“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” – Oscar Wilde
We are all mask-wearers. Anonymity allows us to reveal parts of ourselves that would otherwise remain occluded. It offers a degree of freedom that the pressure of maintaining a certain image in our everyday life does not. Our masks hide our true face whilst simultaneously allowing for another truth to emerge, a deeper and perhaps more dangerous one.
In hiding the features of our true identity, the mask becomes a second skin. The wearer undergoes a psychic change; one could almost say that the mask establishes a new being of its own: the self transformed. Both hiding and revealing personalities and moods, from long forgotten times and to this day, the mask remains the ultimate disguise.
Whether it is the anonymity provided by an online presence or perhaps the process of applying makeup to one’s face before stepping out into the world, whether it is the manner in which we dress or the mode of speech that we adopt and adapt as circumstances change… we all have a mask at hand and oftentimes it becomes difficult to distinguish between mask and wearer. Who owns whom?
***
About the above image: I had several ideas for today’s theme, but the idea of a disguise works rather well with the secretive nature of traditional Japanese entertainers, whose clientele will never see their “real” appearance or know their birth-given name (the women are given a geiko name when they complete their training and are admitted as full members into the sisterhood). They exist – in the public sphere at least – only when in disguise.
Taken on a sunlit winter day in Kyoto, this image captures three geiko (or geisha) who have ventured out of doors. I observed them as they retired to a secluded courtyard in Gion and took turns in front of the camera. Although I can only make a guess as to the reason for this outing, I like to imagine that they had only recently advanced from the position of maiko to that of a geiko and were perhaps impatient to capture it on film in order to share the event with their families and friends.
vic briggs 
Beautiful!
Thank you, Martha. Warm regards x
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A brilliant response to this prompt, Vic – visually and textually…so true.
Oscar Wilde seemed to have something insightful to say on just about every subject. 🙂
He had enough widow for a lifetime or two. Thank you, Lee-Anne. Wishing you a lovely weekend ahead.
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Oscar Wilde’s quote is reflected as well in Shalespeare’s As You like It… how Rosalind pretended to be someone else.
It’s ironic to think how we tend to wear a mask yet we often reveal the inner truth this way.
Great post! =)
Thank you, and yes of course, the bard did like the use of masks. In Romeo and Juliet too the whole of Verona wore masks at the ball: a city at war pretending to be something it was not.
How I completely forgotten Romeo and Juliet! Haha!
Actually, Wilde’s words reminded me more of this chic movie, Never Been Kissed, Drew Barrymore… and her prof mentioned similar words about Rosalind.
See how quick I flow from the depths of Shakespeare to the shallowness of a chic movie! 😉
That film is a comedic classic in its own right so… Why not? 😉
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