The Real Reason Why Some Men Are Still Refusing to Wear a Mask
Several surveys reveal that men are less likely to wear a mask than women. But the reason why goes beyond just macho masculinity.
By Ruth Reader
Since COVID-19 broke out in the United States, a certain image has become an icon of pandemic-era masculinity: a man walking down the street with a surgical mask pulled down so that it hugs his chin. He has made the effort to put on a mask, a nod to the public health messaging around mask wearing, but he just can’t bring himself to pull it up over his nose and mouth. Why?
Several surveys show that men in the United States are less likely to wear a mask to curb COVID-19 transmission than women. Much debate and speculation over why some men just won’t wear masks has focused on past research, which shows that men who identify with a certain brand of traditional masculinity tend to engage in expressly unhealthy behavior like eating junk food or avoiding annual doctor’s visits. A more recent survey from June found men were more likely than women to think masks were uncool or signaled weakness.
Preliminary research from Boston College Developmental Educational Psychology professor James Mahalik and doctoral students Michael Di Bianca and…
