Of Markets, Masks, and (White) Men: Mimetic Performances of Parasitic Publicity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This article argues that the anti-masking and anti-vaccination subreddit community known as r/NoNewNormal is an example of a parasitic public that circulates feelings of autonomy, victimization, and militancy to advance white masculinity in the public sphere. This bundle of affects thrives parasitically on the corrosiveness of deliberative democracy and neoliberal antagonisms (e.g., mask mandates and lockdowns). We call this virulent enactment of parasitic publicity indecent public exposure (IPE) to emphasize the literal and figurative toxicity of white masculinity that has been “whipped out” during precarious times.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• digital rhetoric
• parasitic publics
• toxic masculinity
• victimage

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank both of the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback in improving the quality of this manuscript.

Notes

1 This is the time when the CDC recommended all Americans wear masks and socially distance. When the CDC stated fully vaccinated individuals could take off masks in public places in May 2021, the rhetorical symbology of unmasked performances changed. While wearing a mask in this changing rhetorical context can be seen as a continued support of the collective, or even as a sense of comfort, it can also be more suggestive of vaccine hesitancy. To that end, this particular article focuses on the rhetorical performances during the mask mandates from approximately April 2020 to July 2021.

2 Posts were collected from May 2021 to July 2021. The Reddit r/NoNewNormal community is a public web page, but no identifying information about the users has been included in this article to maintain anonymity.