Masks across borders: etiquette, threat and prevention

ABSTRACT This collaborative autoethnography addresses the cultural, social, and political issues of (un)masking during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though it may seem a simple act of wearing face masks in order to protect oneself and others from the virus, it has turned into a rather intricate phenomena for multiple reasons, including cultural attitudes, political rhetoric, and misinformation from leading health organizations. In this piece, the authors offer narrative dialogues of their experiences with mask-wearing across cultures and time, spanning from their youth in Japan and Bosnia–Herzegovina, respectively, to their current adult life in the U.S. prior to and during the pandemic. During the COVID-19 health crisis, reflections of our lived experiences across and within cultures provided us with rich qualitative data to understand the sociocultural impacts of mask-wearing (Rituparna & Uekusa [2020]. Collaborative autoethnography: ‘Self-reflection’ as a timely alternative research approach during the global pandemic. Qualitative Research Journal, 20(4), 383–392. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-06-2020-0054). This work contributes to mask-wearing behaviors and larger social and cultural changes regarding empathy and respect across cultural boundaries.