The Condoms of the Face: Why Some Men Refuse to Wear Masks

The Condoms of the Face: Why Some Men Refuse to Wear Masks

4 years ago
Anonymous $GRbK1oXs9y

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-condoms-of-the-face-why-some-men-refuse-to-wear-masks/

In the midst of rapidly rising case counts and hospitalizations during the COVID-19 pandemic, a small but incredibly loud segment of U.S. society has adamantly refused to wear masks. Many of them are men, who seem to view masks as emasculating face condoms that must be rejected. For example, a look at Donald Trump’s debacle of a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20, shows that men in his base, like Trump himself, avoid wearing masks. Women like Ivanka Trump, by contrast, can choose a mask or not because they have no masculinity to protect.

In reality, whether it’s a mask or a condom, resistance to these barrier methods of protection—both of which keep the wearer from transmitting a virus to someone else—clearly presents a danger to public health. A man without a mask is willfully endangering people around him by refusing to block his spit and the viruses it could contain. Why would he take these risks to himself and to others?