‘I’m choosing not to do it’: U.S. President Donald Trump has a seemingly simple stance on mask wearing in the COVID-19 pandemic, but there’s more to it than meets the eye (Glick,2020). He is one of the many prominent politicians to have foregone the use of masks as a protective measure during this pandemic, joined in his ranks by Vice President Mike Pence,British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and many more (Glick, 2020; Harsin, 2020). Of this impressive list of powerful politicians, many of them are white, and all of them are men. This consensus among some of the world’s most powerful leaders is rare, and its rarity seems to point to a phenomenon that crosses political ideologies. Mask wearing in this pandemic is intimately related to power, which is enforced by promoting masculine ideals and racial superiority.
A politician like Mike Pence, unmasked in a room full of masked professionals – a striking display - is certainly sending a message, and his explanation of ‘wanting to look healthcare workers in the eye’ doesn’t seem to fully encompass his motivations (Glick, 2020).What can Mike Pence and the other unmasked politicians, with their conflicting politics, foreign interests, and pandemic responses be agreeing on when it comes to mask use?
[Image Source: Mone, J. (2020). [Vice President Mike Pence visiting Mayo Clinic] [photograph]. ScientificAmerican. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/masks-and-emasculation-why-some-men-refuse-to-take-safety-precautions/]
The answer lies in the little these men share in common: their gender and their power,and the ways in which they display their gender to assert their power. Hegemonic masculinity describes a form of social organization wherein certain men, who display masculine ideals, are granted power and authority over all others. One of these masculine ideals is ‘show no weakness’(Glick, 2020). This principle of masculinity manifests as being unable to report (or follow) expert advice, in favour of promoting an image where you are confident in your answers, and that your answers alone are all you need to tackle an issue (Glick, 2020).
The principle of ‘show no weakness’ is closely related to power. Weakness, ‘losing’ competitions of masculinity, and the need to seem infallible have all contributed to the currentCOVID-19 crisis with Trump in the United States and beyond (Glick, 2020). However, it isn’t only the most powerful men that are refusing to wear a mask. Men across America have been consistently less likely than women to wear a mask, despite its promotion by public health experts (Cassino & Besen-Cassino, 2020).
Since Trump has been so vocal about his opposition to mask wearing it is often thoughtof as a partisan issue (Cassino & Besen-Cassino, 2020). However, recent research has shown that the issue of mask wearing goes beyond political lines and is closely related to masculine identity(Cassino & Besen-Cassino, 2020). The higher importance masculinity has in overall identity, the less likely a man is to wear a mask or support other preventive health measure in the COVID-19pandemic (Cassino & Besen-Cassino, 2020). Many of the ways men connect mask wearing to masculinity are similar to those explored in the context of politicians, such as displaying invincibility, but there are other ways that masculinity connects to mask wearing that need to be addressed (Cassino & Besen-Cassino, 2020).
A good way to explore the connections between masculinity and mask wearing is to look at the opposite problem – how is mask wearing associated with femininity? Masks and femininity intersect in multiple ways, including motherhood and the caring role (since masks protect others more than they protect yourself) and the undervaluing of masks due to their association with sewing, a traditionally feminine skill (Bhasin et al., 2020). Most interestingly is the way that a popular gendered meme ‘Karen’ has been used in the mask debate (Bhasin et al., 2020). The ‘anti-mask’ side of the debate used the Karen meme far more frequently than the ‘pro-mask’ side, which indicates the increased use of gendered rhetoric around mask wearing from this stance (Bhasin et al., 2020). People against use of masks denigrate mask-wearing ‘Karens’, associating them with negative gender stereotypes and profiling the non-mask wearer as standing up against authority, a hyper masculine ideal (Bhasin et al., 2020).
What’s even more interesting, is that ‘pro-maskers’ also use the Karen meme, but in a different way, saying that Karen is ‘stupid, selfish, and racist’ (Bhasin et al., 2020). The addition of race into the discussion on masculinity and mask wearing is an important one. The masculinity displayed by not wearing a mask is intimately related to race, with obvious implications for power.
We can see this power dynamic unfold in the demographics of the COVID-19 data –everywhere around the world, and America especially where the connection between the two is particularly strong, it is the poor and the minority populations that are dying the most from aCOVID-19 infection (Harsin, 2020). The ‘ruggedly individualist’ anti-mask wearer displays the masculine ideals of invincibility, and aggression (Harsin, 2020). These displays become a distinctly white phenomenon when you compare them against the death demographics in theUnited States (Harsin, 2020). Power is found in the conjuncture of whiteness and masculinity,and when this power is threatened by mask mandates, knee-jerk reactions seem to bring both race and gender to the forefront. It is not a coincidence that the man who wore this Ku Klux Klan mask to a California grocery store did so shortly after the mandatory mask mandate in that county (Tellez, 2020).
[ Image Source: Tellez, T. (2020). [A shopper wearing a KKK mask] [photograph]. Global News.https://globalnews.ca/news/6902152/coronavirus-ku-klux-klan-mask/]
‘I’m choosing not to do it’ says President Trump on mask wearing, and in doing so he says much, much more. The message he sends of white toxic masculinity is reflected and perpetuated in society (Harsin, 2020). If we are to ever address the greater numbers of men who are dying from COVID-19 we need to address why they choose to not wear masks (Cassino & Besen-Cassino, 2020). To do that, we need to look at masculinity, and we need to look at whiteness. We need to talk about where Trump and the other unmasked politicians get their power.
References
Bhasin, T., Butcher, C., Gordon, E., Hallward, M., & LeFebvre, R. (2020). Does Karen wear amask? The gendering of COVID-19 masking rhetoric. International Journal of Sociologyand Social Policy, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-07-2020-0293
Cassino, D., & Besen-Cassino, Y. (2020). Of Masks and Men? Gender, Sex and ProtectiveMeasures During COVID-19. Politics & Gender, 1–20.https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X20000616
Glick, P. (2020, April 30). Masks and Emasculation: Why Some Men Refuse to Take SafetyPrecautions. Scientific American.https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/masks-and-emasculation-why-some-men-refuse-to-take-safety-precautions/
Harsin, J. (2020). Toxic White masculinity, post-truth politics and the COVID-19 infodemic.European Journal of Cultural Studies, 136754942094493.https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549420944934