I don’t owe anyone my face and neither do you.
Most of my posts online that I am in, I am wearing a mask. Without fail, there will be a number of comments made towards my face mask.
It still catches me off guard when asked in person – many times it happens when I am teaching crochet classes and when I am playing in Pokémon TCG Tournaments.
It’s like, why does it matter to you?
For so many reasons I wear one; I don’t want my spit getting on things, I don’t ever want to feel someone’s spit droplets on my tongue and get sick again, and I do want to hide my face in this surveillance state. Also, they’re warm and I think it brings an outfit together!
But now? It’s because I don’t think the world is owed my face. The world isn’t owed the other parts of my body that are covered. I am polite and kind when speaking to others, why must I expose myself in such a vulnerable way when society has chosen cruelty?
Wearing a mask puts others first. Your health comes before my “comfort”. When I engage in protests, I protect your association with me a little bit more. When I speak to you, I can give you a more genuine version of me with less anxieties I am thinking about.
I can save my smile and full face for the people that I can trust and when I choose to be that open – lately, I have a very hard time going out in public without it! It is protection. The safety it provides makes me more comfortable.
I share these feelings for folks who don’t feel like people will value their reasons enough to wear one – instead, I hope you know you don’t need a reason or explanation.
We have been betrayed by many of our own countrymen and I just don’t think people should have full access to you in the same way we offered it in the old world.
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