The Semiotics of the Medical Face Mask: East and West

Leone, Massimo

doi:10.1163/25900323-12340004

Cited by 20 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Our analytical method draws on the basic principles of social semiotics, which focus on the elements of signification, connotative/cultural meanings and historical contexts (see Leone, 2020; Machin, 2007; Van Leeuwen, 2008). Social semiotics is not only concerned with text-level analysis, but also the understanding of how communicative practices are implicated in broader social processes.…”

Section: Data and Analytical Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identity, lifestyle, and face-mask branding: A social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis

Wang¹,

Deng

2021

Multimodality & Society

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The massive introduction of face-masks across the world after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed how they are designed and branded. Instead of merely focusing on functional qualities, face-mask producers have started to draw upon symbolic values in their branding discourse. Against this background, the present study investigates how face-masks are branded in Hong Kong by analyzing the design, packaging and websites for face-mask products, as well as the design of offline franchised stores using a social semiotic approach. Analysis of the multimodal data of four leading Hong Kong brands, with a focus on the use of verbal evaluation, iconography, typography, color, and materiality, reveals three symbolic meanings that are used in face-mask branding: (1) professionalism, which refers to the representation of face-masks as a symbol of advanced technology, (2) Hong Kong identity, which includes evoking pride in the past economy and exploiting the cultural symbol of the Lion Rock, and (3) fashion lifestyle, in which face-masks are associated with the values of stylishness, individuality, and luxuriousness. The exploitation of symbolic values and multimodal design in face-mask branding reflects the influence of the neoliberal ideology in the highly marketized Hong Kong society.

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Section: Data and Analytical Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identity, lifestyle, and face-mask branding: A social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis

Wang¹,

Deng

2021

Multimodality & Society

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“…Here the discipline of semiotics can be helpful. Long before the arrival of COVID-19 humans wore masks, which in turn carried different symbolic meanings [ 16 ]. Masks have historically been associated with power relations [ 17 ], ritual possession [ 18 ], the formation of secret societies [ 19 , p. 26] and situations of social reversal such as carnival [ 6 , pp.…”

Section: Masks Anti-masking and Semioticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 The messages conveyed by the COVID-19 surgical mask, in turn, reflect this diversity. For instance, a COVID mask could send the message “stay away” [ 15 , p. 255] or be a sign of what Leone refers to as the “traumatic medicalization” of the face [ 16 , p. 56]. Alternatively, the mask could simply convey one’s status as sick or contagious, which—as Leone points out—helps explain our aversion to masks [ 16 , p. 57].…”

Section: Masks Anti-masking and Semioticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID Masks as Semiotic Expressions of Hate

Kahn

2022

Int J Semiot Law

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In April 2021, as COVID briefly appeared to recede in the United States, Fox News host Tucker Carlson went on a lengthy rant against mask wearers. It appeared as if, to paraphrase Hegel, the owl of Minerva was flying at dusk. Why complain about masks at the very time mask mandates were being rolled back and society was—or so it seemed—returning to normal? The answer must lie in the mask itself, and what it represents. In anti-masking discourse, the mask has had two symbolic meanings—mask wearers as sheep, and the masks as burqas. Sheep are obedient, while burqas are instruments of social control. At a deeper level, the very act of mask wearing becomes seen as oppressive, while revealing one’s face is freedom itself. This view of masking (and revealing one’s face) is not new, rather it dates back in Europe to a “revolutionary transparency” that emerged in the wake of the French Revolution that has been appropriated by anti-maskers. While the sheep and burqa images have some play in anti-masking discourse, the connection between freedom and showing one’s face is the most durable message anti-maskers see conveyed by the COVID face mask.

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“…19 Th e text by Eco is the reprint of his Preface to the book Il Lavater portatile (con i disegni di Franco Testa), an anastatic edition, issued by the publisher Moizzi in Milan, of Johann Kaspar Lavater's physiognomic treatise from 1788. 20 Reviews of the semiotic approaches to the mask may be found in Proschan 1983, Leone 2020, Gramigna 2021 as regards the physical person who would be wearing it 21 . My proposal is to maintain the semiotic primacy of the mask over the face, to broaden the category of mask (not merely a physical object but rather a semiotic strategy) and not to reduce the mask to only one among its possible valorizations and uses.…”

Section: Face and Liementioning

confidence: 99%

Cultures of the (masked) face

Marino

2021

SSS

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What we generally regard as ‘the face’ should be semiotically understood not as something given and monolithic, but rather stratified – it is at least threefold: biological (face), physiognomic (expression), perceivable (visage) – and relational as it has to be put within a narrative in order to make sense. The face lies at the centre of a whole semiotic system, the form of life, revolving around the issue of identity (which the face – the visage, to be precise – embodies and still does not resolve). What we may call ‘the natural face’ is not, as common sense would suggest, the precondition of the ‘culturalized’ one (featured with modifications ranging from make-up and proper masks to surgery), but rather just one of the possible semiotic masks a person may choose to wear. At the same time, the mask does not have to be reduced to a deceptive device only (nor to be meant merely as a material object), being in fact at the centre of a more complex axiology. The classic veridictory square articulating the opposition between Being and Seeming may provide a suitable model for the semiotic square of ‘visageness’, so that we would have: Face, Disguise (the place of the mask proper), Fake, Anonymity. Based on these theoretical premises, the paper finally addresses popular music and outlines a provisional map of the pragmatics of the mask (subtractive vs. additive, ritualistic vs. continuous, material vs. virtual, mask as face vs. face as mask), as a suggestion for further studies.

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The Semiotics of the Medical Face Mask: East and West

Cited by 20 publications

References 30 publications

Identity, lifestyle, and face-mask branding: A social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis

Identity, lifestyle, and face-mask branding: A social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis

COVID Masks as Semiotic Expressions of Hate

Cultures of the (masked) face

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