Paper short abstract:

This paper problematizes new etiquette and manners produced by globalized Covid-19 responses. It argues that framing Covid-19 etiquette as a matter individual choice reproduces humanitarian ignorance, drawing attention away from stratification and inequalities ominously present in our societies.

Paper long abstract:

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, rules for responsible and hygienic behavior have become essential for limiting viral transmission globally. Inevitably, in real-world contexts such rules activate new and puzzling forms of etiquette and manners, affecting nearly every person on the planet. This paper argues that short and persuasive Covid-19-related public health texts and images function as intertextual and multimodal ‘etiquette guides’ projected onto people, generating shame and embarrassment with regard to noncompliance, and leading to a spectrum of social and political tensions in ordinary contexts. The paper also discusses semiotic techniques employed in Covid-19 etiquette guides for projecting hidden norms and values onto people, including ideas about normal bodies and middle-class socio-material environments, asserting that Covid-19 etiquette compliance is a matter of individual choice. This strategic framing of Covid-19 etiquette effectively and subtly misdirects attention away from stratifying powers and inequalities present globally, contributing to the proliferation of humanitarian ignorance. Finally, the paper invites global health communities to pay more attention to the moral-emotional dimensions of seemingly simple health rules, and to consider the circulation of public health materials as a semiotic practice, creating novel kinds of oddities and stratifications.