I Love Face Masks

One of the most interesting byproducts of the pandemic has been the wearing of face masks. It started as something only a privileged person could do, as the proper medical masks being recommended by the medical community were in short supply. As the pandemic progressed, this issue was noted. The CDC decided to announce that cloth masks and cloth coverings were acceptable substitutes.

All of a sudden cloth face mask started being for sale everywhere. It seemed every company, brand, artist, etc. was making their own masks with unique designs of all imaginable varieties. They became fashion statements.

They became mandated for entering essential buildings a few weeks into the lockdown. I was mentally resistant to them at first. I complied and was wary of this novel virus to be sure. The whole thing seemed exaggerated. Bear in mind I was living in Los Angeles of all places. People were wearing them when walking down the streets, while walking their dog, or even going for a drive.

In my head I had these pictures of what a pandemic looked like from old Renaissance painting from high school text books depicting bodies upon bodies piled in the streets, all who died horrible deaths from being stricken by the bubonic plague. This was in stark comparison to what I saw when walking out of my house. 70 degrees and sunny every day was not the image of a catastrophic world disaster. The homeless people even seemed to have found housing for the time being. Not a single dead body in sight.

Excuse me if I sound disappointed. It is not like I wanted to see bodies. I am merely trying to illustrate that the pandemic seemed exaggerated to me. I was without access to hospitals or medical professionals in my actual day to day life. The only means that I was being informed that this whole thing was real and dangerous was by the media. There are a lot of people like myself who are not comfortable with this type of thing.

The idea of wearing face masks only grew on me a couple months later when a merch shop for upcoming tv show that was being released started making cloth “neck gaters” based on a style worn by a race from the books it was based on. These neck gaters can be worn around the neck and pulled over the face easily and when needed. Called “shoufas” in the book, they are only worn by this warrior race when they are ready to enter battle with the intent to kill.

This appealed to me at a symbolic level. The masks were becoming increasingly politicized in whether or not they should be worn by both the left and right side of politics. What a fitting way of illustrating this ideological conflict than by channeling my inner warrior spirit through the use of neck gaiters? It also seemed like the perfect middle ground solution to mask wearing. They helped me make me want to wear face masks in a way that did not feel imposed on me by the media.

My first neck gaiter shoufa was white with red dragons on it and a yin and yang looking symbol all over it. It was badass. I felt like a ninja while wearing it in a ginormous city at war with itself. Black Lives Matter was taking over the streets and the media and the corporations. These were dangerous times. Bests to stay vigilant.

I often felt like a criminal or a vigilante when walking into stores. The facade of being pleasant was gone with the duress of the pandemic crushing down on all of us. Human interaction started to feel a lot more impersonal as you could only see the eyes of the people you were talking to.

To be frank, human interaction had always felt impersonal to me. It has always seemed like people are wearing some kind of mask expected of them to wear by those around them for survival. This was merely a physical manifestation of that. Masks not only protected you from potential covid spittle sparkles from flying into your face from people who talk with too much liquidity. It doubled as a way of protecting your energy from having to force a smile when you do not mean it. Or having to pretend like the smile that is being directed towards you is genuine. Because it usually is not.

Later I would buy a few variety packs of neck gaiters where I could add more flavor to how I was feeling during the day. A wavy neck gater if it was beach day. An American flag if I was feeling patriotic. A Halloween one if I wanted to be scary. A pink one for when I was feeling like showing my softer side. The possibilities were endless.

I would silently scoff at people who still wore boring medical masks. Not only was indicative of how they had a complete lack of personality, they were creating so much extra waste. Seeing them littered on the ground made my hope for humanity plummet a little bit more every time.

As I write this, I am wearing a black neck gaiter with a feminine looking joker face on it. It is pretty sexy if I do say so myself.

Merry Christmas!