In the past two weeks, our social media feeds were flooded by the image of Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, telling US senators at a hearing that the country was “going in the wrong direction.” The image had a vivid, layered power. Not only did it feel like a national death knell, but Fauci’s appearance — in an imperial-red face mask emblazoned with the insignia of baseball’s Washington Nationals — seemed to signal another culture war. Fauci was making a comment about how to maintain one’s masculinity while wearing a face mask.
Fauci apparently isn’t the only one anxious about face masks impeding his masculinity.
It seems that in certain circles, wearing a mask has been conflated with the kind of archaic, knuckle-dragging rhetoric that casts wearing pink or having a cat on a dating app as effeminate. The LA Times gave some well-meaning but ultimately depressing tips to make masks more appealing to the “alphas.” Among its suggestions: “appeal to patriotism! Maga masks! Masks printed with shark teeth!” Can masculinity be so glacially unmovable and paper-thin fragile?
Photo: Reuters 照片:路透
Apparently, yes — which is unfortunate, because the danger from COVID-19 remains very, very real. Last week Scientific American called masks the “condoms of the face,” arguing that the struggle to get men to wear masks during this pandemic has parallels in the struggle to get men to wear condoms during the rise of HIV. While it seems strange to compare something you’d wear so visibly in public to something worn privately in intimate moments, the analogy underscores how some men’s notions of masculinity are intertwined with a corrosive mix of petulance, indestructibility and, ultimately, privilege. The article cited research showing that “masculine ideology” is associated with rejection of condom use.
Similar research by Middlesex University and the Mathematical Science Research Institute in Berkeley has found that men are less likely than women to wear face masks because they view the masks as embarrassing. According to the study, men are more likely than women to agree with the idea that wearing a mask is “shameful, not cool, a sign of weakness and a stigma.” The study also found that men have higher levels of “negative emotion” while wearing a mask.
It gets worse: not wearing a mask hasn’t just become toxic masculinity, it has become a form of weaponized masculinity. Donald Trump has said he is “choosing not to” wear a mask. When US President Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic, he ignored the safety protocols asking that he wear a face mask.
Photo: AFP 照片:法新社
This superspreader mindset seems to overlap with the eyeroll-inducing “OK, boomer” attitude epitomized by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to continue shaking hands as coronavirus spread, and the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s claim that his athleticism would prevent him from getting a virus. For men like this, ego itself has become a figurative — and, they seem to believe, literal — shield.
That’s unfortunate, because the wearing of masks has already been politicized to a dangerous extent. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 70 percent of Democrats report regularly wearing a mask, compared with only 37 percent of Republicans. The image of Democratic political rising star Jamaal Bowman, photographed sporting a Wu-Tang Clan mask, suggests that some progressives have figured out how to make their masks politically charged fashion items. That is a welcome contrast with the stodgy masculinity of the opposition.
Bowman’s mask-wearing style offers a way forward that is both progressive and potentially life-saving. But the truth is that mask-wearing shouldn’t have to be complicated. It should just be common sense.
Photo: EPA-EFE 照片:歐新社
(The Guardian)
這兩週,美國頂尖傳染病專家安東尼‧佛奇的照片在社群媒體動態消息中頻頻出現,他在參議院聽證會中說美國的防疫「走錯了方向」。這圖像的力量鮮明而有層次。不光是因為佛奇這番話像是敲響了美國的喪鐘,還由於他的模樣——他戴著印有美國職棒華盛頓國民隊標誌的帝王紅色口罩——似乎示意著另一場文化戰爭。佛奇在展示如何在戴口罩的同時,也保有男性氣概。
佛奇顯然不是唯一一個擔心戴口罩有損其男性氣概的人。
Photo: AFP 照片:法新社
某些群體的人似乎認為戴口罩缺乏男子氣概,如同那種過時、食古不化的論調,認為穿粉紅色,或在交友軟體上貼出養貓照片的人娘娘腔一樣。為了使口罩對「大男人主義者」更具吸引力,洛杉磯時報提供了一些訣竅,雖然立意甚佳,但最終令人沮喪。這些建議包括:「訴諸愛國主義」!戴印有「讓美國再次偉大」(Make American Great Again, MAGA)的口罩!戴鯊魚牙圖案的口罩!男子氣概果真如同冰河般不可撼動,以及如薄紙般脆弱嗎?
顯然是的——這很不幸,因為武漢肺炎(新型冠狀病毒病,COVID-19)的危險仍是真真切切的。上週的《科學人》雜誌將口罩稱為「臉部保險套」,認為在此疫情中要讓男人戴上口罩,與當時愛滋病毒發現之初要男人戴上保險套的艱鉅任務是相似的。把在公開場合顯而易見的穿戴與私下在親密時刻所穿戴的東西相提並論雖看似奇怪,但這種類比凸顯出在某些男人的認知中,男性氣概是與任性、堅不可摧,以及追根究柢是特權等這些東西的腐蝕性混合摻雜在一起的。
這篇文章引述了一些研究,這些研究顯示,拒絕使用保險套是與「陽剛意識型態」有關。
英國密德薩斯大學與美國加州大學柏克萊分校數學科學研究所的類似研究發現,男性戴口罩的可能性比女性低,因為他們覺得口罩令人尷尬。根據這項研究,男性比女性更傾向同意戴口罩是「丟臉、不酷、軟弱的表徵、恥辱」這種觀點。該研究還發現,男性戴著口罩時,有較多的「負面情緒」。
還有更糟的情況:不戴口罩不僅成了「有害的男子氣概」(toxic masculinity),還成為將男子氣概武器化的方式。美國總統唐納‧川普說,他「選擇不要」戴口罩。美國副總統麥克‧彭斯在巡視梅奧診所時沒戴口罩,對院方要求戴口罩的安全規定置之不理。
與這種病毒超級傳播者之心態似乎吻合的,是令人翻白眼的「好啦,嬰兒潮世代老人」這種不聽老人言的蔑視態度,箇中代表為英國首相鮑里斯‧強森,他在冠狀病毒肆虐中仍決定繼續跟別人握手,以及巴西總統雅伊爾‧波索納洛,他宣稱自己對運動的熱愛可讓他免受病毒感染。對這樣的男人來說,「自我意識」本身已成為百毒不侵的金鐘罩——不僅是象徵意義上的,他們似乎還相信這是實質上的。
這很不幸,因為戴口罩已被政治化到了危險的地步。根據凱瑟家庭基金會的調查,有百分之七十的民主黨人表示會經常戴口罩,而共和黨會這麼做的人只有百分之三十七。民主黨政治新秀賈瑪‧鮑曼被拍到所戴的口罩秀出嘻哈音樂團體「武當幫」的標誌,意味一些革新派已摸索出一種方式,可以讓口罩成為充滿政治意涵的時尚單品。這與共和黨古板庸俗的男子氣概形成高下立判的對比。
鮑曼的口罩風格給出一種前進的方向,既進步又可能挽救生命。但事實是,戴口罩沒必要搞得那麼複雜。戴口罩應該只是常識。
(台北時報林俐凱編譯)
FOLLOW UP 讀後練習
Questions
1. According to the article, why are men more likely than women to refuse wearing protective face masks? Do you agree with this reasoning?
2. Why does Scientific American call masks the “condoms of the face?”
3. Offer some examples of politicians and incidents that show the difficulty of enforcing mask wearing.
4. Is it possible to explain these examples from the perspectives of “toxic masculinity“ and politics?
(Lin Lee-kai, Taipei Times)
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