MEDIA RELEASE - 25 JAN 2024
Melbourne Rubber is taking our commitment to gender inclusivity to the next level. We are proud to announce that from 2024, the Melbourne Rubber competition will be open to all genders.
Melbourne Rubber has grown significantly since 2016, when Liam Clark became our first Melbourne Rubberman. We changed our name from Melbourne Rubbermen to Melbourne Rubber in 2019. In 2021, we introduced our Diversity and Inclusion Policy, affirming and celebrating diversity in all its forms. In 2022, Delsi Cat became the inaugural Ms Melbourne Rubber. Melbourne Rubber acknowledges the contribution Liam, Delsi and all Melbourne fetish community leaders who have helped make us a progressive fetish social group and challenged our thinking.
Encouraged by the growth in gender inclusive events locally, nationally and internationally, Melbourne Rubber has decided to hold one competition and to drop gender identity altogether as an entry requirement. We want to support any community minded person who loves rubber to put their best latex-clad selves forward in 2024. The winner of the Melbourne Rubber competition may choose whatever title or honorific they think best describes them.
The Melbourne Rubber competition will be held on Friday 13 September 2024.
Melbourne Rubber is not about titles, or gender, or honorifics, or competitions – it is about the love of latex and people who share that passion. We also know how important it is to feel welcome, especially when you are not in the mainstream or the majority. We are particularly mindful of gender prejudice.
Eagle Leather and The Laird Hotel will continue their long-standing support for Melbourne Rubber. Eagle Leather will support the winner of the Melbourne Rubber 2024 competition to travel to Chicago in 2025 to compete in the gender inclusive MIR competition.
Melbourne Rubber continues to strive for greater inclusion. As Taylor Cougle, President of Melbourne Rubber put it, “We strongly believe that the best way forward in 2024 is to open up our competition, taking the focus off gender, and celebrate people who appreciate latex, whether for fetish, fashion, sensual or aesthetic value.”
We look forward to Melbourne’s best ever rubber revelry in 2024. We see a fun-filled, dazzlingly shiny year ahead and can’t wait to join with our community in that shimmering celebration.
