This year, if you can think of nothing else to wear for a costume party, you might consider a V for Vendetta or Guy Fawkes mask. Why? It’s a popular choice and one of the best-selling items on Amazon, and what is best about it is this: if everybody else is wearing the same mask, then that’s not a problem. It does not imply lack of originality, as any other duplicate costume might. You can just pretend that you are all revolutionaries who want to maintain your anonymity while showing solidarity with “the Cause” by hiding behind the very same mask. After all, that worked for the protesters in the news recently.
1. What is he difference between a V for Vendetta Mask and a Guy Fawkes Mask?
Technically, a V for Vendetta mask is one that is licensed by Time Warner, the people who own the copyright to the V for Vendetta franchise, through their movie, V for Vendetta.
A Guy Fawkes mask, on the other hand, would be a mask depicting Guy Fawkes, a historical personage, whose image can’t possibly be copyrighted or trademarked.
The problem is: the V for Vendetta movie bases the look of its mask on the supposed appearance of Guy Fawkes, and it’s hard to find other Guy Fawkes masks.
Believe me, I have tried. If you look up “Guy Fawkes mask” on Amazon, here’s what you get:
2. Who was Guy Fawkes?
Guy Fawkes was an English revolutionary whose foiled plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament resulted in an national holiday. I remember being told by an English acquaintance that this was his favorite holiday. He told me about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, and I asked why this was a cause for celebration. He said it was because the plot was foiled, but it seemed to me that it was the idea of blowing up Parliament that really appealed to him, in theory, though not necessarily in practice.
Imagine if we had “Squeaky Fromm Day”, to celebrate the day when President Ford narrowly escaped being shot by the said Squeaky Fromm, whose plot to assassinate the president came to naught because when she pulled the trigger there was no bullet in the chamber!
Imagine the franchise some enterprising person could make of Squeaky Fromm masks! Of course, there would have to be a whole series of Manson family masks, each different, but equally appealing.
Like Squeaky Fromm, Guy Fawkes did not hatch his plot alone. He had a number of co-conspirators. Here is a contemporary image of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators from the Wikimedia Commons:
Apparently the conspirators did not need to wear Guy Fawkes masks, because they already all looked exactly the same. (Notice that Guy Fawkes is identified by his revoluntionary name, Guido Fawkes.)
Why, you may ask, did Guy Fawkes want to blow up the Houses of Parliament? The leader of his band of revolutionaries was Robert Catesby, and their purpose was to assassinate King James the first, a protestant, and to replace him on the throne by his daughter Elizabeth, a Catholic. Guy Fawkes was described by contemporaries as “”pleasant of approach and cheerful of manner, opposed to quarrels and strife … loyal to his friends”. He also was smart, brave, tall, handsome and had red hair and a red beard. For some reason, this last feature never made it into the Time Warner mask.
The Gunpowder Plot conspirators were tortured, tried and then hanged, drawn and quartered. November 5 was made a national holiday to commemorate the foiling of the plot.
3. What do People Use the V for Vendetta Mask for?
In the movie V for Vendetta, the image of Guy Fawkes and the date November 5 are instrumental in a stand taken against a dystopian, totalitarian government.
Since the movie came out, many protesters, of various political persuasions, have taken to wearing the V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes mask as both a symbol of solidarity and a shield of anonymity. Some have thought it ironic that every time someone purchases a V for Vendetta mask in an anti-establishmentarian display, they are actually contributing financially to the well being of a corporate giant of the establishment: Time Warner. People who think this way are missing a vitally important point: to have freedom of the press, you need to own a press, and if you want the freedom to wear a mask, you first have to own a mask. There can be no freedom of speech without private property. This is true even when the speech involved is nothing more than the act of putting on a mask.
So do you want to protest or just look like a protester? Are you a loner or a joiner? Either way, the V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes mask is very much in vogue! And if you want to wear it, then you first need to buy it. Where better than right here on PubWages!
© 2o11 Aya Katz
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