattinson does make death very sexy.

Renaissance theatre-makers were never afraid of putting taboo on show. Shakespeare wrote about how lovely the dead can look. Imagining Romeo’s body torn into pieces and thrown in the sky, Juliet claims he'll look much lovelier than the twinkling stars. Thomas Middleton went extra miles to depict a tyrant king who wants to seduce this lady, who is clever enough to kill herself before being raped. Unsatisfied, the king will dig her corpse up, have sex with it and crown it his queen! Tell me the Renaissance people weren’t experts!

Unfortunately—oops! FORTUNATELY, necrophilic porn is illegal. Please, do not be too inspired to try Google for one. Yet—sorry we are tempting you into this—our research shows there are 2 German films Nekromantik and Nekromantik 2 offering graphic portrayal of sexual necrophilia.

Necrophilia in art, at least, isn’t at all about sexual obsession but about one’s unfulfilled desire and acquisition of power over another person subjugated by death. Sympathy versus horror, eh? Also, see P for Poetry.

ZZZZorry, we can’t find a Z but by now we have proved there’s more to this taboo than mere sex and death!