Cover up

Mask-wearing has gone from being a socially responsible habit to becoming a class issue

I was at a wedding reception last fortnight when I first noticed it. The guests were pairing their best finery with their most dazzling smiles. But the staff that was serving them in uniform were all wearing masks. From the valets who were helping to park cars to the waiters who were passing around the snacks; from the chefs who were slaving over hot stoves in the open kitchens to the bartenders mixing cocktails with a flourish: every single person in a service role was wearing a mask. And everyone who was being served was barefaced. 

That’s when it struck me: mask wearing has gone from being a socially responsible habit to becoming a class issue. It’s only the serving classes who are expected to follow Covid protocols while the rest of us merrily contaminate the air with all our germs. 

Now that Covid seems to be on its way out with a negligible number of cases being reported every month, the upper and middle classes have decided to ditch their masks. But the same freedom has not been granted to those who serve them, both within the home and without. These people are still expected to mask in the presence of their supposed betters, offering them an illusory sense of safety from the virus. 

Take a look around when you are next on the road. It will be easy to tell the cars that are being driven by chauffeurs. Not because the drivers are all wearing peaked caps but because they are the ones who will be masked while the sahib and memsahib in the back seat stay cheerfully barefaced. The chances are that when you visit a friend’s home, the ‘guard’ manning the main gate will be masked. In a restaurant, the diners will not be masked (even when they are not eating and drinking) but all the waiters and waitresses will be in masks. On aeroplanes, the passengers will be unmasked — ignoring the announcements asking them to keep face coverings on at all times — while the flight attendants will have surgical or N 95 masks on. Even in hospitals — where, surely, mask-wearing should be mandatory — the patients tend to eschew masks while the staff attending to them stay masked. 

I am not sure when this divide became the norm. Or even why it became the norm. But I can hazard a few guesses. 

First up, of course, is the fact that we are an inherently classist society. And that if any sacrifices need to be made on the altar of public health and safety, then we think it only right that these sacrifices are made by those who are paid to serve us. 

Then, there is our tendency to see those who serve us as essentially sub-human. We don’t see staff as human beings in their own right but as ciphers whose only purpose in life is to make our lives easier. So, we think nothing of asking them to stay masked in all circumstances even as we breathe free. 

And finally, there’s the most important factor of all. We ask those who are below us in the food chain to keep their masks on for one simple reason: because we can. And with that, we are the ones who are unmasked in more ways than one.