They are straight men who don’t consider themselves gay, but who enjoy their “transformation” and spend most of their money on trying to look like living dolls. For some it is a fetish, while others do it for the attention or simply as a form of free expression. They are rubber dolls or maskers.A British […]
They are straight men who don’t consider themselves gay, but who enjoy their “transformation” and spend most of their money on trying to look like living dolls. For some it is a fetish, while others do it for the attention or simply as a form of free expression. They are rubber dolls or maskers.
A British documentary is generating buzz among international media outlets about the hidden lives of men, mostly heterosexual, who share a particular lifestyle: dressing in silicon suits to look like living dolls. The documentary My Strange Addiction: Men in Doll Suits explores the lives of ordinary, run-of-the-mill family men who live a double life dressing up in rubber suits to become their ideal fantasy woman.
That is the case of Robert (name has been changed), a 71-year-old real estate agent who spends several hours each week as “Sherry”, a voluptuous blond who goes shopping and steps out on the street taking selfies and drawing attention with her prosthetics, fillers, and completely deadpan latex mask.
Ron is another man we meet in this documentary, who was married for 20 years and decided to end it after growing sick of arguing. In the programme he mentions that after his divorce he felt freer to do his favourite hobby: dressing up as a latex doll. In his interview for the documentary, where he reveals his identity, he says “I do it because it gives me control. I love the attention I get when I dress up like a doll”.
The latex business
It’s worth nothing that the latex business is far from cheap and can even be quite discreet. On the Internet you can find many mentions of the company FemSkin, run by Bárbara Ramos and her children, who create silicon and latex humanoids priced at US$850 and up. All together it takes several hours to produce each piece, which can weigh around 12 pounds.
The company’s website is femskin.com which claims that it is “recognized as the innovative leader in the application and advancement of silicone prosthetics for the transgender community worldwide”. The world of Rubber Dolls includes four thousand living dolls in the United States, England, Germany, some Soviet states and Japan. The Ramos family has exported four hundred thousand dolls and sponsors the Rubber Dolls World Rendezvous, the most important event of the year for rubber dolls.
Despite the fact that those who lead this double life may be judged, they do it as a fetish, to draw attention or to feel free, and most of them are heterosexuals who, unlike transsexuals, don’t believe they were born into the wrong body, and are just looking to have fun and disconnect from reality.
The transformation process
To dress up like a doll the men put talcum powder on their skin while they slip on their special latex rubber suit that covers their entire body, with a few holes for seeing, talking and breathing. They can also choose between several types of masks that either come already made-up or a neutral version that they can make up however they want.
They generally adopt a woman’s name, which they use once they are dressed up as a doll to shake off their masculine personality and connect with their alter ego, changing their voice and behaving differently than they do in reality.
Some of these rubber dolls can be found on social media sharing their doll lives with their fans, like Jennifer Phillips @RubberdollJenny and Kigluka @kigluka (both on Twitter), and @rubberfashiondoll and Lucy Lu @lucy_lu_doll (on Instagram). The latter is a lover of peace and harmony, as a way of bringing good into the world.