Brazilian model Mauricio Galdi is the newest addition to the growing band of surgically-enhanced men branded ‘Human Ken Dolls’. After a total of eight procedures in the past decade, his face now looks like that of the popular plastic doll.
Mauricio, 27, claims that he wasn’t actually aiming for the ‘Ken’ look, but now that the media’s given him the title, he doesn’t mind cashing in on the publicity. “I never sought out to be the Brazilian human Ken,” he said. “It was something that came to me, television sought to give me that title.”
We find that kind of hard to believe though, given the fact that he’s been obsessed with dolls since childhood. Growing up in a middle class household in Sao Paulo, Mauricio confessed that he often felt jealous of little girls because it was socially acceptable for them to play with Barbie and Ken. “I saw them playing with dolls and I wanted to do the same,” he admitted, “but I never did for fear of prejudice.”
As he grew older, Mauricio eventually outgrew his childhood desire to play with dolls. But his obsession with Ken’s flawless features only increased. At age 17, he enrolled in an acting class, where he was told that he wasn’t considered ‘beautiful’. That’s when he decided to go under the knife.
He began with a simple nose job, but soon got addicted and opted for more complicated treatments. Over the years, he has had two more nose jobs and polymethylmethacrylate (filler) injections on his cheeks, chin, and legs. In his current avatar, he has attracted over 20,000 Instagram followers, with whom he regularly shares his glamorous headshots.
Mauricio attracted even more media attention when he got into a public brawl with fellow Brazilian Ken Doll Celso Santebanes. Celso, who achieved the title along with his own line of ‘Celso Dolls’ last year, apparently didn’t enjoy sharing the limelight. He accused Mauricio of being an opportunist who was trying to squeeze his way into the Human Ken Doll market. In response, Mauricio insisted that he was the ‘real’ Human Ken Doll, not Celso.
The pair did make amends this year, shortly before Celso passed away from leukemia. “The sorrow that’s in my heart right now is inexplicable,” Mauricio wrote, after Celso’s untimely death.
We’ve seen a host of other men trying to imitate Ken over the years. There’s Czech model Robert Paulat, who went through no less than 40 plastic surgeries to achieve the perfect ‘Ken’ look. And UK-based Brazilian air steward Rodrigo Alves, who changed every aspect of his body just to look like Ken, a process that nearly killed him! Obviously, we couldn’t leave out Justin Jedlica, probably the world’s most famous human Ken doll.
With plastic surgery becoming so popular these days, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing even more of these organic dolls very soon.
Photos: Mauricio Galdi/Facebook
