Few of us like to wear masks. They stigmatize. We can feel contaminated, tainted, like Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorn’s classic, The Scarlet Letter, the story of the woman condemned to display an “A” on her breast to shame her for the sin of adultery.
The assumption of wearing a mask is that we are sick and should be shunned. Some bosses have forbidden their workers to wear masks, fearing that people will assume they are sick and frighten the customers. In the past, we’ve associated mask-wearers with hiding, used to disguise the wearer. A bank robber’s mask conceals his identity. In the musical, “The Phantom of the Opera,” the lead character wears a mask to hide his deformed face.
Masks have been with us for a very long time, with the oldest dating to around 7000 BC.
They were first used for rituals and ceremonies in many places of the world, usually representing supernatural beings, ancestors, and imagined figures. In China, they are thought to originate in ancient religious ceremonies. Native American masks were used for spiritual practices, entertainment and medicinal functions. Halloween masks originated in the Celtic culture, used as disguises to confuse the ghosts that emerged in the fall. Masks have also been used in hunting, feasts, wars, performances, theatres, fashion, ornamentation, sports, movies as well as for medical, protective or occupational purposes. In Italy during the 16th century, elaborate dances or masquerade balls, invited members of the upper classes to flaunt different colors to symbolize traits like elegance, dignity, sophistication, mystery and seductiveness.
My associations to mask-wearing go back decades to a long-forgotten memory of my mother, who raised her babies in the 1950’s. When she was sick with an upper respiratory tract infection, she covered her nose and mouth with a soft, white, washable cotton mask to protect the baby when she held him to her breast to nurse.
Also, while a medical student, I attended operations with surgeons who never seemed troubled by their masks that protected the patient as well as themselves from the exchange of germs and bodily fluids. They managed to endure the mask for long hours, under strong lights on their feet performing delicate manipulations of tissues.
STIGMA
A helpful April 7 article in the Wall Street Journal reframes the symbol of stigma to caring about another person’s safety. Wearing a mask is not a signal that we are contaminated but a statement that says, “I care about you. I want to protect you.”
We look to a president as children look to parents to teach proper behavior that aids our survival in the world. Some parents, like some presidents, steer us in sanguine directions. But President Trump shuns wearing a mask. I venture to guess that his stance stems from machismo; to him wearing a mask blares VULNERABILITY. But his behavior is self-centered, ignoring the fact that a mask also protects and shows caring about the health and safety of others.
If a mask isn’t available, we compromise with a thick, nonporous fabric lined with a layer or two of paper towels that effectively filters the air. Directions can be readily found on the internet.
THE DOWNSIDE
The downside is that we have to endure the discomforts and inconveniences of these face coverings. Breathing into them heats up the air and causes us to perspire and our noses to run. Even surgeons in the OR had to request an assistant to wipe the perspiration from their brows occasionally.
An N95 allows air to sneak around it if not properly fitted. We have to be wary of continuing to adjust the mask. We have to remember not to touch our faces that may itch from the mask.
Filtering air slows down air flow and breathing can be difficult. Wearing a mask can give a false sense of security, causing us to assume we’re safe and don’t need to wash our hands.
A dirty mask is a source of contamination. We have to remember to wash hands before putting on and after taking off the mask.
Under the confines of the mask, some of us are likely to produce more bodily fluids—We perspire and our noses tend to run under the heat of the mask and the repeated exhalations that warm our faces. So we have to be ready with a tissue to wipe away the bodily fluids produced by wearing the gear that it protects us and others while also inconveniencing us.
THE POSITIVE SIDE
On the positive side, the mask is a psychological signal that we are in a pandemic and a
visual reminder to wash our hands and maintain social distance. It also gives us a sense of control when we have so little control in our situation
It behooves us to stay as healthy as long as possible, at least until we have more information, and drugs proven to treat and vaccines proven to prevent. It is reassuring to remember that many people perished in the early days of the HIV epidemic until medicines were discovered to keep them healthy for a lifetime.
We cannot maintain our social distance forever. Inevitably, we have to return to our workplaces; the stores and restaurants must open their doors. We want the arts to return; we want to attend the theatre, concerts, the opera.
A fact is that coronavirus, like the flu is here with us to stay. Able to mutate and afflict unpredictably, the rate of affliction/infection will ebb and flow, increasing and decreasing according to the weather and innumerable other factors, as yet to be defined/determined.
The French existentialist, writer Albert Camus in his 1947 masterpiece “The Plague” spells out the human predicament: our vulnerability, that we can be exterminated at any time by a virus, accident, or another human being. He points out that the threats are ever-present and that no one is immune. For our mental sanity, we don’t often dwell on this reality.
A neat solution to our present situation of having to live with the coronavirus and future pervasive infections is to don our masks with pride, to see them not as a sign of stigma, but as a statement of caring for self and others.
We could even begin to view them as an extension of our wardrobe, like earrings, necklaces, neckties, hats or body piercings. They can ornament and decorate us. We can be creative and inventive regarding their style, color, material.
Companies can invest in designers who could style them for the seasons— darker colors in winter, lighter shades for summer and with the right fit like bras, to accommodate different sizes and shapes of faces, instead of breasts. They could fashion various kinds of nozzles, airways to filter out viruses and impurities in the air.
Designers and scientists can work to discover new fabrics, washable and fast-drying, woven to combine breathability with the most effective filter.
Instead of an onerous symbol, a mask will be a fashion statement. I envision one person saying to another, “What a beautiful mask! Where did you get it? I’d like to have one like it. Do they have any more?”
In summary: The mask has a long and varied history and for better or worse, will be an essential part of our future. Let’s consider the possibility of the mask as a fashion statement as well as a symbol of caring for others.
Dear Reader, I welcome your comments: jsimon145@gmail.com
