Why do Americans and Europeans discriminate about wearing masks?

Facemasks have become a new symbol, an indispensable item, of our time.

If now - in the spread of the corona virus - there is a symbol of chaos and fear, misinformation and anxiety, then that is the mask. When history looked back at the 2020 pandemic, white or blue rectangles covering the mouth and nose, turning people into masked pelicans, would be leftovers.

Facemasks began to appear almost as soon as the outbreak.

Facemasks began to appear almost immediately after the outbreak of the disease, first in Asia - where masks were common before, and then in Europe. Now they are everywhere. Even now, in many places, people are still fighting and robbing masks because this item is in serious shortage.

Currently, the image of a person wearing a mask is almost an illustration in every article about the virus, on the front pages as well as social networks. After all, the infectious disease itself is invisible: it is microorganisms adhering to hard surfaces, by infected people transmitted through the air from their droplets. We cannot see them.

Facemasks become a viral image, even more so than disinfecting hand sanitizer. It symbolizes a vague fear, an evasive desire, an inability to protect yourself and a desire to do something so as not to become passive.

Facemask is even more than antiseptic hand sanitizer.

Since its creation in the mid-1890s, masks have played an 'oversized' role in many of our unwritten cultures and forms of communication. Masks have their own history and stories.

It represents safety and protection from disease and pollution; solidarity; objection; racism; fashion trend; And now, the pandemic. According to Christos Lynteris, medical anthropologist at St. University Andrew in Scotland: "A mask is a sign of something 'to hide but also to communicate'. It is 'an interesting dialectic, and very dependent on the context,' he said.

How could something as ordinary and simple as a mask mean so much?

History of masks

In John L. Spooner's ' 'History of masks: Legends, masks, men and women behind them' , masks first appeared in the late 19th century, and were used by doctors as A protective measure during surgery to prevent airborne bacteria from entering the open wound.

Then, in 1910, the Chinese government used them to stop the spread of pneumonic plague - and Mr. Lynteris said the mask had become 'the symbol of modern medicine'. They have a dual function - preventing germs and turning people into scientific thinkers.

Facemasks appeared in the late 19th century.

Eight years later, they became a global phenomenon when widely used to fight the Spanish flu.

'You can see masks appear in pictures of stylish people. Facemasks are widely accepted as part of life. Although the use of masks has decreased after World War I, they are still popular in China. Here, masks represent community care and civic awareness, 'they appear even in the country's public health campaigns,' ' Lynteris said.

The SARS pandemic, which began in 2002, has led to a revival of masks in China, Hong Kong and most of East and Southeast Asia, as well as in the minds of the community, as a sign of ' awareness of citizens 'health and obligations . ' Wearing a mask to avoid sneezing on your side is a minimum of courtesy.

At the same time, as environmental degradation, pollution, and reduced air quality became the subject of much talk, masks played a different role: air filters in urban centers and crisis signals. climate - not just in cities like Mumbai, Beijing, Tokyo, Mexico City, but more recently, in the bushfire in Australia.

Fashion and Politics

Fashion brand Little Wonder once noted - when it comes to identity products, fashion always catches the opportunity and emerges to meet the market.

Wear a mask on the catwalk.

At Chinese Fashion Week 2014, in her Sports Collection, Qiaodan Yin Peng took the mask to the stage. Masha Ma, a Chinese designer, presented Swarovski stone masks during the Spring 2015 show in Paris.

Two famous American rappers Ayleo and Mateo Bowles (Ayo & Teo) see masks as a way to express - or challenge - creative identity. They started wearing masks when people mocked their faces, but they soon became the characteristic accessories of these two artists.

Future artist and his daughter wore elaborate gemstone masks to the BET 2017 awards ceremony (an annual award honoring African-American artists and other minority groups) as a way promoting my Mask Off song. Zoe Dupree, stylist for Young Thug (American rapper, singer and songwriter) named the style 'high-end fashion against dust'.

Facemasks are also given at fashion shows.

Over the past three years, brands such as Off-White, Palm Angels, Bathing Ape and Fendi have launched designer masks. Gucci made for Billie Eilish (American singer-songwriter) a mask to 'ton sur ton' with the 'all Gucci' outfit she wore during the Grammys. This dress is part of the message she wants to send: her body is her own, and is only for her eyes to admire.

