Articolo
Abstract

This article explores two dimensions that are considered central in regards to the obligation to wear surgical masks in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. On the one hand, the concept of the mask does not fail to stimulate philosophical and theological memory, channelling thought towards a reflection on the person as such during a period of pandemic. In fact, the idea of the mask is the underlying etymology of the term “person”. Hence, the obligation to wear a mask, which is widespread throughout the world, leads us to reflect on the perception of the person in the public sphere, when the face is covered by a medical accessory. This becomes not only the symbolic, but also the effective figure of the explicit orientation in this phase of biopolitics, a study undertaken by Michel Foucault and carried out in Italy by Roberto Esposito. The widespread obligation of this accessory is therefore not only a political fashion, but fashion itself appropriates the mask in order to spread it. The second dimension discussed in this contribution leads us to reflect on how fashion appropriates both the accessory and reformulates it so that it can become a normal accessory of individual wardrobe. This further phase seems to consecrate an alliance between biopolitics and fashion.

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