Envisioning a Habitus of Hygiene: Hands as Disease Media in Public Health Handwashing Campaigns

Abstract

Background Public health posters exhorting viewers to wash their hands to prevent the spread of communicable disease are common in airports, shopping malls, hospitals, and workplaces. Yet the poster remains understudied by scholars working in communication, health, and governance.Analysis Analyzing a large corpus of Canadian public health posters targeting handwashing, this article identifies three themes: the articulation of an embodied pedagogy aimed at daily practices; the recognition of our body surfaces and those of people and things around us as contaminated skins; and the production of haptic visuality. Conclusion and implications These posters promote a habitus of hygiene, inviting us to modify our haptic etiquette, to see, know, and inhabit our bodies differently, and to imagine and interact with our environment on new terms.Contexte Il est normal de voir dans les aéroports, les centres commerciaux, les hôpitaux et les lieux de travail des affiches encourageant les gens à se laver les mains afin de prévenir la propagation de maladies transmissibles. En revanche, il n’existe pas beaucoup d’études de telles affiches par les chercheurs en communication, en soins de la santé ou en administration publique.Analyse À partir de l’analyse d’un grand échantillon d’affiches canadiennes sur le besoin de se laver les mains, cet article identifie trois thèmes : l’articulation d’une pédagogie corporelle visant les pratiques quotidiennes; a reconnaissance de la surface de son corps ainsi que celle des corps d’autrui et des objets environnants comme sources de contamination; et la production d’une visualité haptique.Conclusions et implications Ces affiches promeuvent un habitus d’hygiène, nous invitant à modifier notre étiquette haptique pour que nous voyions, connaissions et expérimentions notre corps différemment et pour que nous reconcevions notre environnement et interagissions avec lui d’une nouvelle manière.

Visual Representations of Science in a Pandemic: COVID-19 in Images

“…Hygiene discourses stem from moralizing campaigns, previous to the discovery of microorganisms, which attributed illness to uncleanliness (Martin, 1994;Lupton, 2012). Hygiene campaigns supported by visual aids, such as posters and postcards, are an often studied topic in the social analysis of epidemics, such as syphilis or AIDS (Cooter and Stein, 2010;Bastos, 2011;Hamilton, 2019). This tool of public health exhorts individuals to take responsibility for their own bodies to maintain health and prevent disease (Lupton, 2012).…”

Hands in Cont(r)act: The Resiliency of Business Handshakes in Pandemic Culture

“… 6 See Hamilton 2019 for a discussion of these changes through a notion of a shifting habitus of hygiene . Our contemporary habitus of hygiene comprises the gestures, rituals, norms, practices, sensual habits, values, and sensational frames through which we live our lives as diseaseable subjects—anticipating, enacting, and managing our dual status as contaminated and contaminable.…”