Perspective: Making men feel manly in masks is, unfortunately, a public-health challenge of our time
Mask shaming men won’t work. Here’s what will
,” read the headline of a Los Angeles Times article suggesting ways to “make masks and masculinity a better fit.” Do you have an unmasked man in your life? You could, the article suggests, make sure he had some “tough” looking masks, perhaps with “camouflage” or “shark teeth.” Or, you could pull him in with a little “benevolent sexism,” i.e. encouraging him to think of mask-wearing as a “paternalistic” and “chivalrous” act — a way for the mask-wearer to think, “I’m being a hero.
#RealMenWearMasks. Let’s spray paint it on every sidewalk in the country, hire skywriters to scribble it up and down the Gulf coastline. Get Lee Greenwood to write a song. Let’s hope other politicians get behind it, too. But the messaging behind all of this is crap. It presents mask-wearing as something cool that men can individually do in order to be rugged heroes, deserving of accolades for their brave, manly choices.
What masks really are is a pain in the neck. Chafing, uncomfortable, uncool in every imaginable way. You don’t wear them because Dick Cheney decided he can pull it off in a cowboy hat. You do it because nobody can make a mask look cool, but we’re going to do it anyway: be chafed and dorky together, all of us, because doing that saves lives. You can call that being a hero, but you can also call it being a responsible adult.
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