Masks are girly
Why do guys like Trump and Pence refuse to wear masks?
Perhaps because they see them as emasculating:
Why the reluctance to model safe behavior? My research with Jennifer Berdahl and others suggest one critical reason, which is that appearing to play it safe contradicts a core principle of masculinity: show no weakness. In short, wearing a mask emasculates.
There’s an irony here, which is that Trump shows his weakness whenever he talks, and he talks constantly and endlessly. He clearly thinks he comes across as a macho guy, but…no.
Leaders who are more concerned with preserving a macho public image put our lives at risk as they prove their manhood by showing resistance to experts’ opinions, hypersensitivity to criticism, and constant feuding with anyone who seems to disagree with them.
Or, rather, as they try to prove their manhood by doing those things. In reality they prove other things.
In our research, the show-no-weakness principle manifests by acting like you always know the answer. Admitting uncertainty or that you rely on anyone else’s opinion seems “weak.” Trump’s resistance to experts’ advice stems from a constant need to demonstrate that “I alone can fix it.”
Again – it’s the other way around. Consulting others and not professing dogmatic certainty where it isn’t possible doesn’t seem weak, it’s the conceited blustering and heedless Me First that seems and is weak. Trump didn’t look “strong” when he stood up there explaining to Doctor Birx that it would be a clever idea to use disinfectant to clean up inside the body, he looked weak and absurd and bratty.
It’s only other macho fools who think this way.
Someone never heard of Immortan Joe or Cobra Commander… mask-ulinity is a thing.
Yeah, like half of all costumed comic book and cartoon characters wear masks of some sort.
[…] Masks are girly […]
Let’s be honest: Trump did show that solar eclipse a thing or two.
At the store yesterday I saw scores of older men not wearing masks and not observing the store’s own posted social-distancing guidelines.
Girly, and at this stage, a backing-down from their stance so far. Too much like admitting error for Trump’s tastes.
Yes, exactly. Wild West bandits, macho army dudes, Jason… Masks are manly and cool!
#1, 2, 7. You’re missing the point about the masks. Superheros, bandits and all the rest wear masks in order to be bad-ass in public without being identified, or for their fear or shock value on the enemy. The masks that are needed are the opposite of that in that they show that the wearer is scared of a widdle-bitty virus, and bad-ass dudes ain’t scared o’ nuthin’.
The great Alexandra Petri–“We put the ‘mask’ in ‘toxic mask-ulinity’!”
Yesterday I was walking on a relatively deserted street alongside a local park (and quite deliberately not in the park, where distancing is much more difficult) when an unmasked, earbudded jogger came up behind me, passing within inches, just before crossing over to the other side of the street. At the end of the block he ran through a family.
Of course, his sweat smelled like roses.
Yes, I’ve had joggers do that to me a few times, along with others approaching from the front and failing to budge from the middle of the sidewalk (along with others who do distance, to be fair). Makes me feel murderous.
I keep a close watch on people in front of me, and plan out my avoidance strategy sometimes a block or two in advance. I think what was most infuriating was that the asshole crossed the street right after he passed me. He could’ve easily crossed over six feet before he reached me. It makes me think he was deliberately passing close to people.
So do I, hence of course the zooming up from behind thing enrages me.
Also there’s a thing where people suddenly veer off course and in doing so move directly toward me. I think it’s usually absent-mindedness: they’re going to their car or a tool left next to the sidewalk or some such thing, but I wish people would stop being absent-minded that way. I keep finding myself plunging into the street to avoid some fool charging right at me.
Interesting, in 25 years of working in trauma surgery, I never once had anyone accuse us of being girly while wearing a mask, or gown, or even a bouffant cap…