The American Culture of Face Masks

Because of a global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus COVID‐19, people across the United States of America are sequestering themselves in their homes in compliance with their state's quarantine mandate. Many have found innovative ways to cope with the consequences COVID‐19 and related public health guidelines have had on their lives. Amidst this crisis, hundreds of thousands of Americans are protesting in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, the highest numbers yet to take to the streets for the issue of ongoing police brutality (particularly the murder of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by awhite police office, Derek Chauvin). Social distancing guidelines are quite difficult to follow at these densely populated protests. Thus, in this time of uncertainty and risk, one piece of material culture has become especially relevant and contentious: the face mask. My ethnography on Los Angeles County residents and their experiences with face masks during both quarantine and the Black Lives Matter protests helps illuminate some of the social context surrounding this controversial garment in American society. I conclude that people's relationships to face masks reveal a culture of individualism, paternalism, and fearmongering at the heart of American society.