My body my choice: magical thinking and discourses of bodily autonomy in anti-mask rhetoric

Abstract

In 2020, an image from a Texas anti-mask rally showing a sign reading “MY BODY MY CHOICE TRUMP 2020” went viral on social media. In the months that followed, this protest phrase spread throughout the United States and further afield, co-opting the pro-choice slogan, “My Body My Choice,” to protest against mandated mask-wearing. The fact that there is a large cross-over between those who advocate a pro-life (or anti-abortion) stance and those who protest the wearing of masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 raises the question: What sort of semiotic process – or “magical thinking” – could be involved in the appropriation of pro-choice discourse for anti-mask ends? This chapter uses linguistic anthropologist Susan Gal’s concept of “discursive grafting” to argue that anti-mask advocates appropriate the bodily autonomy discourse in a way that gives their message life beyond its source. While progressive neoliberalism has long assimilated the discourse of bodily autonomy into an ideology based on the free-market, personal responsibility and individual “choice,” now Trump-supporting, pandemic-sceptic and pro-life reactionary neoliberalism has taken up this discourse and turned it on its head. This chapter tracks this “grafted” rhetoric across different domains, from the political to street protests, and different semiotic manifestations, including social media, physical signage, and political discourse.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003380726-6

Repository URI

https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/348273/