Non-COVID-19 reasons to wear a cloth mask

I’m from Hong Kong. After the SARS epidemic, which happened when I was roughly 8, I spent the rest of my childhood watching how medical Hong Kong dramas always included a segment about how medical professionals lost their closest friends, family members to SARS. The images of someone dealing with the long-term damage from SARS and the emotional scars it left — these come easily conjured in my mind. I come from a culture that doesn’t question the use of cloth masks to protect others from this fate.

It’s a little different in Canada, where I’ve spent most of my life. I lived in an area where it’s not the norm to wear a mask when you’re sick, but if you do, there’s not really stigma to it. Although a majority of people didn’t don a mask when they were sick, there were enough people who did within the community that it wasn’t seen as odd. I later learned that this isn’t necessarily true everywhere in Canada. I was certainly ridiculed for wearing mask and increasing work-from-home sessions in early March as my peers labelled me as “socially anxious”, “irrational” and “paranoid”.

I learned that the norm is established by those you encounter the most, who are likely also the people you most want to protect with this action.

So it’s obvious to me to consider wearing a mask to protect others.

But a pandemic is not the only reason that a cloth mask can come in handy. I hope to make it a more popular clothing item to wear for a variety of reasons.

1. Have a big juicy, bright red and angry pimple? Tried a new lipstick colour and it’s honestly a weird colour but now it’s stained your lips so much it won’t come off with makeup remover? Don a cloth mask with a smiley face on it, others won’t even have to know.
2. Are you out of laundry other than the hello kitty shirt you wore in 8th grade but you need to pop out and grab one (1) single grocery and you absolutely do not want to accidentally run into a prof or a student you TA? Don a Hello Kitty mask, just to match that outfit.
3. Are you protesting inequality and want to keep your identity from being revealed and circulated on social media? Don that mask, protect yourself and those around you. You are fighting the good fight.

I just hope that we continue to establish this as a norm. Because #2 happens way too often for me.

Hi, I’m Lucy (The Egg Girl), and I write whatever tickles my heart’s fancy (or whatever the phrase is), which could mean poetry, personal stories, or things I’ve spent wayyyy too long to think up and hope to offer you a solution so you can expedite the process.