I can imagine it, yeah. During your normal day, you are a middle aged man blending in with the other "Average Joes" going about your day as if you were any other person.
But on those days when no one's home, no one's around, you powder the inside of your favorite costume, doing a jig to pull the latex and silicone body suit up over your Adam's apple and chin of stubble. Standing in your second skin, you look in the mirror and see yourself as a young, doll-like female. Throw on a set of fabulous eyelashes and a luscious wig, you've got yourself a completely different looking body and face.
"A sense of escapism... I'm just out to have fun. And it's kind of like an extension of another persona within me that wants to go out and have fun. The conundrum with it is, you know, that everyone will ask the question 'What do you do when you are dressed up?' And the funny thing is, oddly enough not a lot. I just sit there and take photos for the sake of putting them up on the website. Or just spend the day like it because that's how I want to be for that day."
It's a little overwhelming for most onlookers at first, but why is this harmless hobby so unaccepted? There are thousands of businessmen, construction workers, gamers, even dads that find happiness in this rather secret world of "masking". This is not a lifestyle that's necessarily related with sexual orientation. There are straight maskers and gay maskers. The lack of acceptance experienced by maskers is reflective of a general human trait to reject what we don't understand.
Most maskers hide this double life from their wives, their children and family, neighbors, friends, coworkers. It's become a very private part of their lives because they know that being out on their own, without a group of other maskers they've met through online forums and web networking, can bring serious shaming from the community. Safety in numbers has become a policy they've embraced.
I find it an interesting life to lead and I tip my hat to those who have recently given the world an incredible insight into their personal worlds on Channel 4's "Secrets of The Living Dolls."