General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe strange conflation of masks and masculinity
That the coronavirus pandemic would be shoehorned into our perpetual culture war was all but inevitable, but that masks would be a major point of contention has come as a surprise. That they would occasion a new discussion of masculinity is a stranger plot twist still.
The advice of wearing a mask in public to limit COVID-19's spread may be the most innocuous of the standard retinue of mitigation efforts: It doesn't interfere with our work or limit our movement, keep us from worship or separate us from extended family. In many places, you can get a mask for free. And as it reassures strangers we're acting responsibly, masking is a step, however counterintuitive, toward normalcy.
Yet since masks became widely used, they acquired symbolic meaning for their skeptics. Among those skeptics is R.R. Reno, the editor of the conservative religious journal First Things, who argued masking signals unmanly cowardice:
There are two grounds on which to reject Reno's framing, which lionized President Trump and a group of elderly World War II veterans who met with the president last week, none of them masked.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/the-strange-conflation-of-masks-and-masculinity/ar-BB144mv1?ocid=msn360
Or maybe it's common courtesy. Like not coughing or sneezing on someone.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,855 posts)... "less open" than liberals (true), but also more CONSCIENTIOUS!
That doesn't align with my years of personal experiences at all!
Laelth
(32,017 posts)Democrats, on the other hand, tend to be more conscientious, iirc.
-Laelth
Girard442
(6,075 posts)...is it seems to be based on a complete misconception about what masks actually do. The masks most people can get to wear in public protects others, not you. If you willfully put other people at risk, that's not a sign of strength, it's just being an asshole.
Hey, why not be a real man and stroll down the street casually tossing down candy bars with razor blades in them and juice boxes full of battery acid?