The Meanings of Masks
As The Washington Post has reported, "at the heart of the US coronavirus response" is a "fraught relationship with masks." In these short commentaries, MIT faculty delve into the historic and cultural meanings of masks, offering fresh ways to think about and practice protective masking—to stay safe, protect others, and help contain the pandemic.
See the current advice from MIT Medical on staying safe and protecting others now that the more contagious Delta variant has emerged.
Eric Klopfer
“In this pandemic era, what a mask really says is, ‘I care about YOU.’ That is an important and powerful message that we should champion and commend. We can also have fun with masks, but the key is the understanding that, during a pandemic, the mask is a badge of honor, indicating that you are protecting the health of others during a crisis." |
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Graham Jones Associate Professor of Anthropology; MacVicar Faculty Fellow "For me the iconic image of our times is of Black Lives Matter protestors of every race wearing masks emblazoned with the dying words of George Floyd: 'I can’t breathe.' The use of the cloth mask as a substrate for a citational text situates the individual wearer as an actor in a broader social drama. Such protest masks are a creative, expressive way of subsuming one’s identity within a social movement — and one’s voice within a collective cry for justice." |
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Emma Teng
The Mask as 公德心 (Public Spiritedness) gongdexin (in Mandarin); kootokushin (in Japanese); kongdokshim (in Korean), and public spiritedness (in English) "Norms in East Asian countries support the ethos that 'doing something for the community good is good for me also.' It would be unthinkable to discuss sacrificing older people to the pandemic using a cost-benefit analysis. It is also considered a social responsibility to do one’s part in controlling the pandemic to ensure that schools remain open for the younger generation." |
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Manduhai Buyandelger
Masks Can Reveal New Possibilities
"In shamanic rituals and in computer-mediated virtual reality, a mask conceals one identity to reveal new possibilities. Seen in this light, virus protection masks offer an opportunity to replace a visage of fear with a public expression of strength as a community."
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Sara Brown
“I’m interested in hearing from MIT students as to what affiliations or meanings they would want their masks to communicate. No matter what form it takes, wearing a mask during the pandemic shows that you care about protecting others.” |
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Catherine Clark |
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Stephanie Ann Frampton
"In Latin, one of the words for mask is persona, thought to have meant 'something through which sound passes' (per- 'through,” sono “to make a sound')... Even in the time of Cicero, persona was already being used to describe the 'part' or 'character that one sustains in the world' — in other words, the role or roles we play in society." |
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Jeffrey Ravel
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Series prepared by MIT SHASS Communications |
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