14
May

WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN?

Slide 1 of 13: Mask-wearing was enforced during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, but many refused, citing the government mandates as threats to their civil liberties.Men needed more convincing to wear masks than did women.Men didn't practice proper personal hygiene and also thought wearing masks was too feminine, so public health officials set forth to rebrand personal hygiene as a display of red-blooded patriotism.Men and boys were primarily depicted in public health advertisements and cartoons during the 1918 pandemic when the Spanish flu swept the nation.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.As the Spanish flu swept through the US in 1918 and 1919, face masks became ubiquitous to help in preventing the spread of the disease, much as they have today during the coronavirus pandemic.However, many refused to wear them in 1918, saying that government-mandated mask enforcement violated their civil liberties. An "Anti-Mask League" was even formed in San Francisco to protest the legislation.But men, it turns out, needed more convincing than did women to heed the advice of public health officials.Some men associated masks with femininity, and behaviors like spitting, careless coughing, and otherwise dismissal of hygiene made men the "weak links in hygienic discipline" during the 1918 pandemic, according to a 2010 report published in the US National Library of Medicine. So public health leaders rebranded personal care as a display of patriotism and duty to incentivize men to wear masks."The influenza pandemic offered a teaching moment in which masculine resistance to hygiene rules associated with mothers, schoolmarms, and Sunday school teachers could be replaced with a more modern, manly form of public health, steeped in discipline, patriotism, and personal responsibility," reads the report.It's yet another instance of history rhyming. Fast forward to the present-day coronavirus pandemic and anti-lockdown protests dot the US, with many  — men and women — refusing to wear masks and citing their civil liberties as a reason for defying public health orders.Many of the adverts and public health messaging during the 1918 pandemic encouraging the public to practice good hygiene depicted men and young boys. Here's what some of them looked like.Read the original article on Business Insider  

These surprisingly relevant vintage ads show how officials tried to
convince people to wear masks after many refused during the 1918
flu pandemic.


Mask-wearing was enforced during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic,
but many refused, citing the government mandates as threats to
their civil liberties.
Men needed more convincing to wear masks than did women.

      
posted by Bob Karm in Flu pandemic,Health,HISTORY and have No Comments

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