Secrets of the Living Dolls

Secrets of the Living Dolls was a TV program on channel 4 a couple of months ago. It was about men who transform themselves by squeezing into rubber second skins. I felt like this would be good to research as it is again someone changing there looks as they prefer to look this way but without it being permanent.      

This again is an issue people have with their bodies, it may be different to having surgery but it is a less permanent way people cope with there body image issues.

The men who put the masks and suits on do this in private mostly so it is just for themselves because they feel like they couldn't go out like that in public. They do have meetings where they meet up with other 'dolls' and share there looks. 

It is strange watching them especially when being interviewed as non of there faces move when they talk, they are basically plastic like a doll. The men who were on this documentary all was in the same boat where they felt like they couldn't tell any of there family or friends so it made it a very lonely situation for them. They feel like telling other people would be a huge risk, in which they could lose there loved ones.

Throughout the documentary you get to learn how the dolls live and how they have to hide who they really are. A lot of them said it would make them happy to be able to go out in public dressed as the dolls and while having a meet up in America a few brave dolls do and they get abuse from people outside the nightclub they wanted to go in so ended up leaving.

This is a day to day issue these people have and it must be very difficult to not be able to be who they want to be other than inside there homes. 

At the end of the show one very brave doll goes out in public on his own in the daytime in Miami and the reactions he got from the public then were very positive. They all said if that's what he wanted to do good on him, some people did find it strange and quite scary as the masks and suits are very plastic and unrealistic but most people accepted it.

I feel like this is just another way people deal with the body issues they have but unlike surgery they go for the more non permanent option. But get judged ten times more than they would if they had cosmetic things done to there bodies to make them look more like women. The men in this video were upset because they felt like they wouldn't be accepted in society. Yet we all accept others who permanently change there looks.