A growing subculture is taking hold of America. Known as 'masking', it involves (almost exclusively) men donning latex female bodysuits, slinky dresses and wigs in an effort to transform themselves into pretty girls. So far, so RuPaul, right?
Well, there's a little bit of a difference. These men also don uncanny-valley-territory rubber masks that make them look like walking, talking, living dolls. In a documentary aired recently in the UK, 'Secrets of the Living Dolls', we were treated to an insight into these men's lives. Their main pleasure in life is to talc themselves up and squeeze into a latex suit made up to look like their idea of the perfect woman's body. Few of them dare to hit the streets, instead preferring to simply take pictures of themselves in their home in various poses. These 'femskin' doll suits are made by a mother-son team in Florida, who report that they now 'ship all over the world, but mostly to Germany', which gives a little bit of insight into how popular this subculture is really becoming. 'Masking' is the term given to the men pulling a dead-eyed, latex, woman's face over their own and lacing it up in the back in a scene eerily reminiscent of an Ed Gein documentary.
The documentary followed the men, some of them braving going into the outside world for the first time, while others 'come out' as dolls to their bemused friends. Father of six, John, says of his hobby that he decided to become a sexy doll in order to: "Be what he couldn't have."
These men are not homosexual, nor transgender. They simply want to transform into an image of their 'dream girl'.
The dolls have their own social networking site, known as 'dollspride.com' and they have meetups. 'Secrets of the Living Dolls' showed the group of living dolls go to a nightclub, where they were treated almost as celebrities, with people asking for photographs with them and curiously asking them questions.
Their look seemed to inspire curiousity, but as with anyone looking different, they attracted the odd confrontation and verbal abuse. The documentary did not delve deeply into the psyche of these men, rather glossing over the aesthetic of becoming a doll, but nonetheless, it throws a light on an aspect of society that we rarely get to see. 'Secrets of the Living Dolls' also raises some troubling questions, namely about the aspect of self-identity and acceptance and tolerance of others who are deemed to be 'different'. One of the living dolls was asked by the film-maker whether he thought that his living dolls subculture would ever be accepted? "Not in my lifetime." he answered, sadly. It's interesting to consider that these subcultures may become more accepted within the next 50 years, just as drag is becoming nowadays.
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