I'm sure many American rubberfiends' eyes got wide when they saw promos for the new FX series, "American Horror Story" starting this fall. Two of the teaser promos show a guy (with a strange baby bump in the second clip) fully enclosed in latex.
Red_Recruit had suggested this as a blog post which is why I'm posting it today, but there was a conversation about this piece on Fetlife a week or so ago. The imagery is appealing to a certain segment of the population and everything, but the conversation stream was basically lamenting the negative character stereotypes latex wearing (particularly MALE latex-wearing) forms when in the media. It seems in most manifestations of rubbermen on screen, the wearer is either a psychopath killer, drugged out freak, internally-tortured with mental health issues, or a kidnappee being additionally victimized via air restriction and/or bondage (think: Sqweegel on CSI, Milo Ventimiglia in Gamer, Ricardo Meneses in O Fantasma or Johnathon Schaech's kidnapped character in the movie 8 MM 2).
This is in stark contrast to latex-clad FEMALES in video, TV or on screen, who are almost always depicted as sex-crazed dominatrixes or sexual objects. Not the greatest messages to pass here either, but at least they're not (uncomfortably) mentally unstable.
Despite the idea that 'any exposure is good exposure', I don't think that consistent negative depictions is necessarily a good thing. This is something that was also brought up in the Fetlife forums; where latex-wearing men are always assumed to be gay deviant freakshows (with plenty of personal stories to back up the implications) by the community/society at large because of these negative stereotypes that play over and over again.
I may be a gay deviant freakshow sometimes but I am in no way violent, malicious, overdosing, mentally unstable, or dangerous when I'm wearing latex, and this is the part of the imagery that I have an issue with. When will there be a male latex character on the big or small screen that is just wearing it because he enjoys the sensory highs, the sexual empowerment, or the roleplay aspect of it? There is no need to consistently make these characters serial killers, junkies, or rapists.
The way things are going, I don't expect these impressions to change any day soon.
Thoughts?
1 comment:
There is a movie which has been released in theatres recently featuring a superhero wearing a nice-looking rubbersuit. The movie is called Griff the Invisible and a trailer can be seen here on youTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqWEE6HBhuo
It makes a nice impression and in a certain way catches the spirit of the Skintight Rubber-Superhero in us and portrays it on the good and light side of life.
Actually it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year in September from what I just read on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1509803/releaseinfo.
And as someone is mentioning in the comments:
"(...) For once a movie doesn't make you feel guilty about your adolescent fantasies!
The movie was very well received by the Festival crowd with healthy applause and even some yells of appreciation at the end. I think the movie was mostly appreciated for the likability of the characters, the humour, the fresh writing style and just the general entertainment value."
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