Mandatory in all public places in France, the mask is an object that arouses passions. But for some, it is above all synonymous with relief. Explanations.
This is an article from Guardian on the situation in the United States which raises the question: what if the mask was a release for some? Across the Atlantic, this protection against Covid is no longer mandatory outdoors. However, it continues to be worn by part of the population. Some put forward health reasons, the vaccine does not protect 100% of the disease. For others, the mask is a very convenient social screen. Anti-aging in a young society, hiding a fat or racialized face in a grossophobic and racist world, it is also a way of avoiding the injunction to smile or to talk to others, for women and the timid. A few centimeters of fabric as protection against the outside world, are … Obviously, the solution is not miracle, but here is a compilation of illuminating testimonies.
A tool for emotional liberation
For Aimee, 44, interviewed by the Guardian, the mask is a “emotional liberation”. “I don’t want to feel the pressure of having to smile at people, so everyone knows I’m nice and appreciative”, she explains. She even speaks of a way of extricating herself from the male gauze, the male gaze sexualizing and weighing, and therefore to regain power. With successive confinements, women have also been wearing less makeup since the start of the pandemic, and the mask is an extension of home, allows you to go out without makeup. Finally, for racialized people interviewed by the Guardian, it is even a way of hiding, after racist offensives against people with Asian features. For trans people, the mask makes it possible to reduce self-absorption (that is to say, the fact of being perceived according to a different genre from the one in which we live).
Asked by The echoes, the sociologist and anthropologist David Le Breton analyzes the changes brought about by the mask.“We live in a society where our relationships with others go mainly through the face, he recalls. It is through it that we are identified and perceived, whether for age, gender, emotional or psychological context. It is also the place where we see in the other the resonance of our words and our actions, by sometimes almost imperceptible mimicry, a movement of the lips or the forehead. ” Hiding oneself therefore allows some people to extract themselves from these relationships with others which are so many sources of inconvenience.
In business, the mask makes it possible to extract oneself from a form of constant emotional work, particularly heavy in certain professions. Smile at undrinkable customers? Thanks to the mask, this obligation is over! The list is long of the positive points of this accessory, now mandatory almost everywhere. But which remains very embarrassing for others, such as deaf people, for example. In any case, the object makes it possible to analyze these constraints which weigh more heavily on certain categories of people in public.
To see also: The mask responsible for language delay in babies? These shrinks sound the alarm