Advertisement

How Face Masks Became A Powerful Symbol Of Expression In Dark Times

We’re here to guide you through the coronavirus pandemic. Sign up to the Life newsletter for daily tips, advice, how-tos and escapism.

They were once reserved for the faces of the most coronavirus-prepared, those working on the front line against Covid-19 – the clinical blue and white oblongs a visual reminder to everyone at home that an invisible virus was looming.

Fast forward three or four nauseating months, and here we all are, habitually instructing our hands to loop two elastic bands behind our ears to secure our masks and face coverings in a daily routine that’s now become as familiar as brushing our teeth.

When the government announced, after weeks of prevarication, that face masks would be mandatory on public transport from June 15, even the naysayers had to buy themselves one – or several.

Slowly those blue and white oblongs became ubiquitous: on people’s faces as intended or discarded on street corners alongside a blue plastic glove or two.

And their ubiquity became a problem. Not only are surgical masks bland in look and feel but, crucially – as has been drilled into us by the government – they are valuable pieces of PPE. Shouldn’t we be saving them for the NHS rather than buying them up as a cheap option for ourselves?

That was certainly the argument made during early lockdown by Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and co. Now, the prime minister has finally announced face coverings will become mandatory in shops across England from July 25.

In the meantime, a culture war has been waging between those happy or at least resigned to wearing masks and those who don’t believe in enforcement – either because they question their efficacy in the fight against Covid-19 or because they see it as an infringement of rights to be told to wear one.

That same culture war is playing out in the US, fuelled by the whims of politicians and the great American...

Continue reading on HuffPost