Heroes and villains and masks

 Continuing on the theme from my last post of commenting on the news, but months late : Masks. They’re being mandated in public, being protested, and being suddenly widely adopted by a large part of the world that would have considered the practice strange or foreign. But I’m not here to comment on the politics of masks, or masks in the current moment. I want to talk about superheroes and masks (oh wait I already made that the title, this paragraph is unnecessary oh no).

Ostensibly the reason that heroes and villains alike wear masks is to hide their identity. For the heroes, when they’re not saving the world they can go back to being a normal guy or gal, unrecognised for their spectacular deeds. For the villains, no one will recognise them and they will be able to enjoy the spoils of their crimes anonymously. Now as everyone has undoubtedly noticed over these past few months, masks don’t really obscure someone’s identity; no one is having trouble identifying people wearing a face mask. But whatever, this is fiction, so you have to be willing to suspend your disbelief a little. Maybe superheroes live in a world where people can fly but not recognise people in masks. Whatever.

But what interests me is not the reason that the superheroes themselves have for wearing the masks. What interests me is what this guy says about the masks that heroes wear vs those of the villains:

 

It’s how we’re psychologically affected by what parts of the face the mask covers that interests me. He notes that the heroes tend to wear masks over the eyes, while the villains tend to wear them over the mouth. While he points out that we’re being affected by this fact, he doesn’t actually comment on why or how, or what exactly the effect is. Now sadly I’m not a psychologist so I don’t have the answer, but its interesting to think about whether we’re subconsciously affected by having most people around us with their faces covered. Will people be less likely to talk to strangers? Will it be more stressful to be in a crowd and have our ability to read emotions stifled? Again, I’m not a psychologist, so I won’t be giving you the answer, but stay tuned for future articles with more interesting, and unanswered questions.