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.