Less than a month ago, celebrities and models started posting selfies with masks on social networks - mostly on planes, but also on the street. The photo below shows American model Bella Hadid on her flight leaving Milan, in a fedora hat, scarf and mask. And next is the American actor Gwyneth Paltrow on his way to Paris in a black mask of Nemen x Airinum.

Facemasks are also given at fashion shows. Sometimes customers wear a specially designed mask. Someone in Chanel wore a mask with camellia on it. In Fendi (high-end fashion brand specializing in apparel, leather, shoes, perfumes and Italian accessories) employees wear masks with the brand's two-letter F logo.

There are currently many websites that sell masks online. Most of them are simple straps, decorated with puppies, Wonder Woman, Star Wars, rainbows and other designs; prices range from $ 6.99 to about $ 40. They became so popular that in 2019, NSS - the Italian digital magazine, described them as 'the accessory everyone wants to own in the 21st century - in terms of usability and personality.'

Recently, during demonstrations in Hong Kong, masks (and especially black masks) were worn as a political statement and were to disguise themselves from the eyes of surveillance cameras. They became so popular that the government tried to ban people from wearing them, and the move immediately raised the mask as a symbol of rebellion.

During the protests in Hong Kong, masks were worn as a political statement.

But since masks were closely associated with Asian culture, they also became a means of racism, especially in the game of blaming the way coronavirus broke out - which was first identified in China. (The New York Times, along with other news agencies, is accused of using a photograph of an Asian wearing a mask in an article about a New York outbreak. The picture had to be taken down.)

Currently, 'mask is like a red A' (from the novel 'red A' 'by Nathaniel Hawthorne, about a beautiful young woman forced to wear the red "A" letter embroidered on chest shirt for life because of being charged with adultery) - fashion reporter Connie Wang wrote. For Americans and Europeans, masks can be a sign of a different person, a possible criminal offense, as well as an implicit accusation.

Masks around us

Partly because we assign a lot of meaning to people's faces and expressions, when using a mask to cover your face means you are hiding what is most naked, most visible to you, hiding part of who you are. This can cause extreme discomfort and alienation to those around you.

Many people are always about the eyes as the windows of the soul and blah blah blah, but the mouth is an important indicator of emotions. This is what helps us in part to read the emotions of the other person. The act of covering your mouth feels like a rebuke.

People wearing masks at the airport.

'Facemasks create a barrier between you and the world,' says Marine Serre, a young French designer who often works with environmental issues and creates products from recycled goods. She started providing anti-pollution masks in 2019 because she rides a bicycle. 'It protects you, but that also means you can't get close to people,' she said.

The mask that Ms. Serre made - a collaboration with Swedish company Airinum was on display during Paris Fashion Week in late February. (A number of specialized mask manufacturers have appeared in recent years to meet the needs of consumers, including Vogmask in San Francisco, Cambridge Mask Company in the UK and AusAir in Australia.) And although Serre did not recommend using a mask to fight viruses, she noticed the change their functionality from the user side.

In the past, masks made many people uncomfortable, but not this time, Serre said.'The people of Wales are increasingly enthusiastic about it. But I don't think this is really positive, ' she said.

This is a difficult problem. Selling masks at high prices, as many brands are doing in a crisis, is like taking advantage of themselves. Not to mention that it maintains a difference between classes. Who can afford to buy this 'protection' ?

Wearing a mask is not a sign of fear and difference, but a similarity of a person.

And the newly released medical messages about masks and coronaviruses can be seen as spreading false information, because the fact that masks are not a barrier between healthy people and the sick.

Perhaps at times our masks will reach their state in Asia - this is a sign of interest and gesture towards the community. Wearing a mask is not a sign of fear and difference, but a similarity of a person. But perhaps masks are still an uncomfortable subject in our society.

Either way, masks are obvious, like the tribe that anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss describes in the book 'The Way of the Masks' - they will continue to cross over with the myths they have. We write to explain our own history.

And either way, they won't disappear. As Mr. Lynteris pointed out: 'It is now very difficult to buy masks.' And when things become scarce, they also turn into objects of lust.

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